Paid in What? The Asset Your Cashback Arrives In
Two cards paying 3% are not equal if one pays in dollars and the other in a token that can halve. What each card actually pays you in, and why it changes the value.
"3% cashback" tells you a rate. It does not tell you what lands in your account, and that second part decides what the rate was worth.
Cash-equivalent rewards
These arrive as dollars, euros or a dollar stablecoin. The number you earned is the number you keep.
- Solid — 3% in USDC
- Bleap — 1% to 20% in USDC
- KAST — 1.5% in USD
- Wirex One — 0.5% to 8% in USD
- MEXC Global — 4% in USDT
- MetaMask — 1% in mUSD
- Uphold UK card — 1% in GBP
Trade Republic is its own case: 1% of your spending is invested into a savings plan you choose, so it is not cash but it is not a house token either.
Major-asset rewards
Paid in bitcoin, usually. The value moves, but the market is deep and you can sell whenever you like.
- Fold and Shakepay — bitcoin on every purchase
- Xapo — 1% in bitcoin
- Kolo — 1% in bitcoin after an opening period
- Gemini — your choice of 60+ assets
- Bitpanda — 1% in whatever asset you spent
The issuer's own token
Here the rate and the value part company. The token is issued by the same company paying you with it, and its price depends on that company's fortunes.
- Plutus — PLU
- Tap — XTP, locked for 12 months after you receive it
- CoinZoom — ZOOM, and how much you hold also sets your rate
- Gnosis Pay and Rebind — GNO
- ether.fi Cash — ETHFI
- Nexo — NEXO, or a much lower rate in BTC
- Ugly Visa — RSR
- Crypto.com — CRO, with a BTC option in three countries at a lower rate
This is not automatically bad. It is a different proposition: part cashback, part exposure to one company's token, whether you wanted the second part or not.
The conditions that decide whether you keep it
Ask three things beyond the asset:
- Can you sell immediately? Tap's XTP cannot be touched for a year.
- Is there a minimum before you can claim? ether.fi needs $5 and pays after 7 days. Holyheld gives you 30 days to claim.
- Can you actually spend it? Bitrefill pays in EUR that converts to store credit — excellent if you shop there, less so if you don't.
How this affects our scores
A card that pays only in its own token loses half a point on Rewards. It is a deliberate haircut: the advertised rate is real, but what you can bank from it is not the same number, and a reader comparing two "3%" cards deserves to see that difference.
The reward asset for every card is listed on its own page, and the cashback caps guide covers the other half of the gap between headline and reality.
Common questions
Why does the reward asset matter if I can sell it straight away?
Sometimes you cannot. Some cards lock rewards for a period, set a minimum before you can claim, or pay in a token with thin liquidity, so selling moves the price against you.
Which reward asset holds its value best?
A dollar stablecoin or plain cash is worth the same when it arrives and a month later. Bitcoin and other major assets fluctuate but trade deeply. An issuer's own token depends entirely on that issuer.
Do you score cards differently based on the reward asset?
Yes. A card paying only in its own token loses half a point on Rewards, because the headline rate and the value you can realise are not the same thing.
Cards mentioned in this article
Card figures referenced here come from each issuer's published terms and each card page shows when its data was last verified — see our methodology for how, and the changelog for what has changed since. Rewards and availability vary by region and move often. Not financial advice.