Plenty of people in Georgia still get paid, tipped or repaid in cash. If you hold lari in your wallet, you don’t have to put it through a bank card to buy crypto. There are three cash routes: a payment terminal that tops up an exchange account, a crypto ATM that hands you coins on the spot, and an exchange office where you pay over the counter. They differ a lot in cost, and the cheapest one is the least obvious.
This guide covers the cash routes only. For the full picture, including cards, bank apps and P2P, start with how to buy crypto in Georgia.
Four ways to turn lari banknotes into crypto
The headline difference: terminals don’t sell you crypto directly. They put lari into your account at a registered exchange, and you buy the coin there. ATMs and exchange offices sell the coin itself, and their margin is built into the rate.
| Route | Where | Published cost | ID needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| PayBox terminal → exchange | 8,000+ terminals nationwide | 1% at Cryptal | Verified exchange account |
| TBC Pay → Cryptal | TBC Pay channels | 0% at Cryptal | Verified Cryptal account |
| CPAY / CreditService+ → Cryptal | CPAY points | 0.2% at Cryptal | Verified Cryptal account |
| Cryptomat ATM | ~159 listed locations, 7 cities | Not published; 6–12% reported | Phone, passport above a limit |
| Exchange office | Tbilisi, Batumi, Rustavi | Inside the rate | Passport, selfie, questionnaire |
The percentages for the first three rows come from Cryptal’s fee page. They are deposit fees only. The price you pay for the coin inside the exchange (the spreadSpreadThe gap between the buy and sell price. A desk that buys USDT at 2.57 GEL and sells at 2.62 GEL earns a 0.05 GEL spread on each coin. or trading fee) comes on top, and Cryptal doesn’t list its trading fees on that page.
PayBox terminals: the five exchanges you can top up
PayBox has been in Georgia’s non-bank payments market since 2007, and its terminals are part of everyday life here. The company says it runs more than 8,000 of them and serves around 350,000 customers a day across about 1,000 services. With a network that size, a terminal is rarely far away, even outside the big cities.
In a news item headed “Buy cryptocurrency from PayBox”, the company says you can buy virtual assets at its terminals through five exchanges. We checked each one against the NBG register (version 23.10.2026):
| Exchange | NBG registration | What we know about the PayBox route |
|---|---|---|
| Cryptal | 0002-9404 | 1% for a GEL top-up via PayBox |
| Bitanica | 0003-9404 | Partner listed; fee not found |
| WhiteBIT (Whitebit Georgia LLC) | 0007-9404 | Partner listed; fee not found |
| Coinmania | 0013-9404 | Partner listed; fee not found |
| City Pay | 0026-9404 | Partner listed; fee not found |
All five are VASPsVASPVirtual Asset Service Provider — a crypto exchange, ATM operator or custodian. In Georgia every VASP must be registered with the National Bank (NBG). registered with the National Bank of GeorgiaNBGNational Bank of Georgia — the central bank. It supervises banks and, since 2023, crypto service providers (VASPs).. That matters, because the NBG has warned people not to use unregistered crypto services. If a terminal ever offers a crypto top-up to a name that isn’t on the register, skip it. You can search all 43 registered providers on our licensed exchanges page.
What a top-up actually costs
Take 500 GEL in cash. At Cryptal, a PayBox deposit costs 1%, so 5 GEL, and 495 GEL lands in your account. Cryptal holds lari as its own TOGEL token, which it redeems 1:1, so the balance shows as 495 TOGEL. You then buy USDT or BTC at Cryptal’s quoted rate.
For WhiteBIT, Coinmania, CityPay and Bitanica we couldn’t find a published PayBox fee. Before you insert money, check two places: the deposit screen in the exchange app and the terminal screen, which normally shows any commission before you confirm.
Step by step: topping up an exchange at a PayBox terminal
The exact menu names vary between terminal software versions, and we couldn’t verify each screen. The overall flow, though, is the same for any of the five partners.
Open and verify an exchange account
Pick one of the five partners and register in its app or website. Complete KYCKYCKnow Your Customer: identity checks (passport, selfie, sometimes proof of address) that licensed services must run before you trade.: usually a passport or Georgian ID card plus a selfie. Do this at home. Trying to verify while standing at a terminal is a recipe for mistakes.
Get your deposit details
In the exchange, open “Deposit”, choose GEL and select PayBox as the method. The exchange tells you which identifier to type at the terminal, such as an account number or user ID. Copy it exactly.
Find the exchange on the terminal
On the PayBox screen, use the service search or open the crypto section, and choose your exchange by name. Make sure it’s the exchange you registered with. Several have similar-sounding names.
Enter your identifier and insert cash
Type the identifier, check it twice, and read any commission line on the screen. Then feed in your banknotes. Payment terminals generally don’t give change, so the whole amount you insert is credited, less any fee.
Keep the receipt
Take the paper receipt and photograph it right away. If the deposit doesn’t show up, the receipt number is the first thing the exchange’s support team will ask for.
Buy crypto and move it
Once the lari balance appears, buy the coin you want inside the exchange. If you plan to hold it for long, consider withdrawing to a wallet you control. Our crypto wallet guide explains the options.
