OKX Card Spending Surges 280% in Europe on Groceries, Transport

OKX said spending on its crypto-linked debit card in Europe grew 280% year-over-year this summer. Transaction volume rose 178% over the same stretch. The exchange published the figures alongside a company announcement.

Erald Ghoos, chief executive of OKX Europe, said the most interesting part of this growth isn't simply that customers are spending more. He pointed to a shift toward everyday essentials like groceries and transport, rather than occasional high-value purchases.

OKX's data covers Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and France between February and July. Monthly users buying groceries on the card rose 65% over that period. That accelerated between May and July alone, with user growth of 221% and purchase-volume growth of 482%. Transport and fuel usage climbed faster still: users up 263% and purchase volume up 530% over the same three months.

Country breakdowns show how established the pattern is. In Poland, groceries, transport and utilities make up 31.7% of all card spending, the highest share among the four markets. The Netherlands follows at 22.2%, Germany at 20.4% and France at 14.1%.

The card currently pays 2% to 10% cashback on eligible purchases. It offers 3.5% annual yield on USDG balances held before spending through a feature called Pay Boost. Subscribers can get up to 50% rebates on subscriptions including Netflix, ChatGPT and Claude, as OKX is currently promoting.

OKX's card runs on Mastercard's network. Mastercard agreed in March to acquire stablecoin infrastructure firm BVNK for up to $1.8 billion, a deal it closed in August, adding roughly $30 billion in annual stablecoin volume to its business. Visa's own stablecoin settlement pilot reached a $7 billion annualized run rate by the end of April, spread across nine blockchains.

OKX needed a Payment Institution license from Malta's regulator to legally operate the card under the EU's MiCA and PSD2 rules. It secured that license in February 2026, weeks after launching the card across the EEA in January. Ghoos said the license put OKX's payment products on a fully compliant footing.

That license mattered more once MiCA's transition deadline arrived on July 1, 2026. Only 244 crypto firms held the licensing needed to keep serving EU customers, down from a market of close to 2,000 platforms before the deadline. OKX was among the firms that secured a license in time.

In February 2025, OKX agreed to pay the US Department of Justice roughly $504 million to resolve an investigation into money-transmission and anti-money-laundering compliance failures at the exchange.