Every card that pays you back - with the caps, tiers and token fine print that decide what you actually earn.
Short answer:ether.fi Cash is our top-rated cashback crypto card as of 2026-11-07 (7.6/10), Basic KYC, 0% load fee.
cards on this page: 38 · issuing today (excl. watch list): 30 · independently verified facts: 66% · no KYC at first use: 0%
quick picks
uncapped bitcoin on every purchase→Fold Bitcoin Credit Card - 1.5% BTC back uncapped, stackable to ~4% via statement-payoff and bonus rules - the cleanest flat-BTC structure on file
the highest documented single rate→ether.fi Cash - 3% in ETHFI tokens, no published cap - but the payout token's volatility is part of the deal, not a bug to ignore
category rewards with a predictable cap→Gemini Credit Card - 4% gas/EV/transit on the first $300/month then 1%, 3% dining, 2% groceries - the transparent-caps archetype
rewards without token exposure→Bitpanda Card - 1% paid in EUR on crypto-asset spending - the payout is fiat, so the reward is stable even when the market is not
The most complete self-custodial spending stack in this comparison: your own vault plus real bank rails in four currencies (ACH, SEPA, GBP FPS, Swiss IBAN), 3% ETHFI cashback on the first $2,000/mo with Category and 5% travel boosts, KYC light in practice (ID + liveness; proof of address only on request - verified first-hand September 2026 with a Paraguayan cedula and a German passport) and an uncapped public affiliate program. The documented risks are real: interest from the first tap in Borrow Mode, liquidation risk, the November 2025 fraudulent-card incident with promised refunds, a protection program still marked not yet live that excludes compromised keys, and cashback now locked in volatile ETHFI instead of instant USDC.
The most complete stablecoin-spending account on the market: US/EU virtual bank accounts from anywhere, Visa Platinum cards with real 1.5% USD cashback on the free tier, instant cashback and no spending caps. Full KYC and a young operator are the trade-offs; the paid tiers only make sense for heavy spenders.
Full KYC1.5% backphysical card
0% load · 1.5% back in USD
Spend up to whatever is in your wallet - no hidden monthly spending caps (Premium cap <= $10,000/mo, Private <= $40,000/mo apply to cashback earn rates, not spending)Neobank 8 d ago
The strongest mainstream exchange debit card for UK/EEA/US users on paper: free issuance, no monthly fee, 0% FX on the Mastercard rate, instant tiered cashback up to 2% and a metal card for high-balance users. The catch: cashback only starts above a GBP/EUR 200 average balance, crypto spend carries an undisclosed spread, and per-day limits are not published.
Full KYC2% backphysical card0% FX
0% load · 0% FX · 2% back in cash (GBP/EUR) or BTC
Europe's cleanest all-asset debit card: spend any of 600+ cryptos or even precious metals from one EUR card with zero monthly fees, 0% own FX markup, generous EUR 280k/month limits and an MFSA-regulated issuer. The 1% cashback only pays on crypto payments, ATM withdrawals cost 2%, and it is euro-area only.
The cleanest bitcoin-rewards credit card structure documented: flat 1.5% in BTC uncapped with no annual fee, up to 4% for engaged users, issued by Celtic Bank under Visa. It is a credit product - VantageScore-based checks, bureau reporting, and variable APR 20.49-29.44% on carried balances.
The reference bitcoin-back debit card in the US: sats on every swipe via the Fold+ subscription (0.5% base plus rotating boosts up to 15%), FDIC pass-through on the USD balance via Sutton Bank, BitGo custody for bitcoin, Nasdaq-listed parent. The free tier earns no card cashback - Fold+ is the product.
The most aggressive rewards among exchange cards: 2-10% USDT cashback tiers, auto-interest on the card balance and 100% rebates on popular subscriptions - but it requires full exchange KYC and is explicitly unavailable in the EEA, and the platform carries the memory of the 2025 mega-hack it survived.
