Augea Research · 2026-04-15
Buying crypto by card costs about 12.00x more than bank transfer
Across 21 exchanges offering both payment methods, the median card premium is 12.00x. The widest gap reaches 20.00x. Every number traces to a public source.
Median gap
12.00x
Typical card-to-bank cost ratio across exchanges with both methods
Widest gap
20.00x
At KuCoin, MEXC, WOO X
Countries checked
10/10
Bank cheaper than card in every tracked country
We expected card buying to cost more. We didn't expect the difference to be an order of magnitude on most exchanges. At the median, card costs 12.00x more — not 12.00x more, 12.00x more. On a $1,000.00 BTC buy, the largest same-exchange gap in this study is $52.94 at Kraken. For monthly buyers, the median gap compounds to about $336.60 per year at $1,000.00/month.
Key findings
The median gap compounds
At $1,000.00/month, the median card premium adds ~$336.60 per year. At $250.00/month, ~$84.12.
The biggest gap is large in dollar terms
Kraken: $52.94 extra on a $1,000.00 buy. Card at 5.61% vs bank at 0.32%.
It holds across countries
The cheapest bank option beats the cheapest card option in all 10 tracked countries.
By country
Cheapest card option vs cheapest bank-transfer option per country, BTC.
| Country | Card | Bank | Extra per $1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 1.05%Robinhood Crypto | 0.11%River | $9.46 |
| Germany | 1.04%Robinhood Crypto | 0.10%River | $9.36 |
| France | 1.04%Robinhood Crypto | 0.10%River | $9.36 |
| Netherlands | 1.04%Robinhood Crypto | 0.10%River | $9.36 |
| Australia | 1.08%Robinhood Crypto | 0.11%River | $9.73 |
| Canada | 1.07%Robinhood Crypto | 0.11%River | $9.64 |
| Poland | 1.02%Robinhood Crypto | 0.10%River | $9.18 |
| United States | 1.02%Robinhood Crypto | 0.10%River | $9.18 |
| Sweden | 1.06%Robinhood Crypto | 0.11%River | $9.55 |
| Singapore | 1.01%Robinhood Crypto | 0.10%River | $9.09 |
Charts
Extra cost per $1,000.00 BTC buy
Card vs bank transfer on the same exchange · US · 21 exchanges
Cheapest card vs cheapest bank — by country
Extra cost per $1,000.00 BTC buy · best available route per method
Card was more expensive than bank transfer in every tracked country.
What card payments cost recurring buyers
Based on the median gap across 21 exchanges that offer both card and bank
How broad is this?
This is not one outlier: in same-exchange BTC comparisons in the US, card costs more than bank on 20 of 21 exchanges that offer both payment methods, and the cheapest bank-transfer option beats the cheapest card option in 10 of 10 tracked countries.
How to interpret these numbers
- Same-exchange comparisons use card and bank on the same exchange for BTC in the US.
- Country comparisons use each country's cheapest card vs cheapest bank option.
- These are modeled estimates from first-party fee schedules, not execution quotes.
What this doesn't show
- Bank transfer is not always operationally easier or faster.
- This does not rank exchanges by quality, reliability, or trustworthiness.
- Withdrawal fees, network fees, and FX conversion costs are not included.