What Happened to TenX Crypto? The PAY Token and the Card That Shut Down

Summary: TenX was a Singapore-based startup that promised to let anyone spend crypto anywhere through a wallet app and a Visa debit card. It raised tens of millions of dollars by selling its PAY token in 2017. The project depended on outside card issuers, and when the last of them, Wirecard, collapsed in 2020, TenX switched off its cards and closed customer accounts. PAY lost almost all its value, and the TenX crypto card no longer exists.

• TenX offered a crypto wallet and debit card, backed by the PAY token.
• It lost one card issuer in 2018 and its next, Wirecard, in 2020.
• Cards were deactivated in 2020 and users were told to withdraw their crypto.
• The story is a lesson in how much crypto cards rely on traditional payment partners.

What Was TenX?

TenX launched in Singapore around 2015 with a simple pitch: keep your crypto in the TenX wallet, and spend it at any shop that took Visa. The card converted crypto to local currency at the moment of purchase. Its June 2017 token sale was one of the fastest of the ICO boom, and its PAY token was meant to share in the card's transaction revenue.

Why TenX Shut Down

TenX never issued cards itself. It relied on licensed partners, and they kept disappearing. In early 2018 Visa cut off the issuer Wavecrest, which took several crypto cards, including TenX's, offline. TenX later moved to Wirecard, the German payments company that collapsed in an accounting scandal in mid-2020.

After Singapore's regulator ordered Wirecard's local unit to wind down, TenX suspended its Asia-Pacific cards in October 2020, followed by European ones, and then announced it would close all accounts. Customers were told to move their crypto out of the TenX wallet. Leadership turmoil, including a co-founder's exit in 2018 and arguments over a new reward token, had already shaken confidence by then.

What About the PAY Token?

PAY peaked in early 2018 and fell steadily as the card problems mounted. With the card gone, PAY lost the revenue it was meant to share, and few exchanges still list it. If you still hold PAY, treat it as having little or no practical use, and be wary of anyone offering to buy, swap or recover it for you.

Lessons for Crypto Card Users Today

• Check who issues the card: a crypto card is only as reliable as the bank or issuer behind it.
• Don't store savings in a card app: keep only spending money there, and hold the rest in your own wallet, such as a Ledger hardware wallet.
• Be skeptical of revenue-sharing tokens: PAY's value relied on a business the token holders didn't control.
• Watch for shutdown scams: closures attract fake recovery services. Use official channels only, and log in over a secure connection, with a VPN like Surfshark on public networks.

Spending Crypto Without Relying on One Card

TenX's idea was right, and crypto cards are common today. But its collapse shows the value of options that don't tie your funds to one issuer. Prepaid gift cards bought with crypto avoid holding a balance with a card provider at all, and there's a fuller comparison in our guide to crypto debit cards vs gift cards.

If you want card-style spending for a set amount, you can get a prepaid Mastercard gift card with crypto.