How crypto card cashback really works

Marketed rate vs effective rate

The marketed rate is the biggest number a card can print, usually its top tier, on a narrow band of spend, before any costs. The effective rate is what you actually keep: cashback earned, minus fees and FX, divided by what you spent. That gap is where most of the disappointment lives.

Always compare cards on the effective rate for your own spend and region, not the headline. Our calculator does this automatically for every card.

Spend caps and tiers

Most boosted rates only apply up to a monthly cap. A card offering “5% back” might cap that 5% at the first $1,000 a month, then drop to 0.5%. If you spend $3,000, your blended rate is far below 5%.

Higher rates are also often gated behind a paid tier or a requirement to stake the card’s token, costs that have to be weighed against the extra cashback.

How the reward is paid matters

Cashback paid in a stablecoin like USDC holds its value. Cashback paid in a card’s volatile native token does not. “4% in a token that falls 50%” is really 2%. Check what token a card pays in before trusting its rate.

The bottom line

Add up the annual cashback you would realistically earn, subtract every fee and the FX cost for where you spend, and compare that net figure across cards. That is the only number that tells you which card pays you the most.