Spend your Cypto anywhere! - The KAST Card

In this article you will learn that there are options to spend your crypto anywhere VISA is accepted. As an example I will be reviewing the KAST Card.

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Once upon a time the dream was to pay with crypto in everyday life. With the increasing merge between the innovative tail of traditional finance and crypto, this dream has become more tangible over the years. Recently, I stumbled upon the KAST card, which peaked my interest. KAST is a fintech company, which collaborates with VISA card issuers and banks to make stablecoin payments in stores a reality. This means you can not only save in stablecoins (as you can read here), but also spend them anywhere VISA is accepted. This is huge, especially for people who have invested in crypto or earn in crypto and don’t want to go back through the antiquated banking system, people that don’t have access to the banking system in the first place, or people that want to spend their money internationally.
Since I am a digitial nomad who officially resides in Paraguay, most “traditional Exchange“ crypto cards (like Binance, Kucoin etc.) and international bank services are not available to me. Today I am going to present the KAST card as a potential solution to this problem and will analyse competitor cards over the next weeks, to find the best crypto card out there.

Availability + Sign-up process

Although I was not able to find a specific list of (non-)eligible countries, it seems that the card is very accessible. In their Telegram chat, you can find a very international audience, which speaks lots of different languages.

The process to get your cards is straightforward. First, you have to download the Kast App. Then you have to complete the know-your-customer (KYC) process. In contrast to other crypto debit cards like Gnosis, Crypto.com, Binance, etc., the KYC process is easy and super fast. I was able to verify myself with my driver's license from Paraguay, even though I am just a resident of this country and not a citizen. Also, you do NOT have to provide proof of address which is very convenient for digital nomads.

In case you want to obtain a physical card you will have to provide a shipping address. It is worth mentioning that you don’t necessarily need a physical card, as you can integrate the virtual card into your Apple- and Google Pay. You do need a physical card, if you want to withdraw cash from ATMs that require you to put in a physical card or if you live in an area where merchants don’t have or allow contactless payment terminals.

My documents were approved almost instantly after the submission which allowed me to order one of their available cards.

Card Options

Kast is offering a lot of card options, which can make choosing the right one a bit overwhelming. So, let’s go through them one by one, and examine their price points & perks to see which card might be the best fit for you.

Virtual Cards

The picture below shows their two options for virtual cards.

The virtual K card & Solana card have the same price points. They offer the initial first three months for free after which they will cost 20$ a month. If you spend over 1000$ within the first three months, the 20$ monthly fee is waived for one year (12 months).

Also, both offer the same Cash-back program, which is initially divided into 5 seasons:

Season 1: 6% Cash-back in points per Dollar spent (until the end of January 2025)

Season 2: 5% Cash-back in points per Dollar spent (until the end of April 2025)

Season 3: 4% Cash-back in points per Dollar spent (until the end of July 2025)

Season 4: 3% Cash-back in points per Dollar spent (until the end of November 2025)

Season 5: 2% Cash-back in points per Dollar spent (Timeline: TBA)

Important: Points will only be convertible to tokens after the Token Generation Event (TGE), I will talk about the points program in detail in the “Tokenincentives and Cash-back” section.

The only difference between the K- & Solana Card is an additional incentive program for the Solana Card. If you stake your Solana Tokens (SOL) to the KAST validator 100% of the validator profits are passed on to you as a staker. In addition, each SOL staked to the KAST validator accrued 1 point per staked SOL per Epoch (~7% APY*) until December 2024. In the current season, 0.5 points per staked SOL per Epoch (~3.5% APY*) are distributed among stakers.

*APYs stated in the KAST app

Physical Cards

The picture below shows all options of physical cards by default (no special invite codes).

The physical version of the K & Solana Cards costs 100$ upfront. The first three months are free of use after which the card costs 20$ a month. Like in their virtual version, you won’t pay a monthly fee for 12 months if you spend more than 1000$ within the first three months of activating the card. The X- & Solana Illuma cards have a fee of 1000$ per year. The founder's edition of the X card has a one-time fee of 5000$ and the Solana Gold card has a one-time fee of 10.000$.

The Cash-Back Tiers work as follows

K & Solana Card

Season 1: 6% Cash-back in points per Dollar spent (until end of January 2025)

Season 2: 5% Cash-back in points per Dollar spent (until end of April 2025)

Season 3: 4% Cash-back in points per Dollar spent (until end of July 2025)

Season 4: 3% Cash-back in points per Dollar spent (until end of November 2025)

Season 5: 2% Cash-back in points per Dollar spent (Timeline: TBA)

X (Founders Edition) & Solana Illuma Card

Season 1: 12% Cash-back in points per Dollar spent (until end of January 2025)

Season 2: 10% Cash-back in points per Dollar spent (until end of April 2025)

Season 3: 8% Cash-back in points per Dollar spent (until end of July 2025)

Season 4: 6% Cash-back in points per Dollar spent (until end of November 2025)

Season 5: 5% Cash-back in points per Dollar spent (Timeline: TBA)

Solana Gold & Solid Gold (invite only)

Season 1: 18% Cash-back in points per Dollar spent (until end of January 2025)

Season 2: 15% Cash-back in points per Dollar spent (until end of April 2025)

Season 3: 12% Cash-back in points per Dollar spent (until end of July 2025)

Season 4: 10% Cash-back in points per Dollar spent (until end of November 2025)

Season 5: 8% Cash-back in points per Dollar spent (Timeline: TBA)

The Staking Incentives work as follows

Solana Illuma

• 2 points per staked SOL (~14% APY*) until Dec. 2024.