The most mainstream self-custody card: MetaMask wallet spending stablecoins on Linea through a Mastercard program run with Baanx/Monavate, keys stay yours. 1% mUSD cashback on the orderable Virtual card; US and UK sign-ups are paused, Metal (3% tier) paused since June 2026. Verify current availability in-app before ordering.
The EEA successor of the Bybit Card: clean 0.5% FX and uncapped 1% EUR cashback, but a separate bybit.eu account is required and the old bybit.com EEA card is closed.
A long-running hybrid-rail card: crypto side non-custodial per the live Terms (USDC only), fiat/e-money side with unnamed regulated partners. Full KYC, invite-only membership (CHF 0/yr personal), ramp fees 1%/0.5%, and the card cashback is no longer published. Fine for EUR/USDC payments in the EEA if you accept the partner custody on the fiat side - verify card terms before ordering.
A US-registered, SOC-2-accredited exchange card with true point-of-sale crypto conversion - pick any listed coin as your spend wallet and it converts at the tap. The exchange and token ecosystem are mid-sized; the mechanism is the appeal.
Discontinued in the EEA since Dec 2023, but alive again in Latin America: relaunched in Brazil in Oct 2025 as an Immersve-issued Mastercard prepaid (up to 2% cashback, per the Binance/Mastercard announcement), followed by a Venezuela waitlist beta (Aug 2026, up to 3% cashback, crypto balance spent directly). Patchy acceptance outside LATAM; verify per country before ordering.
Bleap is one of the few crypto cards whose core fee promises check out: free issuance, no monthly fee, Mastercard rate with no FX markup, and free ATM withdrawals up to 400 EUR/month, all debited from a genuinely non-custodial MPC wallet with a named Cypriot EMI issuer and a verifiable MiCA CASP license. The catch is that the famous 'up to 20% cashback' is a lattice of category promos with small eligible-spend caps (realistic value is roughly 1% on everyday spend up to 3,000 EUR/month), the 2% groceries and dining rate already expired in May 2026, rates can change without notice, and the physical card is referral-only. Availability is EEA plus Switzerland only, with 45 excluded nationalities and some EEA countries still on a waiting list.
The most complete dual-mode card: one tap switches between spending your crypto (Debit, with daily interest) and borrowing against it (Credit, from 1.9%) - with free ATM allowances up to EUR 2,000/month and no card fees. The catch: meaningful cashback needs a $5,000+ portfolio and is denominated in NEXO, and it is EEA/UK-only.
Full KYC2% backphysical card
0% load · 0.2% FX · 2% back in NEXO or BTC
Higher limits via Nexo Private ($100,000+ assets)Fintech 36 d ago
The Jupiter Card is the rare exchange-issued card that publishes real documentation: issuer split (Rain 43 countries / DCS 9 APAC countries), fees, limits and a signed cashback T&C. The fee stack is honest - no annual/monthly/deposit fees, only an issuer FX fee (1% Rain, 1.8% DCS) - and the 2% USDC cashback is real but capped at $100/month, with the 4% tier gated behind 2+ referrals in the prior month and a $200 cap. Custody is hybrid: your Jupiter DeFi wallet is self-custodial, but the Spend balance that backs the card is custodial with the issuing partners, and only USDC-origin deposits can be off-ramped. Main deductions: heavy KYC (SumSub liveness, APAC proof of address, undeletable Jupiter ID), rewards governed by Panama-law terms with an unnamed operator entity, no EEA/UK availability, and discretionary rewards clawback rights. A solid spend card for supported markets in the Americas, APAC and parts of Africa/MENA - not a privacy product.
The most generous crypto-rewards credit card in the US market - up to 6% back in BTC or CRO with no annual fee - but the best rates require CRO staking or a Level Up subscription, BTC earn is capped by tier, and it is credit (with bureau approval), not a debit card you can top up with crypto.
A Ledger-branded Visa prepaid card by Baanx that lets users spend from Ledger self-custody, converting crypto to fiat at the moment of purchase and paying 1% cashback in BTC (2% in BXX). Live across UK/EEA plus a 2025 US expansion, but the open jurisdiction list is login-gated and the old Ledger shop pages are dead links.
