Azteco ★ 4.4/5
Best value crypto voucher if all you want is bitcoin
Hub · the honest fee breakdown
Crypto vouchers: useful three times, expensive the rest
Prepaid codes that turn cash into coins. Genuinely handy when you are paying with banknotes or wrapping a physical gift — and a 6% to 9% tax on your own money in every other situation. Here is the full fee stack, brand by brand.
- Fees itemised
- KYC terms checked
- Redemption tested
- Updated September 2026
Why we point to a licensed venue
The welcome-bonus link above goes to CEX.IO, which is a registered
Money Services Business with FinCEN
in the United States, holds a DLT Provider authorisation (FSC0686FSA) from the
Gibraltar Financial Services Commission,
and operates a CySEC-authorised
investment firm in the EU. Licensing is not a profit guarantee — it means there is a regulator to complain to.
What a crypto voucher is — and what it is not
Two products get called "crypto gift card" and they run in opposite directions. A retail gift card bought with crypto gives someone shopping credit; you can read about those in our gift-card hub. A crypto voucher does the reverse: it is a prepaid code that converts into cryptocurrency when redeemed.
Mechanically it works like a phone top-up. An issuer prints or generates codes in fixed denominations, distributes them through online resellers and physical retail — newsagents, petrol stations, kiosks — and sells them for ordinary money. The buyer hands the code to the recipient. The recipient visits the issuer's redemption page, enters the code, chooses a supported coin, and either holds the balance on the issuer's platform or withdraws it to a personal wallet.
The appeal is obvious. No exchange sign-up, no bank transfer, no waiting for a deposit to clear. You can buy one with cash. You can put one in an envelope. For a certain kind of gift, or a certain kind of buyer, that is exactly the right shape.
The cost is equally obvious once you look for it — and the whole point of this hub is that most pages in this niche do not look for it.
The fee stack, layer by layer
Vouchers carry more separate charges than any other product covered on this site. There are four, and they compound.
- Retail margin. The shop or reseller selling you the code takes a cut. Buy a €50 voucher on a key marketplace and you may pay €52 for it before anything else happens.
- Redemption service fee. A percentage taken when the code converts to coin. Around 4% is common; Gift Me Crypto documents roughly 9%. This is the layer most buyers never see advertised.
- Fixed redemption charge. A flat amount — often about €2 — added on top of the percentage. On a €100 voucher that is 2%. On a €10 voucher it is 20%.
- Network withdrawal fee. Charged when you move the coins off the issuer's platform. Reported ranges of €2.50 to €10 depending on the chain and congestion.
| Voucher paid for | ~4% + €2 issuer | €3 network | Crypto received | Effective cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| €10 | −€2.40 | −€3.00 | €4.60 | 54% |
| €25 | −€3.00 | −€3.00 | €19.00 | 24% |
| €50 | −€4.00 | −€3.00 | €43.00 | 14% |
| €100 | −€6.00 | −€3.00 | €91.00 | 9% |
| €500 | −€22.00 | −€3.00 | €475.00 | 5% |
Swipe sideways →
The small-denomination trap
Fixed fees make small vouchers catastrophically bad value. A €10 voucher can deliver under €5 of crypto once
both fixed charges land. If you are buying a voucher at all, buy a larger denomination — or keep the balance
on the issuer's platform and skip the withdrawal fee until it is worth paying.
From our research desk
I bought a small multi-coin voucher to test the redemption flow end to end. The headline was a clean fixed price. What landed in my wallet, after the service percentage, the fixed charge and the network fee, was roughly 82% of what I paid. Nothing was hidden in a legal sense — every number was in the terms — but no step of the purchase journey showed me the total before I committed.
That is my actual objection to this category. Not fraud, not incompetence: the cost is disclosed at the point where you can no longer act on it. If you are buying a voucher, work the arithmetic out on paper first, then decide whether the convenience is worth it. Sometimes it genuinely is.
The two voucher brands worth knowing
Azteco is the cheap, bitcoin-only option. Crypto Voucher is the multi-coin one you will actually find on a shop shelf. Everything else in this category is either a reseller of these two models or priced worse.
Crypto Voucher ★ 3.7/5
Best for buying crypto with cash at a physical shop counter
Voucher guides
Every voucher question, answered separately
How to redeem a crypto voucher
Step by step, plus what to do when the code throws an error.
