Glossary · Access
KYC
Also known as know your customer, identity verification
KYC (Know Your Customer) is the identity check a regulated card issuer must run before you can use the card — and self-custody doesn't exempt you.
KYC — Know Your Customer — is the identity verification a regulated card issuer is legally required to do before letting you spend: photo ID, proof of address, sometimes a selfie or liveness check. It’s the gate every card on this site sits behind, run by the bank or e-money firm that actually issues the card.
Why it matters: holding your own keys protects your funds, but it doesn’t get you past KYC. Even a self-custodial card is issued by a regulated entity, and that entity has to verify you before the card works. KYC is also where applications quietly fail — a residency mismatch, a document the system won’t accept — so it’s worth knowing how an issuer handles a rejection before you commit.
For example: Gnosis Pay is fully self-custodial — you spend stablecoins from your own Safe — yet a final KYC rejection permanently closes the account, with no re-submission allowed (your funds in the Safe stay yours, but the card is gone for good). It can even reject you for “region not supported” while you sit inside a broadly available country. As of June 2026.