Which Crypto to Top Up With

Topping up converts crypto into a spendable card balance. The conversion is the same 2.5% whichever coin you send, at the market rate, with nothing hidden inside the rate.

So the choice is not about cost. It is about two other things: what the amount does while the transfer confirms, and which network you send it on.

Stablecoins land as the amount you sent

USDT and USDC are pegged to the dollar. Send 100 and roughly 100 arrives, minus the conversion. Between pressing send and the card balance updating, nothing meaningful moves.

That predictability is the whole argument. If you are topping up to pay a $20 subscription, you want $20 to still be $20 when it lands — see how to pay for ChatGPT with crypto for why a renewal landing on a short balance is worse than it sounds.

For almost everyone, most of the time, this is the right answer.

BTC and ETH land as whatever they were worth on arrival

The rate is taken when the transfer confirms, not when you press send. On a quiet day the difference is nothing. On a volatile one, a Bitcoin transfer waiting for confirmations can arrive worth noticeably more or less than you intended.

That is not a fee and not a trick — it is the coin doing what it does. But it means topping up with BTC to cover an exact amount is a bet, and topping up with it to cover a rough amount is fine.

The sensible use of BTC or ETH is when that is simply what you hold and you are moving a comfortable margin rather than an exact figure.

How they compare

The 2.5% conversion is identical across all four. Network fees are separate and go to the network, not to us — they are the reason the same USDT costs cents to move on one network and rather more on another.

The network matters more than the coin

This is where money is actually lost, and it is worth more attention than the choice between coins.

USDT exists on TRON, on Ethereum, on several others. They share a name and nothing else. Sending USDT on a network the receiving address does not support means the funds are not late — they are gone, and no support desk anywhere can retrieve them.

The rule is simple and there are no exceptions to it: read the network on the deposit screen, select the same network in your wallet, and check it once more before confirming. Every top-up, every time.

A top-up that goes right

1. Decide the amount, then add a margin If a subscription renews at $20, send enough for $25. A renewal that meets an empty card is a decline, and repeated declines make the next attempt harder.
2. Choose a stablecoin unless you have a reason not to USDT or USDC. What you send is what you get, and the arithmetic stays simple.
3. Copy the address, never type it And check the first and last characters after pasting. Clipboard malware that swaps addresses is old, cheap and still working.
4. Match the network on both sides The single check that prevents the only unrecoverable mistake on this page.
5. Send a small amount first if it is a large one On a big transfer to a new address, the cost of a test is a few cents. The cost of being wrong is everything you sent.