• 1 point per staked SOL (~7%APY*) until end of Feb/March 2025

Solana Gold/Solid Gold

• 3 Points per staked SOL (~21% APY*) until Dec. 2024

• 2 Points per staked SOL (~14% APY*) until Feb/March 2025

• *APYs stated in the KAST app

We will dive into opportunities and risks regarding the cash-back and additional incentives program later. For now, let’s have a look at the custody structure & network/currency options.

Network and Currency Options & Custody Structure

KAST specializes in stablecoin (synthetic Dollars on-chain) payments and as such you can exclusively receive and spend stablecoins in the application.

The network and currency options are the following:

Ethereum: USDT, USDC, USDe, PYUSD & RLUSD

Polygon: USDT & USDC

TRON: USDT

Solana: USDT, USDC, PYUSD

The Kast app is not a self-hosted wallet you own the private keys to. This has the advantage that you don’t have to deal with a seed phrase, which you have to store securely and you can recover your account/money conveniently through an email verification. This resembles closer to a traditional fintech app, which is less of a hurdle for people who are not experienced in the crypto space. On the other hand, it lets you have less control over your money, meaning you are beholden to the security & custody structure of KAST and any arbitrary rules/anti-money laundering (AML) requirements they might impose on you at any time. If you are not willing to comply they might freeze your funds until you provide the necessary information.

Fees & Limits

The fees and limits for the individual card types are shown in the picture.

We already talked about the Cash-back & staking programs and the initial/yearly fees for each card.

The deposit fee is free and no fees are charged for USD transactions. The 2% forex fee on non-USD transactions may be competitive with traditional finance services, but for Crypto transactions, it seems high. The ATM withdrawal fee of 3$ + 2% can not yet really compete with Fintech companies like Revolut and Wise, especially if one withdraws in a non-USD currency with 3$ +4% (2% FX fee + 2% withdrawal fee). These fees are on the same level as the standard plan of their direct competitor CypherHQ, another crypto debit card I analyzed here. The Premium plan (199$/year) of CypherHQ has slightly lower fees (~1% FX fees), includes a metal card, and has an incentive program, as well. I will do an extensive market comparison of crypto debit cards in a future article be sure to subscribe and not miss out!

Where the KAST Card can shine is on its limits. There are no monthly limits on card transactions, and individual transactions can be up to 100.000$ or even higher if you contact their support. Also, the ATM withdrawals are in their league with a 20.000$ daily limit and 100.000$ monthly.

Token Incentives, Cash-back & Referrals

We have listed the Cash-back and (SOL) staking incentives in the individual card sections. The KAST incentive structure is clearly communicated and more transparent than other crypto debit cards in their bootstrapping phase. That being said it is crucial to examine thoroughly to get an idea of the chances and risks of the program.

The reward structure heavily skewed towards early users:

Phase 1 earn: Season 0 to Season 5 / TGE = 10-25% of FDV

Phase 2 earn: Post TGE seasons will target 2-5% of FDV

Each season Post-TGE will have 10-25% less points

Until points are exhausted past 2030

Points bought by KAST’s Ecosystem & Treasury, maybe released to community post-2030

As points become harder and harder to obtain over time, it ensures the early users are rewarded the greatest. The final unlock mechanism for earnt tokens, will be determined near TGE.

This means rewards until TGE (end of the year) will be approximately 5X higher than after. I referred to rewards as points in the sections above. At TGE 1 Point will be convertible to 1 Token (N Points = N Token).

Are you earning “Cash-Backs"?

How much is a point (token) worth? Well here it gets a little tricky, so bear with me.

Up until TGE, the value of the points is determined by KAST:

As of Season 0, we’ve pegged each point at a notional value of up to $0.03 USD per point. This presumes an FDV of $300M.

When Season 1 starts, each point will increase in notional value up to $0.05 and the FDV will be $500M

When Season 2 starts, each point will increase in notional value up to $0.08-0.10 and the FDV will be $800M-$1B.

We expect to keep increasing the notional value of points and FDV. By the way, we don’t make these up, they move in line with valuations by a third-party and/or investors.

