What Is Baanx? The Company Behind MetaMask Card and the CL Card

Baanx works business-to-business-to-consumer. A wallet or crypto brand wants to give its users a payment card; Baanx provides the card program, user onboarding, transaction processing and the link between on-chain balances and card networks. The partner supplies the brand and the users. Baanx describes its platform as covering issuing, remittance, acquiring and digital-asset services ³.

Its homepage lists Visa, Mastercard, Ledger, Exodus, 1inch and MetaMask among partners ¹. Earlier products included Cryptodraft, a crypto-backed credit line offered through the Ledger CL Card platform, as reported in 2022 ⁴.

Exodus Movement, the self-custody wallet company, owns Baanx.com Ltd and its sister business Monavate Holdings, which issues and processes payment cards. The deal was not a straightforward purchase:

• November 24, 2025: Exodus agreed to buy W3C Corp., Baanx's parent, from Garth Howat and lent W3C $60M plus a $10M delayed-draw facility ⁶.
• April 13, 2026: Exodus sued in the Delaware Court of Chancery to force completion and declared the loans payable on demand ⁶.
• April 27, 2026: The loans were not repaid, and Exodus appointed UK receivers over the Monavate Holdings and Baanx.com shares ⁶.
• May 1, 2026: Exodus acquired those shares from the receivers for about $76.3M, settled against the outstanding loans. It also signed a separate $30.0M agreement, paid over four years, for Baanx US Corp. ⁶.

Exodus has included the businesses in its results since May 1, 2026, and reported 1.1 million active Monavate cards and $0.6 billion of card volume for the second quarter ⁷. In August 2026 the UK company was renamed Monavate Onchain Ltd ². The Baanx brand and website remain in use.

Garth Howat was described as Baanx's founder and CEO in 2022 ⁴. Current leadership after the acquisition is not stated on baanx.com.

The MetaMask Card is the best-documented example. MetaMask presents it as a card that spends directly from a self-custody wallet:

1. Sign up and verify residency. Proof of residency is required, and availability varies by region ⁸.
2. Delegate a spending allowance. You authorize the card to draw tokens such as USDC or USDT from your wallet, rather than pre-loading a balance ⁸⁹.
3. Pay at a merchant. A smart contract on Linea checks and authorizes the payment, and the purchase settles over Mastercard ⁵.
4. Track spending. Balances and rewards are shown in mUSD; MetaMask points users to Lineascan for balance checks ⁸.

MetaMask's FAQ names Crypto Life as the card's provider and Monavate as its issuer ⁸. Baanx and the GlobeNewswire launch release describe Baanx as MetaMask's partner on the card ³⁵.

Because the card pulls funds from a self-custody wallet, the card program does not hold your crypto until you spend. Once a payment is authorized, though, you are dealing with a regulated card issuer and its terms, not only with your wallet.

Baanx does not publish one fee schedule; each partner program sets its own. As an example, MetaMask Card's published fees and limits, as of October 23, 2026 ⁹:

Network gas on Linea is typically about $0.01 per transaction, and ATM operators may add their own charges ⁹. ATM withdrawals are available only to US cardholders ⁸. Other Baanx-run cards, such as the CL Card, have separate terms.

Baanx.com Ltd is registered with the UK Financial Conduct Authority as a cryptoasset business under the Money Laundering Regulations, FRN 927401 ¹. It received that registration in January 2022 ⁴. An FCA registration covers anti-money-laundering supervision. It is not an FCA authorization for investment business, and the footer warns that customers "should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong" ¹.

Baanx also says it holds electronic money institution licences in the UK and EU/EEA, plus a UK credit-broking licence, and that it is preparing for MiCA ³. Those are company statements. For a specific card, the issuer named in the cardholder terms is the entity whose licence matters.

• Layered providers. A Baanx-run card involves a wallet brand, a program provider, an issuer and a card network. Disputes, freezes and refunds follow the issuer's terms.
• Ownership change. The 2026 receivership and takeover moved Baanx into Exodus. Program terms or brands may change as Exodus integrates the business ⁶⁷.
• Crypto price and conversion. Spending non-stablecoin assets carries a conversion fee and price exposure at the moment of purchase ⁹.
• Smart-contract allowances. Delegated spending limits are on-chain approvals; set them no higher than you need ⁸.
• Regional limits. Eligibility, ATM access and features differ by country ⁸.
• Scams. Baanx or its partners will not ask for a seed phrase to activate or support a card.