ether.fi Cash

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ether.fi Cash scores 13 of 16 on the CBL Card Score. ether.fi, Visa. Self-custodial. Third National, money transmitter, named in the cardholder agreement.

Health Check · checked 28 September 2026

Watch. Non-bank issuer, funds sit in smart contracts, no deposit protection. Large live programme: more than 75,000 active cards as of March 2026 (Rain).

CBL Card Score: 13 of 16

Criterion	Points	What we found	Source
Custody	2 of 2	Self-custodial. Funds stay in the user's own smart-contract account and the card settles from it. Two modes: Direct Pay spends USDC first, then LiquidUSD; Borrow mode borrows against collateral with interest from day one, about 4% APY (third-party). Rain's case study states users retain ownership of their assets at all times (official, Rain).	official checked 28 September 2026
Issuer and licence	1 of 2	Card infrastructure and daily Visa settlement by Rain (official, Rain). ether.fi's own cardholder agreements (US version of 5 February 2026, international versions of 8 September 2026) say the card is issued by Third National under a licence from Visa (official). Third National is the trading name of Nimbus LLC, a US money transmitter, NMLS 2612780 (third-party: cardpilled, 22 Sept 2026; crypto.news, 5 Aug 2026). The legal entity and licence number appear on no ether.fi page.	official checked 28 September 2026
Availability	2 of 2	The help centre lists 90 countries and territories for the physical card, including most EU states, the UK, Switzerland, Norway, the UAE and other Gulf states, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Nigeria; Belgium and Ireland are eligible but get no physical card. US: 30 states plus DC, 20 states excluded (official). USD card; euro support announced as coming (official). ATM use blocked in North Korea, Iran and Myanmar (official).	official checked 28 September 2026
FX fee on a foreign-currency purchase	1 of 2	Core tier: about 1% base rate plus a 0 to 0.5% margin. Luxe: about 1% plus 0 to 0.25%. Pinnacle and VIP: no added margin (official). Scored on Core, the tier a new user gets.	official checked 28 September 2026
Funding cost	1 of 2	Stablecoin top-up on-chain, no platform fee. No annual fee at any tier (official). One virtual card free on Core in most regions; a $10 first-card fee applies in 14 countries, none of them in the EU, UK or Gulf (official). The physical card is not free on Core: one help centre article prices it at $50 (Luxe and Pinnacle $100, with one or two free cards included), another says free with a shipping fee. Metal cards included from Luxe up (official). The $40 refundable deposit reported by cardpilled appears on no official page.	official checked 28 September 2026
Apple Pay and Google Pay	2 of 2	Apple Pay and Google Pay (official, Rain; ether.fi help centre carries an Apple and Google Wallet article).	official checked 28 September 2026
Freeze and dispute policy	2 of 2	Freeze is self-serve in the app and immediate (official). Disputes go through Visa's process via in-app support; a disputed charge must be reported within 60 days of the statement and a dispute can take up to 60 days to complete. The US cardholder agreement adds acknowledgement within 30 days and a decision within 90 days, with liability for unauthorised use capped at $50 (official).	official checked 28 September 2026
Yield on idle balance	2 of 2	In Direct Pay the balance can sit in LiquidUSD, an ether.fi yield vault. Withdrawals can be requested at any time, run through a queue of up to 3 days (7 for the Liquid USD RWA vault) and carry a discount of about 1 basis point; no lock-up and no paid tier (official, ether.fi docs and help centre).	official checked 28 September 2026

Total 13 of 16. Official means the company's own site, terms or help centre. Third-party means a named review site with its own check date; a third-party fact is reported, not verified, and the score stands until an official source confirms or contradicts it.

