Visa Moves to Close Meme Coin Credit Card Rewards Loophole
Banks failed to win broader Senate action against stablecoin rewards, but Visa is now closing a loophole that let some crypto purchases earn ordinary credit card rewards. Certain meme coin buys made through Crossmint, including in Robinhood Wallet and Fomo, were being routed under a “digital goods media” merchant code instead of a crypto code. That classification allowed users to earn points or cash back and bypass some crypto-specific processing rules. Chase disputed at least one transaction’s coding and questioned whether rewards were properly earned. Visa has since told processors that the digital goods media code is not appropriate for meme coin purchases and will no longer be accepted for them, giving a short grace period before the practice ends. Going forward, these purchases will need to be processed as crypto transactions, subject to Visa’s standard restrictions, likely ending rewards on those buys.
