How crypto card companies make money
Cashback on a crypto card does not have to come entirely from the purchase that earned it. A provider can lose money on that transaction while earning revenue elsewhere in the account. That is a possible business model, not proof that Ether.fi, Plasma One or Ethena Pay is profitable.
A third-party weekly snapshot puts revenue across the Ether.fi businesses it tracks at approximately $868,000, split as follows:
- Card business: $507,000.
- Staking: $266,000.
- Liquid vaults: $58,000.
- Lending: $28,000.
- Exchange: $9,000.
The card business contributes about 58% of this revenue. Revenue is money coming into the business before the relevant costs are deducted; this breakdown does not show how much profit any business keeps. It also does not establish whether these businesses share the same legal entity or whether their earnings fund card rewards.
For the Ether.fi Cash Card, estimated card revenue is about $1.75 and cashback about $2.40 for every $100 spent. If those amounts use comparable definitions and the provider pays the entire reward, cashback exceeds card revenue by $0.65 before operating costs. Other earnings or subsidies would have to cover that gap. The calculation describes the transaction economics under those assumptions, not a loss figure for the whole company.
A card transaction is only one revenue stream
When you pay a merchant, the payment chain collects fees. Interchange goes from the acquiring side to the issuer, and a card program may receive a negotiated share through its issuing arrangements. The crypto card brand does not automatically keep the merchant's entire processing fee. Its share depends on the arrangement and the transactions involved.
Currency conversion and asset exchange can produce service fees or a spread between buying and selling prices. A provider that waives a particular fee cannot count that fee as revenue. A card advertised with no foreign-currency fee therefore does not, by itself, reveal what the wider account earns from other exchanges.
Lending can generate an interest margin after funding costs. Staking and vault services can retain an agreed share of yield or collect management fees. The yield earned by a customer's assets is not all company revenue: only the portion retained by the service belongs on that side of the ledger. These businesses also bring funding, operational and risk-management costs.
Membership fees add another source of revenue. They can help pay for rewards and benefits, although subscriptions, travel credits and other bundled services cost the provider money too.
The card can bring a customer into an account that also offers borrowing, staking and exchange. That creates opportunities to earn beyond purchases, but it only works financially if customers use those services and the retained income exceeds their costs.
The advertised cashback rate is not the average payout
Third-party figures for August 2026 give another view of the scale:
- Ether.fi: approximately $109,500,000 spent and $2,620,000 paid as on-chain cashback, a payout-to-spend ratio of about 2.39%.
- Plasma One: approximately $19,900,000 spent and $420,000 paid as cashback, a ratio of about 2.11%.
- Ethena Pay: approximately $260,000 spent and $8,900 paid as cashback, a ratio of about 3.42%.
Those ratios divide recorded payouts by recorded spending. They are not guaranteed reward rates for an individual user. Settlement delays, reward claims and refunds can put a purchase and its reward in different reporting periods. The monthly figures cannot be combined with the weekly revenue snapshot to calculate profit.
Plasma Core has a $199 annual fee and ordinary purchase cashback starting at 3%, falling through spending bands to 0.25% beyond certain thresholds. Declining rates reduce the reward cost of additional spending; the annual fee contributes revenue separately.
Reward caps and exclusions can further limit spending on cashback. During a campaign, the platform or a partner may also subsidize rewards. A subsidy can cover a shortfall for a period, but it does not prove that the card can support the same rewards indefinitely from recurring income.
Whether a crypto card provider is profitable requires accounts that show both income and expenses, including reward funding, payment processing, staffing, compliance, fraud and service costs. For a cardholder, the more practical signal is how the reward is funded: cashback paid in the provider's own token or tied to a time-limited campaign can shrink when that funding ends, while cashback offset by a membership fee or a lending balance only pays off for someone who already uses those services.
Data note: the revenue and August spending figures use third-party statistics rather than audited financial statements. The figures illustrate the model rather than verify company profitability. Payment-fee mechanics are explained in Visa's interchange overview.
Related cards
Ether.fi Cash Card
→Visa credit card from ether.fi Cash that supports crypto-backed spending, offers up to 3% cashback, and requires KYC.
Plasma One Card
→Visa card from Plasma One with virtual and physical card options, USDC and USDT support, tiered 2%-4% cashback, and KYC requirements.