TBC Pay and CPAY: cheaper, but check the details
Two other cash-friendly rails appear on Cryptal’s fee list, and on paper both beat PayBox.
TBC Pay is TBC’s payment service. Its website says you can pay for more than 1,000 services. Cryptal lists “TBC Pay” as a free way to deposit lari. What we could not confirm is whether TBC Pay’s own catalogue has a crypto category, or which TBC Pay channel Cryptal’s free deposit uses. The catalogue loads dynamically and we couldn’t read it. Before you set off with cash, open Cryptal’s deposit screen and check that TBC Pay is offered for your account.
CPAY / CreditService+ is the cheapest published cash option: Cryptal charges 0.2%, in GEL or in US dollars. On 500 GEL, that’s 1 GEL. The dollar option is useful if you hold cash dollars and want USDT without converting to lari at an exchange-booth rate first.
Neither rail is listed for the other four PayBox partners, so if you prefer WhiteBIT or Coinmania, PayBox is the cash route we could confirm. WhiteBIT also has zero-fee GEL bank transfers via TBC Bank and Hashbank. If your cash can sit in a bank account first, that may come out cheaper: see banks and crypto in Georgia.
Not tied to cash? A Visa or Mastercard purchase settles in minutes.CEX.IO has operated since 2013 and accepts Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay and Google Pay. It has no GEL wallet and no P2P, so a Georgian card is charged in USD, EUR or GBP.
Buy with a cardCrypto ATMs: instant coins, the steepest price
A crypto ATM is the only cash route that puts coins in your wallet without an exchange account. The biggest network is Cryptomat (NBG registration 0005-9404). Its website listed about 159 locations, mostly in Tbilisi, plus Batumi, Kutaisi, Rustavi, Gori, Telavi and Zugdidi. Machines list BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH and USDT on both ERC-20ERC-20Tokens on the Ethereum network. Widely supported but network fees can be several dollars per transfer. and TRC-20TRC-20USDT issued on the Tron network. Cheap and fast transfers, which is why most OTC and property deals in Georgia quote TRC-20.. Not every machine offers every coin, so check the location page first.
The catch is the price. Cryptomat doesn’t publish fees, limits or ID thresholds on its site. A secondary guide gives typical Georgian ATM figures, not specific to Cryptomat: 6–12% including the spread, a minimum of about 10–50 GEL, and a phone number being enough up to roughly 1,000–2,000 GEL, with a passport above that. On 500 GEL, 6–12% is 30–60 GEL, against 5 GEL at a PayBox top-up or 1 GEL via CPAY.
Use an ATM when speed or simplicity matter more than cost: a first small purchase, a tourist without a local exchange account, or a one-off top-up. Our crypto ATM guide covers the sell-enabled machines and how to use them, and the Cryptomat review goes into the operator itself.
Exchange offices: cash over the counter
For larger amounts, or if you hold US dollars or euros in cash, an exchange office run by a registered VASP is often the most practical option. Secondary reports describe offices in Tbilisi, Batumi and Rustavi. The fee is built into the rate. First-time KYC means a passport, a selfie and a short questionnaire, and takes about five minutes.
Several registered firms list physical branches in the NBG register: Alltrust.me (0010-9404) with branches in Tbilisi, Adjara and Kvemo Kartli; Digital Currency (0015-9404) with a head office and five branches in Adjara; PLEX (0017-9404) in Adjara and Tbilisi; Werty (0021-9404) and Stellex (0023-9404) in Tbilisi and Adjara; and Coinero (0030-9404), which has a branch in Sarpi on the Turkish border. None of them publishes a fee schedule we could verify, so ask for the all-in rate before you hand over cash, and compare it with the live rate in the converter above.
Big tickets, such as five-figure USDT purchases, work differently: you agree a rate, sometimes book an appointment, and may need to explain where the money came from. That’s covered on our OTC desks page. City-specific options are on the Tbilisi and Batumi pages.
ID, limits and staying within the rules
Paying in cash doesn’t make a purchase anonymous. Under Georgia’s anti-money-laundering rules, registered VASPs must identify customers when a business relationship starts. A secondary legal summary also puts a due-diligence trigger at single transactions above USD 1,000, EUR 1,000 or GEL 3,000. That’s why exchanges verify you before your first top-up, and why ATMs switch from phone-only to passport above a certain amount.
Two more points: an individual’s profit from selling crypto is not treated as Georgian-source income, so no personal income tax applies (details and caveats in our crypto tax guide). And crypto itself isn’t legal tender, so you can buy it with cash but can’t spend it at a Georgian shop. The regulation overview explains why.
Which cash route fits you
- Small, regular purchases from anywhere in the country: PayBox terminal plus a verified account at one of the five partners. Cheap, nationwide, a few minutes at the terminal.
- Lowest published fee, with a Cryptal account: CPAY / CreditService+ at 0.2%, or TBC Pay if your account offers it as a free deposit.
- First purchase today, no account yet: a Cryptomat machine, accepting the higher cost. Start small.
- Several thousand dollars in cash: a registered exchange office or OTC desk, with your passport and a clear answer about where the cash came from.
Selling works differently, since terminals only take money in. For turning crypto back into lari, see how to cash out crypto in Georgia.