The most mature crypto prepaid card in the US - FDIC-member bank issued, $25k/month top-ups and clean tier structure - but the free tier earns nothing, real cashback requires a subscription or five-to-six-figure CRO stakes, and rewards are paid in volatile CRO.
Full KYC1.5% backphysical card
0% load · 3% FX · 1.5% back in CRO
$25,000 aggregated top-up limit per month (all tiers)Exchange 39 d ago
The most aggressive yield+cashback package in the crypto-card market, from the USDe team itself: virtual Visa with 4-5% cashback and up to 6% p.a. on balances, near-zero fee stack (no FX markup, no monthly, free issuance), self-custodial wallet, live in 48 countries across LatAm/Caribbean/Asia-ME/Africa/Oceania. The catch: rewards are paid in AVAX, are explicitly discretionary and tier-gated (Pro/VIP via limited referral-based spots), spending limits are opaque and collateral-driven, and the card is secured - your own collateral can be liquidated if a charge goes unpaid past one day or your collateral value drops. Only weeks old; no track record of its own. Strong spend-card pick where available; treat the yield as promotional, not contractual.
A US credit card on the American Express network paying up to 4% back in Bitcoin, issued via Cardless and gated behind a Coinbase One subscription. Evidence is press-grade only - the operator's own pages are unreachable from our IP - so treat every detail as unverified.
Live and open for applications since Aug 31, 2026, with unusually high headline rewards (4-10% USDT cashback) and clean FX terms (Visa rate, no MEXC markup, no conversion fee). Reality check: the 10% is a futures-trading-gated ceiling capped at 800 USDT/month, the base tier pays 4% capped at 100 USDT/month, the 1% transaction fee returned Oct 1, 2026 after the launch waiver, and the issuer behind the Visa BIN is not disclosed. Availability is broad under a restricted-list model (everything not on a 69-entry blacklist; US, India, Indonesia, Turkey, Russia and Ukraine excluded; AU/SA/ZA/CH gated behind VVIP 600+), but virtual-only. Trust hinges entirely on the custodial MEXC exchange, whose community reputation is poor and whose card track record is five weeks old. Verify the live fee and restricted-list on the application page before applying - MEXC updates both.
Hyperbeat Pay is the card of the Hyperliquid ecosystem's yield layer: a Visa credit/debit hybrid where a self-custodial smart wallet (ManagementAccount) settles spend from your beatUSD/USDC balance or JIT-borrows beatUSD against BTC/ETH/SOL/HYPE collateral in dedicated Morpho markets - spend without selling, audited by Zellic/Nethermind, issued by Third National under Visa. The mechanics are genuinely novel (on-chain settlement, user-set operator allowances, timelocked withdrawals) and self-custody is real. The weaknesses are transparency and reachability: no public fee schedule or cardholder agreement (fees only via DefiLlama), cashback token (WHYPE) not documented, a template artifact from ether.fi in the legal terms, an operator entity with no published incorporation, and a cashback model whose headline 3-12% tiers demand $1M-50M monthly trading volume - the realistic everyday rate is 0.2-1.0%. Strong for active Hyperliquid traders; ordinary spenders get a thin-rewards card with undocumented fees.
A fast, cheap-to-hold Visa prepaid card for non-US/non-EU traders who already bank on Bitunix: zero issuance/monthly/conversion fees, generous limits (10k USD/day, 50k/month), Apple/Google Pay, and an auto-earn kicker (11.6% APR on the first 200 USDT of card balance). The 'up to 8% cashback' is VIP-gated marketing - monthly caps make the effective rate about 2% even for whales, EEA/UK merchants earn nothing, and the actual issuer/BIN sponsor is undisclosed behind a Singapore program company with an Ontario-law/Singapore-arbitration agreement. Trustpilot (3.7) shows real withdrawal-freeze complaints about the exchange, so keep only spending money in the card account.
