ether.fi (ETHFI)

Crypto cards have successfully solved spending, but privacy is emerging as the next competitive battleground. For the last two years, the market competed on cashback, yield, UX, and self-custody, but the @ether_fi incident exposed a new challenge: protecting user financial data. Here's what's actually happening: — ● Crypto Cards Have Officially Reached Product-Market Fit Crypto cards have evolved from a niche experiment into a legitimate payment category, with monthly spending volume growing from roughly $100M in early 2023 to more than $1.5B by late 2025. • Cashback rewards • Yield-bearing balances • Higher spending limits • Geographic expansion • Better user experience Over the last two years, competition has centered around making stablecoin payments feel as seamless as traditional fintech and neobank experiences. Today, the category generates more than $18B in annualized spending volume, showing that the industry has largely solved the "Can people spend crypto?" problem. — ● The Conversation Around Crypto Cards Is Changing As the sector matures, users are no longer asking whether they can spend crypto, but what they sacrifice every time they do. • Phase 1 (2024–2025): "Can I spend crypto anywhere?" • Phase 2 (2025–2026): "How much cashback do I get?" • Phase 3 (Emerging): "What information do I leak every time I spend?" This shift reflects a broader realization that what works for DeFi does not necessarily work for consumer payments. — ● The Hidden Tradeoff Behind Self-Custodial Payments Users thought they were getting self-custody and financial freedom, but often received self-custody and radical transparency. The debate is shifting from custodial vs self-custodial to public vs private settlement, and ultimately from wallet ownership to data ownership. — ● Two Competing Design Philosophies Are Emerging As the market shifts toward privacy, crypto payments are beginning to split into transparency-first and privacy-first settlement models. • Transparency-First Most existing card infrastructure is built around public ledgers, where transactions remain auditable, verifiable, and visible on-chain. This model is represented by @RedotPay, @KASTxyz, @ether_fi, @useTria, @gnosispay, @ready_co, @Solayer_Pay, @raincards, and other cards built on public settlement rails. • Privacy-First A newer category is emerging around private-by-default payments and selective disclosure. Projects exploring this direction include @payy_link, @BleapApp, @cryptoBingCard, @LasoFinance, @offgridcash, @sat_pay, @pintopay_me, and @Haven_Hn_. — ● The Market Is Starting To Price Privacy If this trend continues, capital may increasingly flow toward privacy infrastructure, ZK payments, and alternative settlement rails. • Privacy Infrastructure: Projects building confidential transactions, identity abstraction, and private settlement layers. • ZK-Based Payments: Projects using zero-knowledge proofs, selective disclosure, and confidential accounting. • Alternative Settlement Rails: @LightLinkChain, @aztecnetwork, @hinkal_protocol, @0xprivacypools, and @Starknet privacy initiatives. AI has dramatically reduced the cost of wallet clustering, identity discovery, and behavioral analysis, accelerating this shift. — Today, crypto cards compete on rewards, yield, availability, and fees; tomorrow, they may compete on privacy and identity protection. Users are beginning to evaluate not just what they earn, but what they reveal. Crypto payments have largely solved accessibility and rewards; the next battleground is infrastructure that combines self-custody, compliance, and privacy.

The new #1 crypto card tier list, you don't need another one SS @Plasma 1 as an emerging giant with one of the better UI and nice cashback options, 3% and 1% from your referrals. @RedotPay obviously the market leader with the most spend volume by far. S @KASTxyz very professional app and @ether_fi with also a nice number of spending volume. Other categories are as below. BUT if you just want to spend your crypto tbh any card will work just fine.

The gap that @RedotPay is making against the other cards is insane, ngl. Using total addresses from @PaymentScan as a rough cardholder proxy ↓ @RedotPay | 931,660 @KASTxyz | 83,164 BFinance | 81,479 @ether_fi | 78,737 @BitgetWallet | 65,625 @SafePal | 40,971 @gnosispay | 32,752 @Cypher_HQ_ | 23,537 @MetaMask | 23,180 @TheAvaxCard | 17,620 @useTria | 17,250 @ready_co | 13,201 @solayer_labs | 8,088 @AviciMoney | 7,301 @phantom | 5,718 @holyheld | 4,835 @Exa_App | 3,686 @Plasma | 2,160 RedotPay has been live longer, supports top-ups across way more chains, and already has global distribution. That's the moat.

