【1inch Card abruptly shuts down—will even crypto spending hit a dead end?】
1inch Card has announced that it will stop accepting new users and plans to end its service by December 18, 2026, at the latest. Users should withdraw or spend their card balances as soon as possible. However, the company also made clear that funds on the card are held by Monavate, not directly by 1inch. Even after an account is closed, balances may still be redeemed within the specified period, subject to the issuer’s terms.
The card was designed to solve a very practical problem: automatically converting crypto assets into fiat currency for direct spending with Mastercard. The service’s exit shows that connecting crypto payments to the traditional banking-card system takes more than just a wallet and users—issuers, compliance, and operating costs all need to be sustained over the long term. The company has not yet given a clear explanation for the shutdown, so it should not be attributed directly to regulation or business losses.
For the $1INCH token, this does not amount to a confirmed major fundamental blow, since the card business is not the same as the core swap protocol. On October 20, 1INCH was trading at around $0.092, down about 14% over the past month, but there is no evidence that the decline was caused by news of the card shutdown.
The key things to watch next are trading volume and revenue for the core protocol. If those also continue to weaken, that would be more concerning.
1inch Card has announced that it will stop accepting new users and plans to end its service by December 18, 2026, at the latest. Users should withdraw or spend their card balances as soon as possible. However, the company also made clear that funds on the card are held by Monavate, not directly by 1inch. Even after an account is closed, balances may still be redeemed within the specified period, subject to the issuer’s terms.
The card was designed to solve a very practical problem: automatically converting crypto assets into fiat currency for direct spending with Mastercard. The service’s exit shows that connecting crypto payments to the traditional banking-card system takes more than just a wallet and users—issuers, compliance, and operating costs all need to be sustained over the long term. The company has not yet given a clear explanation for the shutdown, so it should not be attributed directly to regulation or business losses.
For the $1INCH token, this does not amount to a confirmed major fundamental blow, since the card business is not the same as the core swap protocol. On October 20, 1INCH was trading at around $0.092, down about 14% over the past month, but there is no evidence that the decline was caused by news of the card shutdown.
The key things to watch next are trading volume and revenue for the core protocol. If those also continue to weaken, that would be more concerning.