Ether.fi Cash Card Review: 2026 Bitcoin Rewards & Fees

A spending card from ether.fi with two modes. Direct Pay spends stablecoins outright; Borrow Mode borrows against eligible crypto held in a connected non-custodial vault, so a purchase draws on a collateralised line rather than selling the asset. Cashback of up to 3% applies across membership tiers, each with its own monthly cap on eligible spend.

Up to 3% cashback, with the monthly spend eligible for it set by membership tier: $2,000 on Core, $10,000 on Luxe and $50,000 on Pinnacle, with a further VIP tier. Tiers unlock through Membership Points earned by spending, at 3,000 points per $1,000 spent, and not by staking.

• Borrow Mode spends against collateral rather than selling it, so a purchase is not a disposal
• Up to 3% cashback, available on every tier rather than gated to the top one
• Collateral sits in a non-custodial vault rather than with a custodian
• Membership tiers are earned by spending, at 3,000 points per $1,000, not by staking a token

• The borrow rate, maximum LTV and liquidation threshold are not published on the product page and are deliberately not recorded here rather than taken from secondary sources
• The card network and the list of US states served are likewise not stated on the product page

• ⚠ Borrow Mode is a collateralised loan, so a fall in the collateral price can trigger liquidation in the same way as any Bitcoin-backed loan
• ⚠ Loan-to-value and the liquidation threshold are set per asset at the protocol level and are not published as fixed figures, so they must be checked in the app before drawing
• ⚠ Collateral is held by smart contracts, which carries contract risk that a custodian model does not

Borrowing against crypto rather than selling it is generally not a disposal, so a purchase made in Borrow Mode does not itself create a capital gain. A forced liquidation of the collateral is a disposal and can be taxable. Direct Pay spends stablecoins, which is a disposal but typically at little or no gain. This is general information, not tax advice.

Bitcoin and crypto cards have tax consequences that ordinary cash-back cards do not. There is no IRS guidance directly addressing Bitcoin credit-card rewards: in practice, rewards you earn by spending are widely treated the same as a cash-back rebate, not taxable when received, with the Bitcoin taking a cost basis so that a later sale is taxable. Treatment can differ for rewards that are not tied to spending. Spending crypto with a debit or spend card is different: each purchase is a disposal that triggers a capital gain or loss versus your cost basis, which can make frequent crypto spending a real cost and a record-keeping burden. From the 2026 tax year, US exchanges report user gains and losses to the IRS on Form 1099-DA. This is general information, not tax advice; consult a qualified tax professional about your situation.