ether.fi Cash

CATEGORY BONUSES verified 2026-09-28 from official sources; see docs/research/cards/bonuses.md. RE-VERIFIED 2026-09-12, immediately after ether.fi's 2026-09-11 membership overhaul (help.ether.fi articles 429651/303625/262374/303623/376356/776152, the cashback legal terms rewritten the same day, and the cardholder agreement revised 2026-09-08). WHAT CHANGED: (1) STAKE THRESHOLDS ROSE: Luxe 15,000 → 30,000 ETHFI, Pinnacle 100,000 → 150,000, plus a new VIP tier at 500,000 ETHFI paying 4% on the first $50k/mo. At $0.682/ETHFI (2026-09-12, was $0.347 in June) that is ~$20.5k / ~$102k / ~$341k. (2) NEW CASH PATHS: Luxe is now also available for $199/yr and Pinnacle for $999/yr (or Liquid deposits of $15k/$100k), modeled as separate plans so the engine picks the cheapest route, which is now almost always the subscription rather than the stake. (3) POINTS PATH RE-RATED: points are now 1 per $1 spent and reset monthly, so the volume path is ~$5,000/mo for Luxe and ~$25,000/mo for Pinnacle (was ~$3,334 / ~$16,667 under a 3-points-per-dollar assumption). (4) PAYOUT TOKEN: the current cashback help article says purchases earn cashback IN ETHFI, where the June version said it displayed and credited as USDC; the legal terms only say 'tokens as determined by ether.fi'. cashbackToken is ETHFI, CONFIRMED 2026-09-12 by a cardholder checking in-app, on top of the official help-article wording. (5) The explicit '$1,000 USD per month' cap has been REMOVED from the legal terms, replaced by a discretionary right to limit rewards; we keep monthlyRewardCap at 1000 as a conservative assumption and it should be revisited. (6) FX IS NOW TIER-BASED: 1% base on non-USD/EUR plus up to 0.5% (Core) / 0.25% (Luxe) / 0% (Pinnacle, VIP), so fx.rate is modeled at 0.015 for the entry tier; USD and EUR stay 0% (EUR still flagged beta). (7) The Core physical card is a $50 NON-refundable fee (was a $40 refundable deposit). (8) ATM is $1,000/txn, 5 per 24h, $5,000/day with 10 free withdrawals a month on Pinnacle/VIP; the old $250/24h limit and flat 2% fee are gone from official pages. (9) Spending limits are no longer tier-differentiated ($5k/day card, $10k/day vault). (10) Excluded US states fell to 17 (MS, MO, TN dropped); Morocco and Pakistan were added and Bangladesh/Philippines removed from the country list, though a newer help article claims all 50 states and only Belgium/Ireland excluded, so the lists genuinely conflict. (11) Borrow Mode now runs on Aave v4 at a variable rate with no grace period, and collateral was broadened (stables 80–90%, wETH/weETH 55%, sETHFI 20%). (12) Lounge access starts at Luxe (2 passes) and is unlimited on Pinnacle/VIP, so Core no longer claims it; medical cover now appears in the benefits table. ASSUMPTION: the VIP band structure beyond its 4%/$50k tier is not published, so we model a conservative 0.5% above it. NEWS: the 2026-08-13 'Summer' release pushed ether.fi toward a neobank (tokenized stocks, 30+ fiat ramps, programmatic ETHFI buybacks) and monthly card spend hit $100.3M in July. ⚠ The legacy referral programme closes 2026-10-31: re-check the referralUrl after that date. EARLIER RESEARCH (June 2026) from official help.ether.fi articles + ether.fi legal gitbook + ether.fi/cash. RESOLVED CONFLICTS: (1) FX: marketing AND fee page state 0% on USD/EUR, 1% elsewhere; the '1% across all tiers' figure was a third-party legal-review reading. Modeled as 0%/1% per official source. (2) Payout token, per the official cashback help article: cashback 'displays as USDC' and is 'automatically credited as USDC'; legal T&C says generically 'tokens... at ether.fi's sole discretion' with USD value via oracle. USDC is current/authoritative; no current source says wETH. (3) $1,000/mo cap: CONFIRMED real in legal T&C ('maximum cashback rewards a user may earn is limited to $1,000 USD per month'), applies across ALL tiers; modeled via monthlyRewardCap on every plan. Luxe=15,000 ETHFI staked, Pinnacle=100,000 ETHFI staked (must STAKE as sETHFI, not just hold; alt path via membership points; unstaking below threshold reverts to Core, 30-day re-upgrade cooldown). requiresStake = ETHFI amount × $0.347 (CoinGecko/CMC, 2026-06-23), ESTIMATE, ETHFI price is volatile. VOLUME PATH (qualifyingMonthlySpend): tiers are also reachable via membership points instead of staking, modeled at ~3 points per $1 spent (Luxe 10k pts/mo ≈ $3,334/mo, Pinnacle 50k pts/mo ≈ $16,667/mo). Points rate/threshold is MEDIUM confidence and assumed steady-state monthly; when qualified by volume no capital is locked so the 15% token-depreciation cost does not apply. FX (verified July 2026 vs legal cardholder agreement + a real spend test ~0.98%): 0% on USD and EUR, ~1% on all other currencies; note the EUR 0% is currently in beta. Verify terms before publishing.