Mullvad VPN
The most honest VPN on the internet, and in 2026 still the one this industry is measured against: numbered accounts, cash or Monero accepted, open-source…
Ranked on documented facts, not sponsored placement - every provider page shows the evidence.
Short answer: Ten providers accept crypto, but the coin decides the anonymity: Bitcoin leaves a public trail, Monero does not. Refunds go back on-chain to your wallet, volatility affects prepaid balances, and the signup email can still re-identify you.
providers on this page: 14 · independent audit on file: 50% · court-proven no-logs: 1 · open-source apps: 50%
quick picks
The most honest VPN on the internet, and in 2026 still the one this industry is measured against: numbered accounts, cash or Monero accepted, open-source…
The anti-affiliate champion candidate holds up: no affiliate program (stated out loud on the homepage), flat honest pricing, quarterly warrant canary, annual…
cryptostorm.is is verifiably LIVE (fetched today, HTTP 200) with a PGP-signed warrant canary dated July 1, 2026 and an unbroken Wayback snapshot record…
Community-run Italian operator with the best power-user transparency stack in the business: fully open-source Eddie client (GPL-3.0), 258 bare-metal entry IPs…
The most honest mainstream deal in 2026: open-source apps, real audits, a genuinely usable free tier with no data cap, and a transparent renewal model - and in…
A rare genuinely usable free plan (no card, P2P allowed on the 10 GB free tier) plus audited no-logs claims twice over - DefenseCode 2015 and Securitum 2024…
The most trustworthy free VPN on structural grounds: an anarchist Seattle collective that has run since 1999, funds itself by donations, asks no account…
The only consumer VPN with a real metadata-protection architecture - a 5-hop noise-generating Sphinx mixnet with cover traffic - and it costs just $4/mo on the…
The most expensive mainstream VPN ($300 per 2 years, $30/mo monthly) with the most hostile refund stance: 'All sales are final and refunds are not possible…
Effectively a discontinued brand absorbed by its own competitor: 'Ivacy Powered by PureVPN' no longer sells new Ivacy subscriptions and funnels everything into…
A small, quiet Swedish outfit with an honest-ish pitch: no audit, no circus, 10 simultaneous devices, port forwarding, AnyConnect-style obfuscation and a…
A privacy veteran with real strengths - 8 devices, serious obfuscation stack (Stealth/Stunnel/Shadowsocks/OpenConnect), crypto payments, dedicated IPs and port…
A strong everyday VPN with a huge live-verifiable network (7,287 servers in 150 countries counted in the official API on 2026-10-01) and a genuine audit…
The cautionary tale of VPN 'no logs' marketing: PureVPN's FBI-log handover in 2017 proved the claim hollow while its policy admitted connection/bandwidth…
100% of the 14 providers on this page accept cryptocurrency, and 8 accept Monero. The acceptance is table stakes; what separates them is which coin, whether payment runs direct on-chain or through a processor, and whether the signup behind the checkout asks who you are[4].
Monero first: ring signatures and stealth addresses make the transaction private by default[2] - it is the only major coin that matches a VPN subscription's threat model. ZCash offers shielded transactions where supported. Bitcoin last: pseudonymous, permanently public, routinely clustered - acceptable for "I don't want my card statement to show this", not for "the provider cannot know it was me"[3]. Stablecoins (USDT/USDC at hide.me) solve volatility but inherit public-ledger traceability. Cash-by-mail beats them all and only Mullvad runs it[1].
Direct-chain payment (a wallet address and amount) beats processor-mediated checkout (a widget with its own KYC and logs). Prepaid balances beat auto-renewals - a saved card re-links you monthly, and even crypto billing profiles can anchor recurring identities[5]. Small amounts suffer network fees on BTC[6]; XMR's fees stay negligible at subscription sizes. And the refund clause deserves a read before you need it: crypto refunds are where anonymous payment goes to die.
If payment privacy is a requirement, this page is your candidate list and the anonymous-payment hub is the shortlist. If it is a nice-to-have, pick on evidence and price first (the no-logs hub and cheapest hub) and treat the crypto option as a bonus. Either way, the true-cost calculator prices the flat-fee providers whose coin payments are predictable - volatility plus renewal jumps is a combination to avoid.
Between "card statement shows everything" and "buy Monero at an exchange that KYC'd you" sits the voucher lane: cash-purchased gift vouchers and prepaid codes credited to an account without any personal data. AirVPN has sold gift vouchers for years, and Mullvad's cash-by-mail is the same idea with an envelope. The voucher path avoids both the card trail and the crypto-exchange trail - its weakness is availability in your country and the provider actually stocking it. For threat models where the exchange account is the weakest link (most of them), a cash voucher plus an account-number signup is the strongest pairing this market sells.
100% of the 14 providers on this page accept cryptocurrency; 8 take Monero specifically. The lists from our database: Mullvad (BTC, XMR, plus cash-by-mail), Proton VPN (BTC, XMR), IVPN (BTC, XMR), AirVPN (BTC, LTC, BCH, DOGE, XMR), hide.me (BTC, XMR, ETH, LTC, DOGE, SOL, USDT, USDC), Astrill (BTC, XMR), NymVPN (XMR, ZEC, NYM), PureVPN (BTC), Riseup (BTC donations). Exact lists sit on each provider page.
Monero, if payment privacy is the goal. Bitcoin's ledger is public and permanent - chain analysis clusters addresses into identities through exchange records, reuse and timing[3]. Monero hides sender, receiver and amount by design[2]. If BTC is your only option, use a fresh address, avoid exchange-direct withdrawals, and assume the trail is linkable.
Back to a wallet address you prove ownership of - and the refund re-links that address to your account. For Monero that is harmless (the return address is private); for Bitcoin it re-attaches a public trail to your account. Some providers (Mullvad) have ended crypto refunds entirely and credit accounts instead. If payment privacy matters, size the subscription so you will not need a refund.
With direct on-chain payment, the provider sees the transaction and your account ID - not your name. With third-party crypto processors (the checkout widget on many commercial VPNs), the processor applies its own KYC thresholds and keeps records separately from the VPN operator. Direct-chain payment is the stronger form; processor-mediated crypto is anonymity by policy, not by design.
Prepaid balances can. Providers credit a fiat-equivalent at checkout; if you buy 12 months and top up in a volatile coin, the value locks at purchase - no further exposure. Fees are the real friction: Bitcoin network fees on a $5 subscription can double the cost, which is why several providers moved to Lightning or suggest XMR for small amounts.
This page is the wide filter - any crypto at checkout. The anonymous-payment hub is the strict one: a private coin or cash AND a signup that never anchors your identity. Paying with Monero through a personal-email signup fails the strict test; that is the whole distinction.