Lava Card

CATEGORY BONUSES verified 2026-09-28 from official sources; see docs/research/cards/bonuses.md. RE-VERIFIED 2026-09-12 against the official Lava Card US & International Terms (both effective 2026-05-21), the lava.xyz FAQ and the BLOC blog post. CORRECTIONS: (1) FX is 0%, ADVERSARIALLY RE-CHECKED 2026-09-12 after the 0% reading was challenged as implausible. Evidence for 0%: the US disclosures (Third National, eff. 2026-05-21) list 'International Transaction: 0%' in the Reg Z fee table, where 12 CFR 1026.6(b)(2)(xi) would require any foreign-transaction fee to be stated as a percentage, and add 'We do not currently adjust the currency exchange rate', the standard construction used by cards that absorb the network fee (Capital One, Schwab). The International terms separately list BOTH 'Foreign Exchange Fee (non USD): 0%' AND 'Cross Border Fee: 0%', the second being exactly the line a passed-through Visa assessment would occupy. The premise that a card MUST pass on Visa's ~1% cross-border assessment is wrong: that fee is billed to the ISSUER and is routinely absorbed. EVIDENCE AGAINST, recorded honestly: ether.fi Cash runs on the same issuer (Third National) and does charge 1% on non-USD, confirmed by a real ~0.98% spend test, so this stack plainly can pass it on; cardpilled simultaneously claims 'no FX fee' yet models a ~1.5% conversion spread (unsourced); spendnode's September 2026 list of 28 no-FX cards omits Lava; and NO third-party spend test comparing a Lava statement line to the Visa daily rate exists anywhere. Modeled at 0% because regulated cardholder disclosures outrank an industry-default assumption, but this is the single figure on this card most worth re-testing with a real EUR/GBP purchase. History: the site published 0% in early July, switched to 1% on 2026-07-04 on the pass-through assumption alone (without reading these fee tables), and has now returned to 0% on the documents. (2) The issuer is Third National (Puerto Rico); Rain is the program manager, and the legal entity is Lava Global Inc. (3) ATM fee is published: 2% with a $1 minimum, treated as a cash advance. (4) The card appears to be VIRTUAL-only in practice (Apple Pay works; multiple Jul–Aug 2026 reviews report no physical card yet) even though the terms reference 'physical or virtual' cards. Form changed physical → virtual, and the metalCard perk was removed as no official source mentions one (that claim traced to an unrelated 'Lava Ltd'). (5) The card DOES carry Visa protections (purchase protection to $20,000, extended warranty to $25,000, auto-rental, travel-accident and lost-luggage cover), so the old 'no protections' con was wrong. (6) BLOC is 7.5% under $100k / 6.5% above plus a 2% annual capital charge (~9.5% / 8.5% all-in), originating at ≤50% LTV. (7) The separate Yield Account pays 6.5% APY. (8) The 5% partner-merchant boost is now AI tools (OpenAI, Anthropic, Cursor, Perplexity, xAI…) plus 10% at Vibecode/Chorus, not Amazon/Apple/Netflix. (9) Rewards require 100,000 sats before redemption; excluded MCCs include taxes, fines, insurance, rent and education. Stablecoin funding is USDC/USDT/PYUSD across 10 chains. STILL UNVERIFIED: cashback caps (none published), Google Pay, physical-card timeline, US-state eligibility. ORIGINAL RESEARCH (2026-07-02) from lava.xyz + Bitcoin Magazine + launch press, with the custody controversy reported by third parties (Blockspace, Gizmodo). This is the Lava Card from lava.xyz (a Bitcoin-backed Visa secured credit card), NOT 'Lava Network' (the LAVA-token/airdrop project); they are unrelated companies. Visa, secured credit (spend a pre-funded USD balance), issued via Rain (bank sponsor undisclosed). CUSTODY: marketed as self-custody, but a Sept 2025 change moved BTC collateral to a custodial cold-storage vault and the USD card balance sits on-platform, modeled as custodial. CASHBACK is region-dependent and modeled region-aware: 3% for US, 1% for international (via regionRates); the 5% partner-merchant rate (Amazon/Apple/Netflix) is category-specific and not modeled. Paid in BTC. FX (re-verified 2026-07-04): Lava's own markup is a confirmed 0%, but its Visa issuer Rain passes through the ~1% Visa cross-border assessment by default and no source confirms Lava absorbs it, so non-USD spend is modeled at 1% (USD stays 0%), mirroring how Tria is handled after its founder confirmed the 1% is charged by Visa not the card. Medium confidence; a true 0% all-in remains possible but unproven. VERIFY before publishing: cashback caps (none published), ATM access/fees, spending limits, virtual-card availability, US-state eligibility, exact issuing bank, and the idle USD-yield rate. No referral program found.