Gate Card exists, is actively developed and advertises the most aggressive cashback headline on this list (up to 8%), but the program is a black box: issuer unnamed, no published fees, no documented limits, regions defined only as 'non-restricted countries'. Fine as an exchange perk for heavy Gate users - hard to verify for anyone comparing card terms.
Full KYC8% backphysical card
1% FX · 8% back in points (redeemable for USDT or GT)
The most regulated issuer context for a crypto-rewards credit card (NYDFS trust, WebBank-issued Mastercard World Elite): 4% gas/EV/transit, 3% dining, 2% groceries, 1% elsewhere, no annual fee, rewards in BTC or 50+ cryptos. It is a credit product (bureau approval, no crypto funding), US-only, and the issuer carries a 2025-2026 withdrawal-security-hold complaint pattern at the exchange level.
The veteran (2014) reinvented as a stablecoin bank: fee-free FX worldwide, multi-currency accounts with 1:1 stablecoin conversion, real Visa/Mastercard principal memberships and an 8% headline cashback. Fee details hide in the help hub, and the El Salvador licensing move makes the regulatory story newer than its brand.
Full KYC8% backphysical card0% FX
0% load · 0% FX · 8% back in USD
Higher limits with the Wirex Private metal card ($100,000+ balance)Fintech 39 d ago
The most token-aligned card on the market: Plasma One is a real, working stablecoin neobank (instant virtual Visa, self-custodial on-chain balance, broad fiat rails, transparent fee tables, genuinely strong headline cashback) built by the XPL blockchain team - and every part of its economics points back at the token. Cashback is paid in XPL, the paid tiers are bought with 12-month XPL locks, and growth is driven by referral codes rather than organic demand. The free Lite tier is honest value (2% on the first $500/mo, free virtual card) if you treat the XPL payout as a hot potato, but the Core/Platinum tiers ask you to lock a token that has lost ~95% from its ATH for 12 months to unlock rates that then step down to 0.25-1% anyway. Use Lite, cash out weekly, and skip the locks unless you would buy XPL anyway.
A non-custodial stablecoin wallet with a Wirex-issued prepaid card: documented 1-8% cashback tiers in stablecoins, free virtual card, Apple Pay/Google Pay and up to 5% APY. The rewards are real but tiered behind $COCA balances, the official pages contradict each other on cashback rate and card network, and the independent FX spread measurement undercuts the 0% FX marketing. Verify the current card terms in-app before loading.
Full KYC8% backphysical card0% FX
0% load · 0% FX · 8% back
EUR 30,000 (plus EUR 75,000/quarter and EUR 100,000/6-month caps)Crypto-native 38 d ago
A niche virtual-card tool for online media buying with crypto funding - now with a named operator (ADV Summit Advisors Limited, TCI) and documented fees. Usable for its purpose, but the 3% cashback is a Private-subscription ad-spend benefit paid as subscription credit, and the regulated issuing side remains unnamed. Poor as a general spending card; keep balances minimal.
A documented, fully-priced stablecoin Visa program with named regulatory registrations - but unresolved mega-litigation changes the risk picture: Binance sued RedotPay and its founders for ~$472.8M in August 2026 over alleged user-asset diversion. Custodial balances, freeze powers, no named issuer. Treat as usable-but-contested; keep balances minimal and watch the litigation.
A transparently specified USD/EUR/MXN account with a $0-fee Visa that settles from your own USDC wallet - real and signable, but early-stage with thin adoption. The cashback (1%, capped $50/mo) is a discretionary rebate; the yield layer is third-party DeFi with no guarantees. Reasonable for freelancers paid via Upwork/Deel/Stripe-style platforms; low track record and unpublished issuer country list keep it on verify.
Vivid's consumer crypto card is alive and regulated: free-first physical Visa, 300+ coins from EUR 1 under a Dutch AFM MiCAR CASP licence (custody via Copper), 2% default crypto trading fee and plan-capped cashback. The B2B pivot is real but the personal product demonstrably operates - with a documented 2026 freeze/support complaint pattern typical of partner-rail neobanks.
