Reward token

When a card advertises “up to 5% back”, the missing question is: back in what? The reward token is the asset that cashback actually lands in — and on most crypto cards it’s the issuer’s own coin, not dollars or a stablecoin.

Why it matters: a headline rate is only worth what the token is worth when you sell it. If a card pays you in a volatile coin and that coin drops 30% before you cash out, your “5%” quietly became 3.5%. Paying rewards in the issuer’s own token also nudges you to hold it — and a falling token can wipe out the cashback you earned, so the advertised percentage is a best case, not a promise. A card that pays in a stablecoin or fiat is the rare exception where the number you see is close to the number you keep.

For example: Crypto.com pays its cashback in CRO, Gnosis Pay pays in GNO, and Nexo pays in NEXO (or, at a much lower rate, Bitcoin). On the Nexo card the full “up to 2%” only applies if you take the reward in NEXO — the Bitcoin option caps at 0.5% — so the advertised rate is tied to holding the volatile token, and the dollars you end up with float with its price between earning and spending.