Strike Review

Strike Review: Bitcoin Fees, US Availability, Safety and Who It Suits

In our view, Strike is one of the lower-cost and simpler ways for US residents to buy bitcoin regularly and move it to their own wallet. It offers fee-free recurring buys and free standard withdrawals, but only deals in bitcoin. This makes it unsuitable for those interested in other cryptocurrencies. We think active traders who need an order book, altcoins or derivatives should look elsewhere.

Strike at a glance

• Operator in the US: Zap Solutions, Inc. d/b/a Strike, NMLS 1902919
• Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois, United States
• Founded: 2019
• Assets: bitcoin only
• Trading fee, entry tier: 0.89%
• Recurring buys: no fee after the first week
• Bitcoin withdrawal: free if you wait up to 24 hours
• New York: virtual currency license 0000050
• US availability: all 50 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico

What Strike is

Strike was founded in 2019 and describes itself as regulated, audited, fully reserved and bitcoin only. It says it is available for individuals and businesses in 98 countries. In the US it covers all 50 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico.

In our view Strike is closer to a bitcoin bank than to an exchange: you can buy and sell bitcoin, receive your paycheck in bitcoin, pay bills, send money abroad, earn interest on cash and borrow against your bitcoin. We think the lack of an altcoin list, an order book and futures keeps the app simple.

Ease of use

We think Strike's app is easy to follow for a first purchase: you link a bank, choose an amount and buy, and the app shows your fee level and volume. You can set up recurring purchases, and they carry no fee after the first week. Large buyers can place single purchases of up to $2.5M.

Strike supports fast bitcoin payments via the Lightning Network, though it passes the Lightning routing fee to users. In our view, Lightning is beneficial for frequent small transactions, as on-chain fees may exceed the payment amount.

Getting started

To open an account you provide your full legal name, email address and phone number, and Strike may ask for more documents to confirm your identity. In our view the process is standard for a regulated US service, and we would have an ID ready before you start. You then link a bank account for ACH or wire deposits, or add a debit card. We would use the bank link, because card deposits carry a fee and bank deposits do not.

How Strike compares with other bitcoin apps

For a small purchase, Strike's entry fee of 0.89% compares with 2.0% for a market buy under $500 on Cash App. Cash App can add a spread of up to 0.75% on top, while Strike's quote can include third-party spreads. Uphold, a multi-asset app, typically charges a spread of 2.00% to 2.20% on bitcoin. In our view Strike is the cheaper of these three for small one-off bitcoin purchases, while recurring buys are free on both Strike and Cash App.

Fees

Strike levies a single fee per trade, decreasing with monthly volume: 0.89% up to $4,999.99, 0.79% from $5,000, 0.69% from $50,000, 0.59% from $500,000, and reduces further, down to 0.25% from $15M. Recurring buys are fee-free after the first week, and within the US, converting up to $20,000 a month of your paycheck into bitcoin is free.

The quoted rate can also include spreads from third-party providers, and Strike may keep any excess spread. We would therefore compare the final quote rather than the fee alone, as we do with every broker.

A worked example

A single $1,000 purchase in the first tier costs $8.90 at 0.89%. Strike's own example shows that one $5,000 buy reaches the second tier and costs $39.50 at 0.79%. In our view that is clearly cheaper than the spreads of many beginner apps, and recurring buys are cheaper still because they carry no fee at all.

Deposits and withdrawals

Bank deposits by ACH and wire carry no Strike fee, while a debit card deposit costs 1.99% with a $0.99 minimum. On-chain bitcoin withdrawals to your own wallet are free if you can wait up to 24 hours, and faster confirmation is available for a fee. We prefer services with a free withdrawal like this, because it makes Strike a good on-ramp to self-custody.

Automated withdrawals can be activated: once a balance exceeds a chosen threshold, between 0.01 BTC and 5.0 BTC, Strike transfers it to your address within 24 hours, without a fee. We rate this as one of Strike's key features for savers, enabling coin movement off the platform automatically.

Paying, sending and getting paid

Beyond trading, Strike offers direct deposit, bill pay and global payments, and it says payments work in over 100 countries. In the US you can have your paycheck paid by direct deposit and convert up to $20,000 a month into bitcoin without a fee. In our view this is where Strike differs most from an exchange: it is built for people who want to live partly on bitcoin, not only to buy it.