A real, documented, collateral-backed Visa credit card from a funded ($12M) crypto-native team - the most complete legal/fee/cashback disclosure set of any Rain-stack card reviewed so far. But the fine print matters: FX and ATM fees are open-ended 'up to' numbers, cashback is a non-guaranteed vendor promise with lagging, discretionary distributions, spending limits can be cut to $0 without notice, issuance is effectively ~7 countries (not the advertised 150+), and the shared Rain top-up infrastructure was exploited in August 2026, hitting 636 Tria cardholders for $431,945 (refunds committed). Keep only needed funds in the card balance and treat the cashback program as discretionary.
Full KYC1.5% backphysical cardverify
1% load · 3% FX · 1.5% back in USDC and/or USDT (chosen by Tria; distributed on Ethereum, Polygon, Optimism or Arbitrum)
Back and verifiable: the Uphold Debit Card relaunched in the US with up to 4% back in XRP (Elite, $99.99/yr) or 2% (Essential, free), Visa acceptance with Apple/Google Pay, no credit check and FDIC pass-through on the USD balance. The trade-offs: rewards are XRP-denominated with conditions (holding periods, monthly caps), the program's history is pause-and-restart, and support tickets show crediting/adjustment friction. US-only (no NY/LA/territories).
Kolo Card is a genuinely live product: a virtual Visa Platinum debit card (EUR card since 1 Jul 2026, issued by Wirex Ltd UK; USD card issued by Banco Popular de Puerto Rico), issued through Rain Cards infrastructure on top of an MPC wallet that is closer to self-custody than a typical omnibus wallet - but Kolo still co-signs and can decline for compliance reasons, so it is hybrid in practice. The fee stack is the weak spot: 1% on every card payment plus tiered Visa FX surcharges plus an extra 1% USD-card issuer fee, against an ongoing 1% BTC cashback with $1/purchase and $100/month caps - meaningfully less attractive than the headline suggests once the promo window ends. Country eligibility is opaque (60+ claimed, list not published; US excluded). Track record is short with entity churn and a deleted status page, but no scam reports and active development. Best suited to EUR-area stablecoin holders who want same-currency euro spending with BTC stacking; a poor fit for anyone expecting the promo-era 5% or uncapped cashback to persist.
The original crypto-rewards card (since 2015), now a subscription product paying 3-9% in its own PLU/PLUS tokens with merchant-funded perks - and no Bitcoin option. Card spending is paused during an open-ended banking migration with a terminated Modulr contract and a claim process for stuck funds, hence watch.
The rate is the least informative number on this page
38 live card programs advertise ongoing rewards, with rates spanning a factor of 16 - from 0.5% (Wirex Base tier) to 8% (Wirex Bespoke) and Crypto.com's "up to 6%". Almost none of these numbers survives contact with a cap, a stake requirement or an MCC exclusion. This page maps the mechanics that decide what you actually receive, because the sector's history is a consistent pattern of headline inflation followed by unilateral repricing [2][5].
Where the reward money comes from: US interchange reality vs. the EU cap.
Who pays for the reward - the financing layer
In the US, the economics work because of two exemptions: reloadable general-use prepaid cards are excluded from the Reg II interchange cap, and issuer banks under $10B in assets are exempt entirely [6]. That is why the partner banks behind Fold (Sutton, Celtic), Gemini (WebBank) and Coinbase (Pathward) can fund uncapped or high-category rewards. The EU closed this door with a 0.2% debit interchange cap, so European rewards are financed by your FX spread, your subscription or the appreciation of the payout token. When a EU card advertises 4%+ for free, the financing question is not rhetorical - it is where your cost hides.
Live values from our database - details and caveats in each review. "-" = not published by the operator.
