Kraken’s Cash-Back Debit Card Targets Consumer Wallets

Crypto exchange Kraken is launching a U.S. debit card offering cash or bitcoin rewards, seeking a larger share of consumers’ financial activity as digital assets become more embedded in mainstream financial products.

The Krak Card offers up to 2% cash or bitcoin back, with rewards increasing based on the value of assets held by a customer. Rewards are paid directly as money rather than points, Kraken said.

The card allows customers to spend from more than 600 currencies and crypto assets, automatically converting selected balances into dollars at the point of purchase. Users can set the order in which their assets are spent and split a single purchase across multiple balances.

The move puts Kraken in competition with payments and fintech companies including Block’s Cash App, PayPal’s Venmo, SoFi, Robinhood and Chime as financial technology firms seek to become the primary platforms through which consumers manage their money.

The opportunity for Kraken extends beyond interchange fees generated from card transactions. The exchange offers the card through a partner bank that issues the card and is subject to U.S. limits on debit card interchange fees, constraining the transaction revenue available to fund rewards.

Kraken is instead seeking to deepen its relationship with customers by retaining deposits, driving spending and keeping more customer assets on its platform.

“People have lost trust in how the financial system treats them, in the rates they’re paid, the fees they’re charged, and how rewards actually work. They’re right to,” Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Kraken parent Payward, said in a statement.

Kraken said the card was developed in response to concerns about the financial products available to U.S. consumers. A national survey of more than 2,000 U.S. adults commissioned by Krak found that 63% of respondents said they felt financially behind, while 60% said they would switch to a debit card offering meaningful rewards without requiring them to take on debt.

“For decades the system has run on a quiet subsidy: ordinary people’s deposits, fees, and spending fund the returns, and those returns rarely flow back to them. The old deal was simple: if you wanted rewards, you had to take on debt to get them. That deal is over,” Sethi said. “The Krak Card turns whatever people choose to hold into money they can spend anywhere, and pays the value back as cash, not points.”

Founded in 2011, Kraken has historically focused on crypto-native customers, including institutions, trading firms, professional traders and active leverage traders. The company is seeking to broaden its customer base with features including agentic trading capabilities in its redesigned app.

Kraken’s launch comes as the crypto industry shifts beyond speculative trading toward products such as tokenized stocks, commodities, initial public offerings and digital dollars.

The exchange offers spot and derivatives trading, institutional custody and tokenized equities. It also has a Wyoming bank charter and earlier this year became the first crypto company to secure a Federal Reserve master account, allowing its banking subsidiary to connect directly to U.S. payment rails.

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