Strike review
Strike is the best app for people who want to buy bitcoin and actually use it: it is built on the Lightning Network, so payments settle instantly, and Strike adds no fee of its own on transfers.
Founded by Jack Mallers, Strike treats bitcoin as a payments network first. You can buy bitcoin in the app, send it over Lightning or on-chain, and move money across borders in over 100 countries. Purchases carry a fee that Strike shows before you confirm; it varies by market and purchase size rather than following one flat public rate.
The design is deliberately bitcoin-first. There is no altcoin menu; the one addition is USDT (Tether), which Strike supports for transfers to give users in weak-currency countries a dollar option. Balances are custodial while they sit in the app, so treat Strike as an on-ramp and payments tool: withdraw long-term holdings to your own wallet, which Strike supports over both Lightning and on-chain.
- Headquarters
- Chicago, Illinois, US
- Fees
- No added fee on sending bitcoin or money transfers; buying bitcoin carries a fee shown before you confirm, varying by market and purchase size.
- KYC
- Required
- Payment methods
- Local bank transfer, ACH transfer, Wire transfer, Credit or debit card
- Status
- Operating
How you can pay on Strike
Every deposit rail Strike supports in at least one market. Which of them you can use depends on your country; the country guides below list the exact methods per market.
- Domestic bank rail
- Local bank transfer
- ACH (United States)
- ACH transfer
- International wire
- Wire transfer
As published by Strike: Bank transfer (rails vary by country).
Pros and cons
What works
- No added Strike fee on sending bitcoin or money transfers, and Lightning settlement is instant
- Available in over 100 countries, one of the widest footprints of any bitcoin app
- Bitcoin-first design without an altcoin casino attached
- Withdraw to self-custody over Lightning or on-chain
What to watch
- Custodial while funds sit in the app, so it is not a place to store savings
- Purchase fees vary by market and size rather than one flat published rate, which makes comparison harder
- Feature availability differs by country; not every market gets the full product
Fees in detail
- spread note
- Purchase pricing is shown upfront in the app; there is no single flat public rate across markets.
- withdrawal note
- Withdrawals to your own wallet are supported over Lightning and on-chain.
What it costs to use Strike
| What you do | What it costs |
|---|---|
| Buy bitcoin with a one-time order | 0.89% under $5,000 of monthly volume, falling to 0.25% above $15 millionUS tiers: 0.89% under $5,000, 0.79% to $50,000, 0.69% to $500,000, 0.59% to $5 million, 0.39% to $15 million, 0.25% above. A trade's own size counts toward the tier, and each month starts at the tier the previous month ended in. A calendar month with no trades resets you to the first tier. |
| The spread charged on every buy and sell | Strike targets an all in spread of 0.22%Charged on top of the trading fee as the gap between the mid point price shown on the bitcoin price chart and the price you actually trade at. Strike says the actual spread may be higher or lower, and that it can widen significantly in volatile markets. |
| Set up a recurring buy (DCA) | No trading fee after the first week, personal accounts onlyOn a weekly or monthly schedule the waiver applies from the second purchase. The spread still applies, and the volume still counts toward your fee tier. |
| Convert a direct deposited paycheck to bitcoin | No conversion fee on up to $20,000 per monthUS accounts. You can convert any share of a salary direct deposit, up to 100%, into bitcoin. Direct deposits allocated to bitcoin count toward your monthly volume tier, and above the $20,000 monthly waiver the normal tiered trading fee applies. |
| Deposit cash from a linked bank account (ACH) | FreeStrike charges a deposit fee when you deposit or buy bitcoin directly from a linked payment method, and waives it only for ACH bank transfers. It does not publish the rate for a card deposit. |
| Withdraw bitcoin on chain | Free on the Flexible speed; Priority and Standard carry an on chain send feeFlexible is the slowest tier, estimated at around 24 hours, against about 1 hour for Standard and about 10 minutes for Priority. Auto withdrawals use Flexible, are broadcast within 24 hours of your balance reaching your threshold, and can be cancelled during the first 12 hours. |
| Send bitcoin over the Lightning Network | An estimated routing fee, plus a 1% spread when the send converts currencyThe routing fee covers payments to Lightning node operators. The 1% applies when a send involves a conversion, for example bitcoin to USD. |
| Withdraw cash by wire transfer | Flat $15Minimum wire $50,000, maximum $5,000,000, shown when you confirm the withdrawal. Strike also offers an optional instant withdrawal to supporting banks for a fee, but publishes no rate for it. |
| Buy bitcoin as a European customer | 0.89% under 50,000 euro of monthly volume, falling to 0.49% above 15 million euroA separate ladder from the US one, and it does not reach as low: 0.89% under 50,000 euro, then 0.79% to 500,000, 0.69% to 5 million, 0.59% to 15 million, and 0.49% above. The recurring buy waiver after the first week applies here too. The EU page carries no direct deposit waiver and no spread figure. |
Strike's security and regulatory record
Everything on the record we could date and source, newest first, including the parts that count against it.
- Licence
Strike Europe authorised under MiCA by the Maltese regulator
Zap (Strike) Europe Limited was authorised as a crypto asset service provider by the Malta Financial Services Authority under MiCA, EU Regulation 2023/1114, and Malta's Markets in Crypto Assets Act, Cap. 647, and Strike relocated its European headquarters from Poland to Malta. MiCA sets one standard for operating across the EU. Strike lists what it requires: customer assets segregated from the firm's own, bitcoin and cash balances held one to one, never lent out and never used to run the company, minimum capital and ongoing solvency testing, fit and proper checks on executives, and rules on best execution, order handling, custody, conflicts of interest and anti money laundering.