Every tracked reward program reduces to one of three structures, and the archetype predicts its failure mode:
Flat crypto, uncapped. Fold's credit card pays 1.5% in BTC on eligible net purchases with no cap, with documented bonus paths to ~4% (statement payoff in BTC, monthly bonus rules) [4]. The risk concentrates in BTC price between earning and selling - which is also the upside. Fold reports its users have stacked over 68 billion sats since 2019, and the parent is publicly traded (Nasdaq: FLD) [4][8].
Category rewards with transparent caps. Gemini's card: 4% on gas/EV/transit up to $300 monthly spend, 3% dining, 2% groceries, 1% everything else [1]. This is the most predictable structure - the caps are published, the reset is dated, and the payout token is selectable. Its weakness: the top rate is rationed, so heavy spenders converge to 1-2%.
Stake-gated token tiers. Crypto.com's program ties the rate to CRO staking or paid tiers [2], and Wirex's tier ladder (0.5% to 8%) rewards its own ecosystem first [5]. These are the highest headlines and the least durable - both programs repriced materially within recent memory [2][5].
The haircut between earning 3% and keeping 3%.
Working the caps - the arithmetic that matters
A cap is a marginal-rate cliff, not an average. Crypto.com's US Basic tier pays 1.5% BTC on the first $250 of monthly spend and 1% above [2]; on $2,000 monthly spend, the effective rate is 1.06%, not 1.5%. Gemini's 4% tier exhausts at $300 of category spend [1]. Two corollaries worth internalizing:
Route the capped categories to the capped card, everything else elsewhere. The category math guide works the two-card split with real numbers.
The cap clock matters as much as the cap. A calendar-month reset rewards bunching gas and groceries into one week; a statement-cycle reset punishes it. Crypto.com's EU program shares one cap across BTC and CRO rewards and resets monthly in UTC [3] - switching reward type mid-month does not buy a second cap.
Warning: Reward terms are unilateral. Fold's own terms state that "bonus categories, earning rates, and offer availability are subject to change and may be capped or limited in duration" [4]. Every issuer's terms carry similar language. A rate you build a spending strategy around is a rate you should re-verify quarterly - we do, and the check dates are on each card page.
The devaluation file
The sector has repriced rewards repeatedly: Crypto.com's card program went from multi-percent tiers to today's 1.5%-headline structure [2]; Wirex's celebrated "Cryptoback" now pays flat USD at tiered rates rather than volatile tokens [5]; BlockFi's rewards card died with its parent's insolvency. The pattern is structural - rewards priced in bull-market token economics do not survive the bear. Treat any "up to X%" on a free card as a marketing budget with an expiry date, and treat your own reward balance as an asset to convert on a schedule, not a portfolio to accumulate.
Taxes - the second haircut
A USD cash rebate is explicitly not income in the US; the taxpayer reduces basis instead [7]. A crypto reward is not that: it is property received, so the conservative reading (and the one most tax software applies) treats the credit as income at fair market value on receipt, then a disposal when sold. EU states diverge - some treat small rewards as non-taxable benefits, others as miscellaneous income. Either way the record-keeping is on you, and per-transaction reward records with timestamps are the only defense at reconciliation time - card statements plus a rewards ledger beat reconstruction from memory at filing time. The tax guide covers the US and EEA patterns.
How to choose from the ranking above
The ranking orders by overall card score, not by reward headline - deliberately, because a reward is only as good as the fee stack under it. Shortlist by archetype (flat-BTC vs. category vs. token-tier), then price the full stack for your actual profile in the fee calculator - a 3% reward on a card with 3% FX is a wash on anything but domestic spend. If you want the market's honest floor: 31 of the 38 programs here charge no monthly fee, and the median load fee across the set is ~0% - the reward is the visible half of a two-sided ledger.
One last frame for the decision: a reward is a rebate on money you were going to spend, denominated in an asset somebody chose for you. That is only worth optimizing after the structural questions are settled - custody, region availability, FX exposure and the freeze risk documented in the frozen balances guide. A perfect 4% on a card that can freeze your balance is worse than a clean 1% on one that cannot.
