Crypto Card is very popular recently. Ether.fi, the leader of ETH Restaking, has also launched its U Card Cash. We also tested this card from five angles: cashback, interest generation, payment, security and enterprise use .
Cashback mechanism
The Ether.fi Cash card offers a cashback mechanism, with cashback rates depending on the card tier: 2% for Core users and 3% for Luxe and Pinnacle users. In the current promotion, users can get up to 5% total cashback - 3% of which will be returned after spending, and the other 2% will be issued in the form of ETHFI tokens.
Currently, all instant cashbacks are settled in SCR tokens (Scroll Network native tokens), and the system will automatically credit them to your account after each purchase, without any monthly consumption threshold or activation of specific categories. In addition, users can also get an additional 1% cashback by inviting friends to use Cash Cards for consumption.
Cash card supports Apple Pay and Google Pay, and users can use it directly as mobile payment in online and offline consumption scenarios.
Interest-generating function
A major feature of Ether.fi Cash is that it can be linked with Ether.fi’s Liquid Vaults, allowing users to deposit their assets into the vault and start earning interest directly within the platform, without having to transfer funds out to other platforms to earn additional income.
The current basic annualized returns (APR) of several major Vaults are as follows:
Liquid USD: about 9.8%
Liquid ETH: ~7.2%
Liquid BTC: about 2.1%
In addition, there is approximately 7% ETHFI incentive superimposed on the base income.
Each Vault page provides complete and clear information, including the performance of returns in the past 7 to 30 days, asset distribution, strategy providers, fees and contract addresses, etc. In Tyson Wynnes product demonstration video , we can learn in detail how to view the Vault strategy configuration in real time on the interface and view the contract asset distribution through DeBank.
Taking Liquid ETH Vault as an example, ETH will be automatically deployed to multiple protocols such as Aave V3 (28.2%), Eclipse (14%), Reserve, Swell, Euler, Uniswap V3, etc. The asset allocation ratio and income structure can be viewed on the platform at any time.
In addition to the basic income, there is now an incentive campaign called Mint, Spend, Earn in full swing. It is expected that a total of 600,000 ETHFI tokens will be issued. The rewards will be distributed to users who deposit into the Vault and users who use Cash cards for consumption, which is an additional reward.
Payment Methods
Cash Card currently has two payment options:
Borrowing mode: Users can borrow money by pledging assets such as eETH and eUSD. The platform will automatically complete the borrowing process during the transaction. The borrowing interest rate during the current promotion is 0%, and there is no need to pay Gas fees.
Pre-deposit mode: Users can also deposit USDC, weETH, ETHFI, eUSD, eBTC, wETH and other tokens into Vault in advance. When consuming, the system will convert the required amount into USDC and complete the payment without triggering a loan.
Card purchases are settled in US dollars by default. In our tests, foreign currency payments will incur an exchange rate conversion fee of about 0.98%. Regardless of which payment mode is used, transaction records and balance updates will be reflected in real time on the Vault page.
Security
All operations of Ether.fi Cash are performed on the chain. Whether it is consumption, borrowing or cashback, it is completed through smart contracts. Users can view transaction details at any time, and assets are still managed by users themselves.
The only drawback is that the KYC materials required during the account creation phase are relatively complex, especially since some regions do not yet support the Cash U card.
Team and enterprise use
Another interesting point is that Cash Card also supports multi-member use, and its management backend has different roles: owner, administrator, and employee. Therefore, it is also suitable for team and enterprise organization scenarios:
Admins can set spending limits, issue/freeze cards, and view overall spending reports;
Ordinary members can only use within the allocated amount and cannot access the teams main funding pool.
Such a mechanism is more friendly to DAOs, remote teams, or companies that manage on-chain assets, and is conducive to achieving a transparent and controllable spending process.
Summarize
From cashback, interest generation to payment management, Ether.fi Cash provides a relatively complete set of on-chain asset usage tools. Users can get token rewards in daily consumption, invest idle assets in the vault to earn income, and flexibly choose to borrow or pre-deposit to complete daily payments. Teams and companies can also use the permission control system for multi-member collaboration. In the entire process of storing, using, and managing on-chain assets, this card does provide a relatively practical solution.
