A Bank Froze His Money for a Year. Now He Pays With COCA and Skips the Bank

Sabre is a 26-year-old front-end app developer, part-time crypto educator, and full-time cat dad based in Cape Town. He works with international clients who often pay him in crypto, and long before COCA, he knew the on-ramp and off-ramp grind better than most: banks freezing funds, P2P deals gone sideways, hours lost just trying to turn crypto into money he could actually spend.

For Sabre, cashback is a nice bonus. But it's not the reason he's still here. The real story is simpler than that: for the first time, he doesn't have to fight his own money just to use it.

Let's dive in.

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COCA: Hi Sabre! We're really glad to have you here. Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us today. Let's get started. 👇

Q: Tell us a bit about yourself: who you are, what you do, and where you're based.

A: I am Sabre Khan, 26 years old, based in Cape Town, South Africa. I'm primarily a front-end app developer, using Flutter as my preferred framework. I adore cats, I have one and he definitely has only-child syndrome. Some of my hobbies include reading (I'm an avid reader, especially of the fictional variety) and gaming, very nerdy games. I also enjoy teaching, so over the years, especially since I've been in crypto, I've done quite a few podcasts and shows that were educational at heart.

COCA: Love this already! And as we know, you're on our Starter tier right now, right?

A: Yep, that's right!

COCA: Awesome, this is actually our first interview with someone on the Starter tier!

Q: How did you first discover COCA?

A: I attended an in-person event hosted by Trystin in South Africa, where he told me about COCA and onboarded myself and a few other people. It was sort of a meetup, a post-conference lunch, I suppose.

COCA: Trystin! Love that. Nothing beats hearing about COCA from someone over lunch. That's how the best communities grow. 

Q: What made you try COCA? What problem were you trying to solve?

A: I needed a way to use my crypto without having to jump through multiple hoops and off-ramp, but also not needing to wait up to an hour before getting fiat, or crypto balance showing and being usable in a crypto card. The things that stood out most to me, in order, were: self-custody, earnings on balance, cashback on purchases, and cashback on subscriptions. As I am a web3 native, self-custody was definitely the most important aspect to me.

COCA: Self-custody topping the list, ahead of cashback, says a lot about who this story is really for. 😉

Q: What impact has COCA had on your life?

A: For me, it's being able to actually use my crypto whenever I need it. For the longest time I would have to spend an hour to get my "crypto" into a usable form, and COCA has taken a lot of that wasted time and effort away, making using crypto a much easier and effortless endeavor. As I tend to work with international individuals and often take payment in crypto, it has made my life infinitely easier, without having to deal with P2P or waiting up to 3 days for fiat to land in my bank account. I also get to keep everything in a non-custodial environment, which makes me feel a lot more secure about my funds. I have had banks lock up funds received through P2P orders and refuse to release them, removing that stress has been amazing. The cashback is a great bonus.

Q: You mentioned banks locking up funds from a P2P order at one point. Can you tell us more about what happened?

A: I had placed the P2P order, then the following day, I saw a notification of my funds being locked up and immediately reached out to Capitec's fraud line, where they told me someone from Absa had reported part of the funds for fraud and I had to "prove" to them the funds were mine. Whilst getting said documents and everything in order, I received an email that the matter was resolved, however Capitec only released half of my funds. It then took them another year before they fully released it, after the other individual could not prove the funds belonged to them.

COCA: Wait, a full year? That's wild.

Q: Okay, let's talk about something happier now. 😄 Tell us about a memorable moment using COCA.

A: One of the most memorable moments for me was the first time I went shopping using COCA, the first time I had used a crypto card to pay for goods at Checkers. I was slightly nervous but loaded the card up on Google Pay, got all the items I needed, and at checkout, tapped and everything went smoothly. Payment was immediate, and at the same time I got the "Spent X and got cashback of X." It was slick seeing that cashback come in, and everything being effortless was awesome. I did have some funds loaded on a separate bank card just in case there were any issues, I am glad that was not necessary. Interestingly enough, before reaching the till I had sent more crypto to the card just to ensure I had more than enough funds available, and the new balance reflected almost instantly, took a minute to confirm on Base network. But that too stood out to me and made me go: "Yeah, I'll be using this as my primary going forward." I even made a video of the whole thing! Watch it here.

COCA: Wow! We love getting videos from our users.

Q: Did you tell anyone about that moment afterward? Any reactions when you showed them the card working?

A: My sister and fiancé were with me and, unfortunately, they're not crypto savvy, so they just admired the animations of the payment when using Google Pay. That said, I did tell friends of mine who are crypto savvy afterward and they were impressed, granted I went into detail on other cards I've used, so they had a baseline of expectation.

COCA: Give it time, we've got a feeling your sister and fiancé will come around eventually. 😁

A: Haha, that's for sure!

Q: Is COCA your daily driver these days, or do you still switch between that and a bank card?

A: Right now I mostly split between COCA and a regular bank card, depending on what I've already got loaded. That said, I've moved some of my monthly subscriptions over to COCA, and it's my default whenever I use Uber or a delivery service that supports Google Pay.

Q: Nice! Do you use any other crypto cards alongside COCA, or is COCA your only one at this point?

A: I only use COCA. I used Payy before, they're shutting down support in SA, and then I've tried others, but the apps are either too slow, or things are honestly too much hassle. If it takes too long, it's not worth the effort, IMO.

COCA: Can't argue with that. Slow apps lose people fast.

Q: You're on Starter but you sound like a power user already. Is leveling up on the radar, and what would push you to upgrade?

A: Having money! Lmao, I am genuinely laughing typing this, but that is currently my limitation. The US company I'm working with as a sort of freelancer only has one active client, so funds are a bit tight. As work improves there, I will definitely be upgrading. They pay me in crypto.

COCA: Fair enough, we'll take "as soon as the client roster grows" as a promise. 😄 Also, quick heads-up: through September 30 it's 30% off every paid tier, so upgrading might cost less than you think right now.

Q: If you had to describe COCA in one sentence to a fellow web3-native still stuck doing manual off-ramps, what would you say?

A: Stop wasting time and just tap.

COCA: That sounds like a solid tagline for COCA merch 😉

Q: Anything else you'd want to add before we wrap up?

A: I love what you guys are doing with COCA, very impressive stuff and am happy to share it with everyone I know. In terms of "feedback," currently COCA still relies on the user choosing the chain and doing all of those things to "add funds." If you guys could find a seamless way to approach that, one that doesn't rely on the user choosing specific chains, that would really make things even better for crypto natives.

COCA: Noted, and genuinely appreciated. That's the kind of feedback that only comes from someone who's actually in here every day.

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Sabre's story shows a side of COCA we don't always lead with. Cashback and tiers are a big part of what we build and talk about. But for someone getting paid in crypto and needing to actually spend it, COCA's value starts even earlier: a card that lets crypto behave like money the moment it lands, no detour through an exchange or a bank account required.

Big thanks to Sabre for being this open with us, and for sharing the video too.

🇿🇦 P.S. If you're also in South Africa and weighing up crypto cards, we put together a full breakdown here: Best Crypto Card in South Africa (2026).

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