Rarely. The real rate is the headline minus the cap structure: Crypto.com's US card pays 1.5% BTC only on the first $250/month at the Basic tier (then 1%); Gemini's 4% category applies to the first $300/month of eligible spend; Wirex's 8% exists only at its Bespoke tier. Compute your effective rate on YOUR monthly spend, not on the headline - the cashback calculator exists for exactly this.
Why do crypto cards pay more cashback than banks?
Financing, not generosity. In the US, reloadable prepaid cards and issuer banks under $10B in assets sit outside the Reg II interchange cap (21 cents + 0.05% + 1 cent fraud adjustment) [6], so the card program earns real interchange. In the EU, interchange is capped at 0.2% debit, so higher rewards must be financed by FX spread, subscription fees or token issuance. If a EU-card promises 5%+, ask what you are paying for it.
What is the risk of a token-denominated reward?
You earn a rate, you keep a token. 3% in ETHFI, GNO, CRO or NEXO moves with that token between earning and selling, minimum claim thresholds delay conversion, and the conversion is a taxable disposal in most jurisdictions. Sector precedent is sobering: Crypto.com cut top-tier card rewards sharply in 2023, and Wirex now pays cashback in USD, not tokens [2][5].
Is crypto cashback taxable?
In the US, a cash rebate is not income - the IRS says you reduce your basis by the rebate amount [7]. But a reward paid in crypto behaves like property: most practitioners treat the credit as income at fair market value on receipt, and selling it later is a second taxable event. EU treatment varies by state. Keep per-reward records; the tax guide walks the patterns.
Do caps reset monthly?
Usually, but check the reset clock. Crypto.com's caps reset monthly and are shared across BTC/CRO reward types on the EU prepaid program [3]; Gemini's spend cycle refreshes on the 1st of each month [1]. A cap that resets on the statement date instead of the calendar month changes the math if your spending is uneven.
Can I stack cashback with merchant offers?
On Fold, yes - that is the product design. Fold+ members get merchant boosts (up to 15% at partner merchants), category boosts and a 0.5% base, on top of the credit card's 1.5% uncapped BTC [4]. On most other cards, reward exclusions apply to specific MCC categories (gambling, money services, sometimes utilities), so stacking is the exception, not the rule.
Does spending stablecoins or fiat earn the same?
Not everywhere. Bitpanda's card explicitly excludes payments made with fiat euro, metals or stablecoins from the cashback - only crypto-asset spending earns [9]. Crypto.com's EU prepaid card pays the Basic tier 0% regardless. Check the exclusion clause: it is where the headline quietly dies for low-stake users.
Credit or prepaid - which pays better in 2026?
They finance rewards differently. US crypto credit cards (Gemini via WebBank, Fold via Celtic Bank, Crypto.com via Comenity) draw on uncapped small-issuer interchange and can offer category structures; prepaid products draw on interchange plus your float. The credit cards now carry the higher uncapped rates; the prepaid products lean on subscriptions and spins.
What happened to the 8% era?
It ended twice. Crypto.com's 2023 repricing cut headline rates to today's structure [2]; Wirex's "up to 8%" survives but pays in USD now, and only at its top tier [5]. Any rate above ~2% on a free card is a marketing budget, not a durable yield - the devaluation pattern is consistent across the sector.
How do I verify a rate before loading money?
Three checks, in order: the issuer's own fee/rewards page (not the marketing homepage), the exclusion and cap clauses, and recent user reports for the payout experience. If the rate is "up to", find the table. If the payout token is not named, assume a volatile one. Our card reviews document both per card, with sources and check dates.
Is cashback paid per transaction or monthly?
Both exist. Gemini deposits rewards instantly per transaction [1]; Crypto.com's EU prepaid accrues monthly with a UTC reset [3]; Fold converts rewards through its app mechanics [4]. Per-transaction payout removes the float risk of waiting a month with a custodial balance - and it makes the reward record self-documenting for tax season.