- Licence
NYDFS granted Strike a BitLicense and a money transmitter licence
Zap Solutions, Inc. dba Strike announced that the New York State Department of Financial Services had granted it both a BitLicense and a money transmitter licence, completing its expansion to all 50 US states. Strike says the licences subject it to audits, capital reserve requirements and cybersecurity examinations, and that bitcoin and cash in a Strike account are held 1:1 and not lent out or used for corporate operations. Buying, selling, direct deposit conversion, target orders, recurring buys and bill pay opened to New York customers that day. Bitcoin backed loans and lines of credit followed on 2 April 2026.
- Resolved
Withdrawals can now be locked behind passkey or hardware key 2FA
Strike added passkeys and physical security keys as second factors alongside authenticator apps, and introduced protected actions, which let a customer require 2FA on specific activity rather than only at login. The list includes sends and withdrawals, covering both bitcoin and cash transactions, and account updates such as changing a phone number. Logging back in always requires 2FA once it is enabled, and Strike emails the account holder whenever 2FA or protected actions are enabled or disabled.
- Licence
Europe opened on a Polish VASP registration, not an EU licence
Strike launched to eligible customers in Europe on 24 April 2024, announced by Jack Mallers the same day, offering bitcoin buying, selling, sending and withdrawal with free SEPA euro deposits. It did so through a Poland based virtual asset service provider entity, under the national registration regimes that preceded MiCA rather than an EU wide authorisation. Strike confirmed that arrangement in its own MiCA announcement two years later, when it moved the European entity to Malta.
- Breach
Customer email list leaked, denied by Strike, then admitted
Strike customers began receiving phishing mail at addresses they had given to nobody but Strike. On 30 October 2023 Strike told The Block that its security team had been investigating the claims and that at the time there was no evidence Strike had been breached. Within minutes investigator ZachXBT published evidence of the leak, and within hours Strike emailed customers acknowledging that its email list had been taken, attributing the leak to a third party. What was exposed was registration email addresses, which were then used for phishing that impersonated other crypto brands including Etherscan and OpenSea. No loss of customer funds from the leak itself was reported.
- Enforcement
Illinois biometric privacy class action filed by a customer
Candice Wilhelm filed a proposed class action against Zap Solutions, Inc. dba Strike in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, Chancery Division, case 2023-CH-08524, under section 15 of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, 740 ILCS 14/15. This was a private suit, not a regulator's action. Zap Solutions removed it to the Northern District of Illinois on 3 November 2023, where it was docketed as 1:23-cv-15630 before Judge Nancy L. Maldonado and terminated on 12 December 2023. The Cook County record shows the case as disposed. No public judgment against Strike has been reported, and the public docket does not state why the federal case ended.
- Audit
Strike brought custody of customer bitcoin and dollars in house
Jack Mallers announced that Strike had removed its custodial intermediaries and now custodies customer bitcoin itself, in multisig vaults with geographically distributed keys that are encrypted and backed up physically and digitally in separate locations, the majority in cold storage with a smaller hot wallet float for immediate transactions. Customer dollars moved to bank accounts held by Strike. The post says all bitcoin on Strike is backed 1:1 and discloses third party security assessments including SOC 2 certification and regular penetration testing. It does not say balances are never lent out; Strike published that claim later, in its 2026 New York and MiCA announcements.
- Licence
Reported to hold a state money transmitter licence in only one state
Decrypt reported that Zap Solutions, which operates Strike, was serving customers everywhere in the United States except New York and Hawaii while holding a state money transmitter licence only in Washington. Lucinda Fazio, then director of consumer services at Washington's Department of Financial Institutions, told the outlet that one of the main tenets of the programme is that no company gets to do business in any state without that state's specific licence. Decrypt wrote that Strike and Jack Mallers had repeatedly ignored its requests for comment on what licences Strike held. Strike did not finish licensing every US state until March 2026.
The Strike record by kind, and compared with its alternatives
Where we recommend Strike
Countries where Strike ranks in our local guide, each with its rank, the payment methods it takes there and the legal position. Availability beyond these is possible but unverified by us.
El Salvador
United StatesStrike by state in the United States
51 state rows from our state guides, 1 of them verified against the operator's own page. Each state opens the Strike page for it: availability, the caveat where there is one, the source, and the rails it takes there. Every state compared.
Available51 states
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
Frequently asked questions
Is Strike bitcoin-only?
Almost. The product is built entirely around bitcoin and the Lightning Network, with one exception: it supports USDT (Tether) transfers as a dollar option. There is no altcoin trading.
What does Strike charge?
Strike adds no fee of its own on transfers. Buying bitcoin carries a fee shown before you confirm, which varies by market and purchase size.
Which countries does Strike work in?
Strike is available in over 100 countries. Features vary by market, so check the app for what is offered where you live.
Who founded Strike?
Jack Mallers, who remains its chief executive and one of the most visible advocates of the Lightning Network.
Is Strike custodial?
Balances held in the app are custodial. You can withdraw to your own wallet at any time over Lightning or on-chain.
