ether.fi Cash

Verdict

ether.fi Cash is a Visa credit card built for people who already hold crypto and want to spend it without selling. It is non-custodial: your crypto stays in your own control in a self-custodial vault, and you spend or borrow against it rather than handing funds to a custodian. The headline is up to 3% cash back on purchases, with no annual fee — the card is included free with ether.fi Club membership.

The trade-off is that the rewards, funding and availability all come with conditions worth reading before you apply. The 3% rate is capped by spend tier, the card runs on DeFi vault-and-borrow mechanics, and it is unavailable in 17 US states. It suits self-custody-minded crypto holders comfortable with those mechanics; it is a poor fit if you want a plain bank card.

Rewards and the real conditions

The advertised rate is up to 3% cash back, and ether.fi says 3% applies on all Cash card levels. The catch is the monthly cap, which is tiered by Club level: at the entry Core tier you earn 3% only up to $2,000/month. The higher caps — 3% up to $10,000/month at Luxe and 3% up to $50,000/month at Pinnacle — sit behind membership-point thresholds (Luxe at 10K points, Pinnacle at 50K points), with a VIP tier that is invite-only.

Two more caveats: ether.fi flags that cashback rates may differ on its 0-FX-fee EUR transactions, and membership points accrue at 3,000 per $1,000 spent. What the cashback is actually paid in is not disclosed by ether.fi.

Fees

There is no annual fee: the Cash card is included free when you join ether.fi Club, and that membership is itself free. Virtual cards are free at every tier too — only the number you can hold changes by tier. The card is issued under separate terms provided by an Issuer, so any other charges are governed by those terms rather than by ether.fi.

Custody and funding: who holds the money

You do. ether.fi Cash is a non-custodial, DeFi-native card: your crypto remains in a self-custodial vault under your control, and funds stay there until a payment settles. You can spend two ways — Direct Pay, spending value-accruing stablecoins you already hold, or Borrow Mode, borrowing USDC against crypto collateral such as weETH or eBTC.

Supported deposit and collateral stablecoins include USDC, USDT, EURC and frxUSD, each at 90% LTV, with the contracts running on Optimism. The card works with Apple Pay and Google Pay. One gap to note: the card is issued subject to separate terms by an Issuer that ether.fi does not name, and it is not affiliated with the ether.fi protocol.

Availability: who can actually get it

The card is available to US residents, but not everywhere: it is unsupported in 17 states — Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin — leaving 33 states where you can get it. To sign up you open an ether.fi account online and pass identity and eligibility (KYC) checks; availability varies by region.

A virtual card gives you instant access, while a physical card is ordered separately for everyday spending and shipped. The number of free virtual cards you can hold is tiered: 4 at Luxe, 10 at Pinnacle and 50 at VIP.

Who it is for

Get it if you hold crypto — especially stablecoins like USDC, USDT, EURC or frxUSD — live in one of the 33 supported states, and want to spend or borrow against your assets without selling while keeping self-custody. If your card spending fits the Core $2,000/month 3% cap, the entry tier delivers the headline rate for free.

Skip it if you live in one of the 17 excluded states, want a named bank issuer or a disclosed cashback currency (ether.fi provides neither), or you are not comfortable with vault, collateral and borrow mechanics. Mainstream users who just want a simple cashback card will find this more complex than they need.