Hub · Cash in, crypto out
Crypto vouchers, without the marketing
A voucher is a prepaid code that becomes cryptocurrency when somebody redeems it. It is the only clean way to give crypto to a person who does not yet have a wallet — and the fee structure is nothing like a gift card's.
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The quick verdict
Buy a voucher when the recipient has no exchange account and no wallet, and you want them to end up holding actual cryptocurrency. It is the one product that solves that problem cleanly.
Do not buy one as a store of value, do not buy one for yourself when you could simply use an exchange, and do not buy a large denomination expecting it to be cheaper per unit. It usually is, but the counterparty risk scales with it.
What the issuer is doing
A voucher issuer is running a float. They sell you a code today at a price that embeds their margin, and they hold the obligation to deliver cryptocurrency whenever somebody redeems it. The redemption rate is struck at redemption time, not at purchase time, which is the single most important mechanical detail and the one most often misunderstood.
That means a voucher is not a locked-in price. If you buy a $100 voucher and the recipient redeems it three weeks later, they get $100 worth of crypto at the rate on the day they redeem, minus fees. You have not bought them Bitcoin at today’s price. You have bought them a claim on $100 of Bitcoin, whenever they get around to it.
For a gift, this is almost always fine and arguably better — nobody wants to explain to a relative that their present is down 12% before they opened it. But if your intention was to lock in a price, a voucher does not do that, and no amount of reading the marketing copy will make it do that.
Where vouchers genuinely win
There is one scenario where nothing else works as well: the recipient is not technical, has never held crypto, and you do not want to walk them through opening an exchange account on their birthday.
With a voucher, you hand over a code. They redeem it whenever they are ready, into whatever wallet they eventually choose, and the issuer’s interface walks them through it. You never need their wallet address, which means you never need to have the conversation about what a wallet address is, or the far worse conversation about what happens when one character is wrong.
The second scenario is cash. In parts of Europe, Bitnovo coupons are sold at physical retail counters. If somebody has banknotes and wants cryptocurrency without opening an account anywhere, that is a legitimate and legal route, and it is one of the few that still exists at consumer scale.
A voucher code is a bearer instrument
Whoever types the code in first gets the crypto. There is no name on it, no account it belongs to, and no recovery process. Photograph it, message it, or read it aloud in a place somebody can overhear, and the money can simply be gone with no recourse whatsoever.
Treat the code exactly as you would treat the equivalent amount in cash on a table. That is not an analogy — mechanically, it is the same thing.
The three issuer types
Voucher products look similar and behave very differently. There are three families, and knowing which one you are looking at answers most questions in advance.
Open vouchers (CryptoVoucher, Bitnovo) redeem into cryptocurrency at any wallet address. Maximum flexibility, real network fees, and the recipient ends up self-custodial if they want to be.
Closed-loop vouchers (Binance Gift Card) only move value inside one platform. Both parties need an account there. In exchange, there are no network fees and the transfer is instant, because nothing touches a blockchain. It is a database entry moving between two accounts on the same system.
Retailer-branded crypto cards sit awkwardly between the two and are the source of most confusion. Read the product page carefully: if it does not say what you receive and where, assume it is closed-loop.
Something we learned the expensive way
A closed-loop code given to somebody without an account on that platform is not a gift. It is homework. We watched a perfectly well-intentioned Binance Gift Card sit unredeemed for four months because the recipient did not want to complete identity verification on a crypto exchange just to collect $40.
An open voucher would have taken them five minutes and a wallet app. Check what the recipient already has before you choose the product, not after.
Voucher guides
Go deeper
Issuers at a glance
| Issuer | Code format | Redeems into | Account required to redeem |
|---|---|---|---|
| CryptoVoucher | 32 digits | Any wallet address, or a hosted wallet | Not for an external wallet |
| Bitnovo | Coupon code | Bitnovo wallet or an external address | Yes |
| Binance Gift Card | 16 characters | Binance Funding or Spot wallet only | Yes, on both sides |
Binance Gift Cards cannot be split: the full amount redeems in one action — and cannot be transferred again once redeemed. Read the full breakdown before buying one for somebody else.
Voucher questions people ask
What is a crypto voucher?
A prepaid code that converts into cryptocurrency when redeemed. You buy it with cash, a card or a bank transfer — sometimes at a physical shop counter — and you receive a string of characters. Whoever holds that string can redeem it for crypto at a wallet address of their choosing.
CryptoVoucher issues 32-digit codes; Bitnovo sells coupons through a European retail network. Binance Gift Card uses a 16-character code but only moves value between Binance accounts, which makes it a different product despite the similar name.
How is that different from a crypto gift card?
Direction of travel. A crypto voucher turns money into cryptocurrency. A crypto gift card, as the phrase is normally used, means an ordinary retailer card (Amazon, Steam) that you paid for with cryptocurrency. One creates a crypto position; the other spends one.
If you want to give somebody their first Bitcoin, you want a voucher. If you want to give somebody something to spend at a shop, you want a gift card. Our gift card hub covers the second case.
What does redeeming a voucher cost?
Two things come off the top: a service fee charged by the issuer, and the blockchain network fee to actually deliver the coins. Both are calculated and shown before you confirm, so you see the exact amount you will receive.
The network fee is why small vouchers are proportionally expensive. A €25 voucher settling on-chain during a busy period can lose a meaningful slice to gas. Redeeming to an issuer-hosted wallet first, where offered, avoids the on-chain hop until you actually want to move the funds.
Do crypto vouchers expire?
Issuers generally treat the code as valid indefinitely, but this is set by the issuer, not by law, and terms differ by country. The more pressing risk is not expiry. It is the issuer. A voucher is a claim on a company. If that company stops trading, the code is worth what the administrators decide it is worth.
This is the strongest practical argument for redeeming promptly rather than treating a voucher as a store of value. A voucher is a delivery mechanism, not a wallet.
Can I buy a crypto voucher anonymously?
You can often buy one with minimal friction, particularly the cash-at-counter variety in Europe. Redemption is where identity checks are more likely to appear, because that is the point at which a company is handing over a bearer asset.
Treat any service promising completely unverified conversion of large sums as a warning sign rather than a feature — that is not how licensed operators work. See our privacy and KYC guide for where the real thresholds sit.