Visa, the card network that processes payments for banks worldwide, is moving to stop meme coin purchases from being coded as ordinary digital media transactions. Meme coins are cryptocurrencies created as jokes or internet fads rather than as serious financial products. Because those buys were being labeled as digital media, cardholders could earn the same points and cashback rewards they would get from normal spending, according to reporting from Decrypt.
The change follows an investigation by The Block into meme coin sales powered by Crossmint, a crypto payments firm. Those sales are still live on both apps involved, but Visa's grace period allowing the practice is expected to end next week, per the report. Once it does, purchases routed through that path would no longer qualify for the everyday rewards treatment.
The move lands in a wider fight over how crypto fits into the banking system. Banks recently lost their push for tighter rules on stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies pegged to a steady value like the dollar, when the Clarity Act failed. JP Morgan, the largest bank in the United States, scored what Decrypt described as a narrower win as Visa acted on the rewards coding.
Credit card rewards are funded by the fees merchants pay on every swipe. When speculative crypto buys quietly earn the same points as groceries or gas, the cost gets spread across the whole system, and card networks decide who pays. Visa's move signals that big payment players are drawing lines around which crypto activity gets the perks of mainstream spending.
The loophole may be smaller than the attention suggests. The Crossmint-powered sales remain live on both apps even now, and the fix is a coding tweak on a single path rather than a broad crackdown on crypto rewards. Banks also just lost their larger battle over stablecoin rules, so this narrower win does little to change the overall trajectory of crypto moving deeper into everyday payments.