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Ready wallet shuts crypto card program after Kulipa wind-down

The Paris-based issuer Kulipa built card programs for about 20 wallets and fintechs, and its solvency issues also stopped card access for Solflare.

Reported · Written up by our desk · Regulation

Ready, a self-custodial wallet formerly known as Argent, shut down its crypto card program on Wednesday after its card issuer, Kulipa, wound down without notice, according to a post by co-founder Itamar Lesuisse.

Lesuisse said eligible card subscriptions would be refunded automatically and that Ready wallets were not holding user assets because Ready cards were tied to self-custody, meaning balances were pulled from users at purchase rather than held by Kulipa.

The Defiant reports that Kulipa was a Paris-based startup behind card programs for roughly 20 crypto wallets and fintechs, and its failure also took down Solflare’s card service. Solflare said its issuing partner was winding down due to solvency issues and that the debt was too deep, leading to a collapse.

The disruption also points to concentration risk in the crypto cards sector, with SquareFi co-founder Anton Lobintsev saying many programs share the same issuer processors and infrastructure providers, creating shared points of failure even when balances remain in self-custody. The article also notes Kulipa had raised a $6.2 million seed round on April 1 and that STRK fell 5% over the past 24 hours while Bitcoin rose 1.1%, per CoinGecko.

Latest closeBitcoin $64,748.92 ▲1.3%

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