Crypto card access doesn’t match global demand, Tangem says

According to data shared by the company, more than 40% of all Tangem Pay transactions originate from Latin America, while over 30% come from the United States. This geographic distribution highlights a strong regional appetite for bridges connecting decentralized digital assets with traditional, everyday financial rails.

However, translating global user demand into a universally accessible physical product is not a straightforward logistical challenge. Andrey Ilinskiy, head of Tangem Pay, pointed out the intricate hurdles that financial technology innovators face when expanding cross-border payment solutions.

"It is not simply a question of where people want crypto cards," Ilinskiy told Cointelegraph, adding that the rollout depends heavily on a delicate alignment of local factors. "It is where demand, regulation, banking infrastructure and card-issuing requirements happen to line up — and today, those maps do not always overlap."

The insights emerge on the heels of a major product milestone for the Swiss firm. On Wednesday, Tangem officially announced its first physical Visa card designed for seamless in-store and online purchases, as well as ATM cash withdrawals. To kick off the rollout, the company has implemented an initial release limited to 5,000 cards, creating a high-demand environment for early adopters looking to bridge the gap between blockchain-based wealth and legacy payment networks.

A key feature of the newly introduced Tangem Pay system is its deep integration with self-custody infrastructure. The company explained that users are able to fund the physical Visa card directly from their self-custodial crypto wallet. Furthermore, in the event that a card is temporarily suspended, deactivated, or permanently closed, users retain full control over their capital, with the ability to easily move their funds back into the safety of their personal wallet environment.

This architecture addresses a fundamental tension in the modern financial technology landscape. By keeping assets under the direct control of the user until the moment of purchase, Tangem aims to preserve the core ethos of cryptocurrency: financial sovereignty without reliance on trusted third-party intermediaries.

"Self-custody removes one major boundary: there is no custodian standing between the user and their assets. But when those assets enter a regulated payment network, another set of boundaries appears," Tangem noted, emphasizing the inherent friction points of merging decentralized finance with legacy global banking machinery.

Tangem delivers the cards in nearly 200 countries, excluding only 20

Despite the global nature of the cryptocurrency market, logistical and regulatory realities mean that physical card distribution cannot reach every corner of the globe simultaneously. Tangem reported that it is currently unable to deliver physical Tangem Pay cards to roughly 20 countries worldwide. Among the excluded jurisdictions are major global economies and heavily sanctioned regions, including China, Russia, North Korea, and Palestine.

The company clarified that these delivery and availability restrictions do not necessarily mirror the domestic regulatory rules governing cryptocurrency ownership or trading itself. Instead, a myriad of compliance factors dictate where a crypto-linked payment card can legally and operationally be issued. Strict Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations, international sanctions regimes, complex local banking rules, and rigorous card-issuing compliance mandates all play a critical role in determining geographic availability.

"The same conditions that can create demand for crypto as an alternative financial rail can make regulated card issuance more difficult," Tangem explained, shedding light on the paradox faced by crypto card providers operating across fractured international jurisdictions. While citizens in economically volatile or strictly controlled regions may have the highest demand for alternative financial rails, those exact same regulatory environments often present the highest barriers to traditional card-issuing compliance.

The launch of Tangem Pay also arrives amid a broader, fast-evolving landscape of crypto-backed spending and stablecoin integration. Recent industry surveys, including data released by payment giant Visa, indicate that stablecoin adoption could experience significant surges if backed by bank-like protections, signaling a growing consumer preference for stable, digital representations of fiat currency over volatile crypto assets for daily transactional needs.

To capture this growing market segment and incentivize card usage, Tangem is introducing a dedicated cashback program tied to Circle’s widely used USDC stablecoin. Under the new reward structure, eligible purchases will yield cashback rates of 1% for Basic users and 2% for Plus users, providing a direct fiat-pegged incentive for spending through the self-custodial card.

As part of its broader go-to-market strategy, Tangem plans to showcase the first physical Tangem Pay cards to the public and industry stakeholders at the upcoming Token2049 conference in Singapore, offering a closer look at how self-custody and traditional payment networks can successfully intersect.