Author: Weilin, PANews
The crypto payment products and payment card market is becoming increasingly rich. With the recent launch of new products like OKX Pay, Infini Card, and Solayer Emerald Card, in addition to previous offerings such as Bybit Card, Crypto.com Visa Card, Morph Card, SafePal Mastercard, and Coinbase Card, discussions about crypto payment cards have heated up again.
Crypto payment cards allow users to directly use cryptocurrencies (such as Bitcoin and Ethereum) for daily consumption, similar to traditional debit or credit cards. They can instantly convert cryptocurrencies to fiat currencies (like US dollars or euros), eliminating technical barriers for merchants accepting cryptocurrencies and reducing the complexity of using cryptocurrencies (such as managing private keys or exchange conversions). Some Web3 payment cards integrate social features, like sending cryptocurrencies as gift packets via messages. In the future, Web3 payment cards may integrate with more DeFi protocols, providing users with greater financial freedom.
In this article, PANews reviews several currently popular Web3 payment products and payment cards, focusing on their payment functions and reward mechanisms. This information is primarily sourced from official websites, official social platforms, and publicly released content by project leaders.
[The rest of the translation follows the same professional and accurate approach, maintaining the original structure and details while translating to English.]Official introduction states that using USDC for spending is like cash, allowing users to earn on-chain rewards and experience the real-world utility of cryptocurrency. Users can withdraw local cash from ATMs globally. Depositing USDC enables immediate spending, or choosing sUSD - a stablecoin backed by government bonds with an annual yield of 4-5%. Users can instantly mint/redeem sUSD (no lock-up period, no minimum amount), with a non-custodial payment card designed for seamless switching between spending and saving.
The Emerald Card is built on Solayer's InfiniSVM, a hardware-accelerated Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) that provides Visa-level throughput while achieving true on-chain execution.
Currently, the card's invite-only waitlist is open, with services already available for 40,000 users from the genesis airdrop and community sale. Activation fees: Pre-purchase: $75; Genesis airdrop: $10; Community sale: Free. Users can skip the waiting list by spending $1,000 to unlock a referral invitation.
Notably, this marketing campaign by Solayer directly plays on the theme of the Empress Dowager's love for jade collection to achieve marketing "breakthrough".
SafePal Mastercard
SafePal's crypto payment card is a Mastercard launched in collaboration with Swiss Web3 bank Fiat24, aimed at providing users with convenient cryptocurrency spending and fiat conversion services. The Mastercard supports direct top-up using USDC (Arbitrum) stablecoin, and can be used for daily offline/online consumption by linking Alipay and WeChat, as well as for membership subscriptions on overseas platforms like Twitter and Telegram. There are no card issuance, management, annual, or monthly fees.
The card supports four currencies: US Dollar (USD) / Chinese Yuan (RMB) / Euro (EUR) / Swiss Franc (CHF). Users can open accounts and top up in USD/RMB/EUR/CHF, consuming these currencies without exchange fees. SafePal Mastercard's top-up rate is 0.6%-1%, and the 1% exchange fee can be avoided by opening USD/RMB/EUR/CHF accounts and spending in the corresponding currency. For example, using the RMB account for domestic spending, or USD account for GPT and Twitter memberships, avoiding the 1% exchange fee. SafePal bank account transaction limits (remittance, exchange, spending) in mainland China are 100,000 USD/month.
Coinbase Card
Coinbase Card is a Visa network-based debit card issued by Pathward, N.A., exclusively for US users outside Hawaii. It allows users to spend cryptocurrency or US dollars globally. Card transactions are settled at real-time exchange rates.
Supports cash and cryptocurrencies including BTC, DAI, ETH, DOGE, XLM, ALGO, AMP, RLY. Coinbase automatically converts all cryptocurrencies to US dollars for shopping and ATM withdrawals. US users can quickly accumulate crypto rewards through daily spending.
Public evaluations show a 2.49% fee for converting cryptocurrency to US dollars to complete transactions (unless USDC is used as the payment method).
Coinbase allows cardholders to choose from multiple cryptocurrencies, each with specific reward percentages. Past reward rate examples include: Cosmos: 14.04%, Ethereum: 2.09%, Polkadot: 10.2%, Solana: 6.51%. Coinbase Card rewards and rates use a rotation mechanism. New options are available monthly, while others expire.
Metamask Upcoming Payment Card
Metamask wallet is also set to launch a payment card in collaboration with Mastercard. On April 29th, financial technology company CompoSecure, Baanx, and Metamask jointly introduced the "Metamask Metal Card", planned for global release in the second quarter. The card supports direct payments from the Metamask self-custodial wallet without pre-loading or converting fiat through centralized exchanges, with all transactions authorized via smart contracts in 5 seconds. Users must store cryptocurrencies on the Linea network.
