How crypto card cashback really works

When a card says “up to 8% cashback”, the important words are “up to”. Most people will earn a fraction of that. Here’s where the rest goes, and how to work out what a card will really pay you.

2 min read

In this guide4 sections

1The advertised rate vs what you keep
2Spend caps and tiers
3What the cashback is paid in matters
4Putting it together

The advertised rate vs what you keep

The advertised rate is the biggest number a card can put on its website. Usually that’s its top tier, on a small slice of spending, before any costs. What you keep is different: the cashback you actually earn, minus the fees and the FX, as a share of what you spent. That gap is where most of the disappointment comes from.

Across the 9 cards open in the US that pay cashback

What they advertise, on average3.1%
What they pay at $2,000 a month in the US1.8%

After fees, spend caps and FX. See how it changes by country and spend.

So compare cards on what you’d keep at your own spend, in your own country. The calculator on our home page does that for every card, and our tests page shows the gap card by card, in every country.

Spend caps and tiers

Most boosted rates only apply up to a monthly cap. A card offering “5% back” might pay that 5% on your first $1,000 a month, then drop to 0.5%.

Worked example: $3,000 spent in a month

First $1,000 at 5%: $50
Next $2,000 at 0.5%: $10
You earn: $60, or 2% overall

Higher rates are also often locked behind a paid plan, or behind staking the card’s own token. Both cost money, and that cost comes out of the extra cashback. Our paid tier guide works through the break-even math.

What the cashback is paid in matters

Cashback paid in a stablecoin like USDC holds its value. Cashback paid in the card’s own token doesn’t.

Worked example: 4% paid in the card’s own token

Cashback on $1,000 of spending: $40 in tokens
The token then falls 50%: −$20
What it’s really worth: $20, or 2%

Check what a card pays in before you trust its rate. Every card page shows it.

Putting it together

Work out the cashback you’d realistically earn in a year, take off every fee and the FX cost for where you spend, and compare that number across cards. It’s the only one that tells you what a card actually leaves you with.

Cashback you earn−Fees−FX costs=What you keep

We do exactly that for every card, the same way each time. The methodology page shows how.

See what each card pays back at your spend.

Open the calculator