The future of cashback: Companies adopts crypto back rewards for card purchases

Companies started to offer crypto back rewards for credit card transactions, from business expenses to monthly subscription payments.

Receiving cashback from your credit and debit card purchases has been a long-time benefit for credit card users. However, crypto entered the scene as projects start to implement crypto back rewards for card purchases. 

Back in 2021, BlockFi launched a Visa-backed Bitcoin rewards card as a way to welcome users into the crypto ecosystem. With the card, users can get 1.5% back in Bitcoin (BTC) instead of other rewards like cashback or miles.

In the same year, Venmo also employed mechanics that allows users to buy crypto with their cashback rewards. A program called Cash Back to Crypto allowed credit card users to spend their cashback rewards on crypto-assets like BTC, Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

Some companies started to follow the trend and integrated new crypto rewards for the old cashback mechanic. Let’s have a look at two projects that started to provide crypto rewards for card purchases.

Payments platform Paystand announced the introduction of a corporate expense card that offers crypto rewards. Through the card, businesses can get Bitcoin back without needing to redeem points. Through this, users can earn BTC automatically as they make purchases for their business.

Jeremy Almond, the CEO and co-founder of Paystand, expressed his excitement over their project’s new offering. “We believe blockchain technology and cryptocurrency is the future of finance, and we’re excited to help businesses participate and grow in the digital economy,” he said.

Related: We have to be in the crypto space, Mastercard CEO says

A project called Plutus started offering 3 percent crypto back on Nike purchases back in 2020. More recently, the company announced that it’s extending its crypto back rewards to payments for subscriptions such as Netflix, Spotify, Disney+ and more.

Apart from this, the company has also revealed that they will increase the cryptoback rewards to 8%. This means that when users purchase with their cards, they are automatically accumulating crypto.