Score history

28 September 2026	13 of 16	Funding 2 to 1: the physical card is not free on Core per ether.fi's own help centre ($50, or free plus a shipping fee); the $40 refundable deposit was a third-party claim. Freeze and dispute 1 to 2: 60-day dispute window and up to 60 days to resolve, from the help centre and the cardholder agreement. Yield 1 to 2: LiquidUSD withdrawals at any time with no lock, from the ether.fi docs.
23 September 2026	12 of 16	First score

Standing

Company	ether.fi
Network	Visa official
Rails	Rain runs the card infrastructure and daily Visa settlement (official, Rain case study). Card issued by Third National under a Visa licence (official, ether.fi cardholder agreements). Third National is the trading name of Nimbus LLC, which Rain's privacy policy lists among the affiliates of Signify Holdings, Inc., the company operating as Rain (official, Rain privacy policy, 16 July 2026). Nimbus LLC is licensed as a money transmitter by the Commissioner of Financial Institutions of Puerto Rico, NMLS 2612780 (official, Third National site, checked 30 Sept 2026).
Card spend, August 2026	$109.5M, tracked onchain by Paymentscan (third-party). Not part of the Card Score.
Website	www.ether.fi/personal
Health tag	Watch Non-bank issuer, funds sit in smart contracts, no deposit protection. Large live programme: more than 75,000 active cards as of March 2026 (Rain).
Last checked	28 September 2026

When it goes wrong

Freeze is self-serve in the app and immediate (official). Disputes go through Visa's process via in-app support; a disputed charge must be reported within 60 days of the statement and a dispute can take up to 60 days to complete. The US cardholder agreement adds acknowledgement within 30 days and a decision within 90 days, with liability for unauthorised use capped at $50 (official).

The dispute route, in order: the company's own support desk, then the card network's chargeback rules, then the regulator of the issuer where one is named. A frozen card is a question, not a verdict: the Frozen Account Survival Kit applies to cards too.

Costs

FX	Core tier: about 1% base rate plus a 0 to 0.5% margin. Luxe: about 1% plus 0 to 0.25%. Pinnacle and VIP: no added margin (official). Scored on Core, the tier a new user gets. official
Funding	Stablecoin top-up on-chain, no platform fee. No annual fee at any tier (official). One virtual card free on Core in most regions; a $10 first-card fee applies in 14 countries, none of them in the EU, UK or Gulf (official). The physical card is not free on Core: one help centre article prices it at $50 (Luxe and Pinnacle $100, with one or two free cards included), another says free with a shipping fee. Metal cards included from Luxe up (official). The $40 refundable deposit reported by cardpilled appears on no official page. official
ATM	$1,000 per withdrawal, at most five in any rolling 24 hours, $5,000 total (official). 2% fee (third-party). Free, up to 10 withdrawals a month, for Pinnacle and VIP (official).
Tiers	Core free. Luxe: 5,000 membership points, or a $15,000 Liquid deposit, or 30,000 ETHFI staked, or $199 a year. Pinnacle: 25,000 points, or $100,000 Liquid, or 150,000 ETHFI, or $999 a year. VIP: $500,000 Liquid or 500,000 ETHFI (official, help centre article updated 15 Sept 2026).

Cashback, as of 28 Sept 2026

3% on the first $2,000 of monthly spend at Core, then 1% to $3,000 and 0.5% above; Luxe 3% to $10,000 and Pinnacle 3% to $50,000, stepping down the same way; VIP 4% on the first $50,000. Paid in ETHFI with a 7-day lock, $5 minimum to claim (official). The overall $1,000 monthly cap reported by cardpilled appears on no official page; the programme terms let ether.fi cap monthly rewards at its discretion.

Cashback is a dated fact, not part of the Card Score. Promo rates change too often to score.

Availability

The help centre lists 90 countries and territories for the physical card, including most EU states, the UK, Switzerland, Norway, the UAE and other Gulf states, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Nigeria; Belgium and Ireland are eligible but get no physical card. US: 30 states plus DC, 20 states excluded (official). USD card; euro support announced as coming (official). ATM use blocked in North Korea, Iran and Myanmar (official). official

Identity checks: Identity verification required.

What we still need confirmed

Facts marked official come from ether.fi's own pages or terms. Facts marked third-party are reported by a named review site and count as reported, not verified. These items are open for the next Monday sweep:

The legal entity and licence behind Third National (Nimbus LLC, NMLS 2612780) on an ether.fi page open
Which physical card fee page is current: $50 on Core, or free plus shipping open
ATM fee (2%) on an official page open
FX on euro purchases: reported at 0% markup by a third party. Check the official fees article and rescore FX if confirmed. open

Sources

Paymentscan, EtherFi card page third-party · checked 29 September 2026

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