Read the guide Buy a crypto voucher with PayPalWhich resellers accept PayPal, and the chargeback problem behind the restrictions.
Read the guide Buy a voucher with a credit cardCash-advance fees, issuer blocks and the cheaper alternatives.
Read the guide Bitcoin voucher codes explainedAzteco, Bitnovo and the cash-counter model, priced honestly.
Read the guide "Free" voucher codes: reality checkWhy every generator is a scam, and the handful of legitimate free-crypto routes.
Read the guide Redeeming a Gift Me Crypto codeThe fee stack, the KYC surprise and the steps that actually work.
Read the guideWhen a voucher genuinely beats an exchange
We are not against vouchers. We are against buying one when a cheaper tool does the same job. Here is the test we apply.
Buy the voucher
- You are paying with physical cash and want no bank record
- The physical object is the gift — a code in a card, handed over in person
- The recipient would never finish an exchange onboarding
- You want a fixed, capped amount with no possibility of overspending
- You are buying bitcoin specifically, and Azteco is available to you
Use an exchange instead
- You are paying by bank transfer or card anyway
- The amount is over about €100 — the percentage fee becomes real money
- You want the coins in your own wallet at the end
- You will buy again — the account is a one-time cost, the voucher fee is every time
- You want to avoid a second identity check at the withdrawal step
The last point on the right-hand column deserves emphasis. A common assumption is that a voucher avoids KYC. In practice several issuers verify identity before withdrawal, which means you pay the voucher premium and submit documents. If the privacy is the reason you chose the voucher, read the withdrawal terms first — our privacy guide covers what actually works.
Redeeming a voucher, step by step
- Keep the code out of chat apps and email drafts A voucher code is a bearer instrument. Anyone who reads it can redeem it. Treat it like cash — not like a discount code.
- Go to the issuer's own redemption page, typed by hand Never through a link in a message. Fake redemption pages that harvest codes are the dominant scam in this category and they rank in search results.
- Choose the coin, then check the quoted amount The screen will show what you receive after the service fee. This is the moment to discover the real cost — and, if it is unacceptable, to contact support before finalising.
- Decide whether to withdraw now or later The network fee is charged per withdrawal, not per redemption. If you plan to redeem several vouchers, consolidate the balance and withdraw once.
Crypto vouchers: common questions
What is a crypto voucher?
A prepaid code, sold like a mobile top-up, that the holder redeems for cryptocurrency. You pay cash, card or PayPal for a fixed denomination — €10, €50, $100 — and receive a code by email or on a printed receipt. The recipient enters that code on the issuer's redemption page and picks which supported coin they want. It is the mirror image of a gift card bought with crypto: here crypto is what comes out, not what goes in.
How much do crypto vouchers cost in fees?
More than most buyers expect. The pattern across the category is a percentage service fee at redemption plus a fixed blockchain fee to withdraw. Crypto Voucher customers report roughly 4% plus a €2 fixed charge, then €2.50–€10 in network fees. Gift Me Crypto documents a service fee around 9% plus a network fee. Azteco is the outlier — a small flat charge and no percentage skim, because it only deals in bitcoin. On a €20 voucher, a €2 fixed fee alone is 10%.
Is a crypto voucher ever the right choice?
Three situations, and only three. One: you are paying with physical cash and want no bank involved at all. Two: you are giving a gift and the physical object — a printed code in a card — is genuinely part of the present. Three: you are buying for someone who would never complete an exchange sign-up. Outside those cases a licensed exchange does the same job for a small fraction of the cost.
Do I need to pass KYC to redeem a crypto voucher?
Frequently yes, and this is the single most common complaint in the category. Several issuers let you redeem into an internal balance without documents, then require identity verification before you can withdraw those coins to your own wallet. People who bought the voucher specifically to avoid verification find out at the last step. Check the withdrawal terms, not just the redemption terms, before you buy.
Can I buy a crypto voucher with PayPal?
Sometimes, through resellers rather than issuers directly. Key marketplaces such as G2A, Eneba and Kinguin list crypto vouchers and accept PayPal. Issuers themselves usually avoid PayPal because crypto purchases are chargeback-prone and PayPal's buyer protection does not cover them. Expect a higher price through a reseller, and expect no recourse if the code fails. Details on our PayPal voucher page.