Purchases can be spot buys, target orders at a price you set, or recurring buys. We think target orders are a simple way to avoid buying at a spike without learning an order book.

Limits

Bank deposits by ACH are limited to between $3,000 and $100,000 per 7 days, debit card deposits to between $500 and $7,500 per 7 days, and wires have no limit. For most savers the ACH limit is plenty, and in our view larger buyers will prefer a wire anyway.

Interest and loans

US individuals can earn 3.6% interest on cash, paid in bitcoin. Dollars in personal accounts are held at Cross River Bank, with pass-through FDIC insurance up to $250,000. In our view this is useful if you want idle cash to buy bitcoin over time, but the rate can change.

Strike also offers bitcoin-backed loans and credit lines from 7.75% APR, with no origination fee. Loans are not offered in every state, and minimum amounts vary by state, with Hawaii among the exceptions. Borrowing against bitcoin carries the risk of a margin call in a sharp drop, so we would only borrow well below the limit.

Security and custody

Strike holds customer bitcoin 1:1 in full reserve, in multi-signature vaults that are mostly in cold storage, and it holds all the keys needed to move customer funds. That is a clear setup, but in our view it also means you rely on Strike's own controls while your bitcoin sits on the platform.

You can protect the account with two-factor authentication through a passkey, a security key or an authenticator app, add a PIN, and rely on a 5-day delay before anyone can switch these protections off. We rate that delay as one of the better account protections we have seen, because it gives you time to react if someone gains access. Strike also gives each account an anti-phishing code that appears in its emails.

Reserves

For loans, Strike Lending publishes quarterly agreed-upon procedures reports by the accounting firm FGMK LLC on the bitcoin collateral, with the latest covering September 30, 2026. We found no public proof of reserves covering all customer balances. In our view a full reserve attestation for all bitcoin held would be the next step for a company that calls itself fully reserved.

Regulation

In the US, Zap Solutions, Inc. possesses money transmitter licenses where needed. In New York, it holds a virtual currency business activity license, number 0000050. It is also registered with FinCEN as a money services business.

Within the EU, Zap (Strike) Europe Limited is authorized as a CASP by the MFSA in Malta.

Support

You can open a support request in the app or write by email, and eligible US accounts can request a callback. We think it helps that a callback is confirmed inside the app, which makes it harder for scammers to pose as Strike. We found no security incident notice in Strike's help center or terms.

App ratings

On the US App Store, the Strike app is rated 4.78 from 28,983 ratings. On Google Play it shows 1M+ downloads. In our view the ratings fit our reading of the app as simple and focused.

Who Strike suits

In our view Strike suits three kinds of readers well. We think the first is the regular saver who wants to buy a fixed amount every week or month without paying a fee each time. We think the second is the person who wants part of a paycheck in bitcoin and the rest in dollars, all in one account. We think the third is the self-custody user who wants a cheap way in and a free, automatic way out to a hardware wallet. For all three, we think the narrow bitcoin focus is a strength rather than a limit, because the app does not push other coins or leveraged products.

Who should not use Strike

If you want ether, solana or any other coin, we think Strike is not for you, because it only supports bitcoin. If you trade actively with limit orders on an order book or use derivatives, we think an exchange fits better. And if you want to hold your keys from day one, we would still use Strike only as the on-ramp and withdraw to a hardware wallet.

Alternatives

For more coins and an order book, we think our Kraken review and Coinbase review are good next reads for US readers, and Coinbase vs Kraken compares them. For a regulated exchange with a strong security focus, we would also read our Gemini review. We would also compare the options on our list for US customers and our list of exchanges with low fees, and for storing bitcoin yourself see our Ledger Nano X review.

Our verdict

In our view, Strike is a strong choice for anyone who only wants bitcoin: low tiered fees, free recurring buys, free standard withdrawals and solid account protections. We think the bitcoin-only scope and the lack of a public reserve attestation for all balances are the main limits. If those do not matter to you, we would rate Strike among the first apps to consider for a bitcoin savings plan, ideally paired with a hardware wallet for the coins you keep.