Crypto Cards Weekly Digest: May 25-31 Volume: RedotPay: $99.12 million KAST: $22.49 million EtherFi: $17.57 million Karta: $8.35 million Tria: $6.28 million Kolo: $2.84 million Plasma One: $963.4K Other: $2.74 million Total: 170.4 million (-0.5% WoW) Transactions: EtherFi: 224,751 RedotPay: 124,417 Bitget Wallet: 103,251 Gnosis: 49,674 Safepal: 40,849 BFinance: 32,024 Plasma One: 5,832 Other: 104,205 Total: 685,003 (+15.8% WoW) Users: RedotPay: 70,449 EtherFi: 22,151 Bitget Wallet: 16,096 BFinance: 9,372 KAST: 8,103 Tria: 6,989 Plasma One: 1,949 Other: 26,444 Total: 161,553 (+7.7% WoW) Interesting stats: The volume stayed near ATH levels, barely down from $171.3 million to $170.4 million. Transactions had a huge rebound, jumping from 591,722 to 685,003, an almost record-breaking jump. @ether_fi hit another transaction ATH with 224,751 weekly transactions.

🚨 THIS IS NOT THE END. THIS IS COMPRESSION BEFORE THE MOVE. ethereum:0xfe0c30065b384f05761f15d0cc899d4f9f9cc0eb MACRO ANALYSIS! ethereum:0xfe0c30065b384f05761f15d0cc899d4f9f9cc0eb, like most ethereum:native ecosystem assets (L2, restaking, hybrid models), is in a deep correction phase. This is not an individual weakness of the token — it is a reflection of ethereum:native itself, which still cannot stabilize and is repeatedly facing heavy selling pressure. What does this mean? Is ethereum:native dead? Is it no longer needed by anyone? No. ethereum:native is not dead and remains a core asset of the ecosystem. Nearly $17B of capital is concentrated in it, and it remains the base layer for capital migration into RWA and new financial models. But the market does not price the long term. It reacts to liquidity and capital flow here and now. 📉 STRUCTURE OF ethereum:0xfe0c30065b384f05761f15d0cc899d4f9f9cc0eb The asset is trading in a descending channel. After October 10, the bullish structure was broken. Price dropped below the $0.82 support — a key level. However, ethereum:0xfe0c30065b384f05761f15d0cc899d4f9f9cc0eb is still holding the midline of the descending trend and has been stuck there for about 5 months. 📊 TECHNICAL PICTURE On the weekly timeframe, RSI is forming a bullish divergence: each new price low is accompanied by a higher low in RSI. 🟢 BULLISH SCENARIO Reclaim and hold above $0.82 → accumulation → structural shift → impulsive expansion upward 🔴 BEARISH SCENARIO Breakdown of the descending channel midline → move toward historical lows → $0.08–$0.10 extreme range ⚙️ FUNDAMENTALS ethereum:0xfe0c30065b384f05761f15d0cc899d4f9f9cc0eb and $LDO are fully unlocked in terms of emissions → unlock-related supply pressure is no longer dominant → market structure is becoming cleaner 📌 KEY LEVEL $0.82 — main trigger. Reclaiming it will change market structure. Once this level is reclaimed — acceleration phase begins. My portfolio: $TEL $TIA $APT $AVAX ethereum:0xfe0c30065b384f05761f15d0cc899d4f9f9cc0eb $LDO $OP ethereum:native $ONDO $ENA $MANTA $ALGO $ZK $XNO #BTC #Bitcoin #ETH #Ethereum #Crypto #Altcoins #BullRun #Trading #AltSeason #DeFi #Blockchain

Crypto Cards are growing like a hockey stick. Monthly card volume hit an all-time high in May at $752M, marking the third consecutive month of growth. The top 6 crypto cards by May Volume are: 1. @RedotPay - $445.4M 2. @KASTxyz - $93.9M 3. @ether_fi - $80.4M 4. @Karta_Personal - $34.3M 5. @useTria - $22.9M, highest MoM growth out of the set. 6. @gnosispay - $10.2M Increasingly interested in the growth of neobanks, and will be diving deep into the sector and sharing my thoughts. If you care about where stablecoins are meeting everyday spend, this is one of the most important charts for you to follow.

Crypto Cards Compared The crypto card category is heating up, and these four lead the pack by real on-chain activity - not self-reported numbers. Cumulative on-chain volume across all tracked crypto cards sits at $7.78B as of May 2026 - most of it processed in just the last year. RedotPay is in a league of its own on volume - $5.56B cumulative, 11x its nearest rival. EtherFi has the lowest volume of the big names but the most transactions (842K/month), proving it's winning the everyday-spending fight. Inspired by 🔗@stacy_muur