Two different rewards, often confused
Almost every crypto card advertises one of two things, and they are not variants of the same idea. They reward opposite behaviours.
- Cashback pays you a percentage of what you spend. Spend nothing this month, earn nothing. It rewards turnover.
- Interest on balance pays you a percentage of what you hold. Spend nothing this month and you still earn. It rewards keeping funds on the card.
The confusion matters because the two are compared as if a "5% card" beat a "4% card". They are percentages of different things. Five percent of a $200 monthly spend is $10. Four percent of a $1,500 balance is $60 a year, or $5 a month. Whether one beats the other depends entirely on the ratio between what you spend and what you keep — which is a fact about you, not about the card.
So the useful question is not "which rate is higher". It is: at what level of spending does the cashback overtake the interest? That has an exact answer.
The break-even, in one line of algebra
Let B be the balance you typically keep on the card, r the annual interest rate on that balance, S your annual spending, and c the cashback rate.
- Interest earns you B × r a year.
- Cashback earns you S × c a year.
They are equal when S = B × r ÷ c. That is the whole thing. Below that level of spending the balance rate wins; above it, the cashback wins.
At our rate of 4%, here is what that looks like:
| Balance held | Cashback rate to beat | You'd need to spend |
|---|---|---|
| $500 | 1% | $2,000 a year |
| $1,500 | 1% | $6,000 a year |
| $1,500 | 2% | $3,000 a year |
| $1,500 | 5% | $1,200 a year |
| $5,000 | 2% | $10,000 a year |
Read the second row carefully, because it is the common case. If you keep about $1,500 on the card, a 1% cashback card only overtakes a 4% balance rate once you are putting more than $500 a month through it. Most people who hold a float on a prepaid card do not spend four times that float every year.
The reverse is equally true and worth stating plainly: if you keep almost nothing on the card and run large volume through it, cashback is simply the better instrument. A card is not a religion.
What a headline cashback rate usually costs
The break-even above assumes the cashback rate is real and unconditional. On most cards it is neither, and the conditions are where the money goes.
The stake. The largest advertised rates in this market are tiered, and the tier is set by how much of the issuer's own token you lock up. The rate is genuine, but it is rented: you are lending the issuer capital, in their token, at their price, and you cannot spend it while it is locked. If that token falls 30% while you hold it, no cashback rate recovers the difference.
The cap. Rates are frequently capped per month, or apply only to the first slice of spending. A "5% card" capped at $50 a month is a $600-a-year card, whatever the percentage says.
The exclusions. Cashback commonly excludes exactly the categories people spend most on: utilities, rent, transfers, gift cards, and anything the issuer classes as quasi-cash.
The payout asset. If cashback is paid in a volatile token rather than in dollars, the number you were quoted is an estimate, not an amount.
None of this makes cashback bad. It makes the advertised percentage a poor basis for comparison unless you read three layers down — which is precisely why the two rewards get confused.
What a balance rate costs, honestly
The same scepticism should be applied here, so here is the other side.
The rate is variable. Interest on a balance is not a term deposit. Ours can change; where it goes down we publish the new rate at least 14 days before it applies. A cashback rate can change too, but you notice a rate cut on spending faster than one on a balance you are not watching.
It is not a bank deposit. There is no deposit-guarantee scheme behind a prepaid balance, here or anywhere else in this category. That is a real difference from a savings account, and the rate does not compensate for it by itself.
It rewards inaction. Interest on a card balance quietly encourages you to keep more money on a card than you need to. A prepaid card is a spending instrument; it should hold what you plan to spend, not your savings. The rate is a reason not to leave the float idle — not a reason to build one.
Small balances round. A daily rate on a small balance is worth fractions of a cent per day. Whether that is carried forward or quietly rounded away is a question worth asking of any card that advertises daily payment; ours carries it, and pays out as soon as the total reaches one cent.
Which one actually suits you
Three honest cases.
You run high volume and keep no float. A weekly-shop card, a business expense card, a card for ad spend. Cashback wins, often by a lot. Take the cashback card, and check the cap and the exclusions before you take the headline rate at face value.
You keep a float and spend irregularly. Money parked for travel, for subscriptions, for "when I need it". This is the case where a balance rate wins, and it wins without you doing anything — which matters, because the whole appeal of a float is not thinking about it.
You want privacy above both. Then the reward question is secondary and the honest answer is that it should be. Cards that pay the largest cashback are, without exception, cards that verified your identity first: the tier system requires an account they can attribute to a person. A card that never asked who you are cannot run a loyalty programme on you. Whatever it pays, it pays flat.
Where CryptoCard sits
Stated plainly, so nothing is inferred: CryptoCard pays no cashback. Not a reduced rate, not a tiered one — none. Nothing is paid back as a percentage of spending.
What it pays is 4% a year on the balance you hold, calculated on the closing balance every day at 00:00 UTC and credited the same minute. Compounded daily that is 4.08% APY. There is no minimum, no lock-up, no token to stake and no tier to reach. Held for a year, $500 comes to about $20.40, $1,500 to $61.21, and $5,000 to $204.04.
The reason is structural rather than generous. Cashback is funded by interchange and by loyalty tiers, and both require an identified account: interchange rates depend on the cardholder profile, and a tier system needs someone to attach the tier to. A card opened with an email address and nothing else has neither. So the reward here comes from the only place it can — the reserve behind customer balances — and it is paid flat, to everyone, at the same rate.
If a comparison table you are reading has a cashback column, the correct entry for us is none, and the correct entry for the balance column is 4% a year, paid daily.
How the 4% is calculated and where it comes from is set out in full in its own guide.
Frequently asked questions
Does CryptoCard offer cashback?
No. There is no cashback on CryptoCard, at any tier or spending level. The card pays 4% a year in interest on the balance you hold instead, which is earned whether the card is used or not.
Is cashback better than interest on a balance?
It depends on the ratio between what you spend and what you keep, and the crossover is exact: cashback wins once annual spending exceeds balance × rate ÷ cashback rate. On a $1,500 balance at 4%, a 1% cashback card only overtakes it above $6,000 of spending a year.
Why do no-KYC cards rarely offer cashback?
Cashback is funded by interchange and by loyalty tiers, and both need an identified account — interchange depends on the cardholder profile, and a tier has to be attached to someone. A card opened with an email address alone has neither, so any reward it pays has to be flat and funded elsewhere.
Can I get both cashback and interest on one card?
Some cards advertise both, usually with the higher figures gated behind staking their own token and behind identity verification. Read which of the two rates the conditions apply to, whether the cashback is capped monthly, and in which asset it is paid.
What is the catch with interest on a card balance?
Three things, and they apply here as much as anywhere: the rate is variable rather than fixed, the balance is not a bank deposit and carries no deposit guarantee, and a rate on idle money quietly encourages keeping more on a spending card than you need to. See the Terms for exactly what is and is not promised.
Product references and further reading
Published by CryptoCard. Product terms, eligibility and third-party features can change; use the linked reference for the current details.
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