In short, KAST is asking some people (“Third parties and/or investors”) after each season: “What valuation are you giving us?” and their responses determine the KAST points (token) price. To let my highly educated readers come to their conclusions about this method, I will leave this poll for you to answer:

To be fair, they mention in another part of their incentive program that the token price will be based on “demand factors”. Also, they mention the countries that may be able to participate in the program:

Before the TGE (expected 2025), we may reprice the notional conversion value or a point. For example, it may change from $0.03 to $0.05-$0.20. This will be based on demand factors for the token, and should allow for early token earners to see token appreciation even ahead of TGE [this example is only to illustrate the mechanism].

The program may not be available to US citizens, US residents, residents of North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Syria, and Sudan.

To give you an example

You get the virtual Solana Card now. You still have one month left in Season 2, until the end of April. In Season 2, you will get 5% Cash-back on every purchase. You spend 1000$ over the card to not pay monthly fees for 12 months. You will get 50$ in Cash-Back, which equates to 1000 points at 0,05$ per token (Their current valuation according to their App). At the beginning of May Season 3 is going to start, let’s say KAST is going raise their equity (point) value by 20%. Your 50$ in Cash-back will increase by 20%, now you have 60$ in Cash-back. For the next 3 months you continue spending 1000$ each month with 4% Cash-back. Through your KAST card spendings, you have acquired an additional 2000 points with a point value of 0,06ct which equates to 120$ in Cash-back. If you add the 60$ Cash-back rewards from your first month you have a total of 180$ in Cash-back at the end of July.

In season 4, KAST is raising the points value again by 20%. You now have 3000 points with a value of 216$. You spent 4000$ in four months and got 216$ in Cash-back, which is 5.4%! Sounds great, right? Right?… Well, the problem is you can not sell these points until you can convert them into tokens and KAST makes them tradable. Once the token is tradable the price will be determined by market forces and not private valuations, so depending on the market sentiment there is a decent chance that you either make even more profits on your Cash-back or have to sell these tokens at a lower price point than you initially thought.

In addition to potential market volatility you won’t be able to convert all of your “cash-back” in Dollars right after the Token Generation Event, as you can read on their website:

The primary reason to have a points system is to reward the community for long term support of KAST and our global mission. We are thinking outside the box in aligning rewards to community support.

We expect to offer points holders two options at Token Generation Event (TGE):

a. Convert points to tokens immediately, but forego 50% of points
b. Convert 25% immediately, and the rest of the points convert monthly over 24 months

The final details have still to be determined but as it stands right now, you will only be able to sell 25% of your Cash-backs (tokens) without being penalized.

What can I do with the token, if I can only convert a small part into Dollars?

The short answer is, that we don’t know yet, as of their Airdrop section on their webpage. They mention token locks which will bring additional utility and a buyback program, but nothing concrete:

Tokenomics are designed so tokens are locked for utility; and a widening base of platform fees, results in a greater dollar amount of buy back vs a backdrop of a reducing unlock of tokens.

The buy back program, sees tokens bought on the open market using revenues of KAST. But the tokens will then be held within the KAST treasury with the aim of supporting the tokens long term price sustainability and supporting the community.

It is worth mentioning that finding utility for token locks is fairly easy in such a business model, for example, the more tokens you lock, the higher Cash-backs you earn, discounts on FX fees, higher card tiers, etc. This means, in reality, you are not earning “Cash-backs” for your card purchases, as they are known in the traditional sense. What you are getting is token equity in the company. This is especially true if you are spending over the card now, since you won’t be able to convert any rewards until the token is launched and even then it will likely be limited to 25% of your token value. After the token launch, you will earn “real” cash back when KAST allows immediate conversion into other currencies.

If you want to stay up to date on the incentive program you can follow KAST on X. As you can see in this tweet, they have an additional incentive campaign running until the end of April:

Referrals

KAST offers an extensive referral program.

For one referral

• You will earn 1000 points (50$**) if a friend signs up over your link and spends more than 100$ on their K/Solana Card.

• You will earn 20.000 points (1000$**) if a friend signs up over your link and buys a premium card.

Signing up over a referral link, you will get

• 500 Points (25$**) after completing KYC

• 20% rebate off any paid card

Also

• you will earn 20.000 points (1000$*) if you buy your premium card

• 500 points (25$**) for your 5th card transaction

• 1000 points (50$**) for spending 1000$+ & 20 transactions

**Dollar values are based on the current token valuation of 0,05$

You can sign up via my referral link here.

Which Card is the best for me?

This highly depends on your financial situation, your ability to generate referrals, and your belief in the (long-term) success of KAST, since the most important variable here is the price of the token. I will briefly talk about each card tier and my assumptions and risk/reward profile. In the end, I will provide you with a tool where you can make your assumptions. No matter which card tier you are aiming for, it is always better to get the Solana card, as it has no downsides and offers additional staking incentives.

Solana (K) Card Virtual

This card is for you if you want an easy and convenient way to spend your crypto and not care about anything else. This is especially true if you live/spend mostly in a country that has the USD as its official currency since you won’t pay any foreign exchange (FX) fees and the card itself is also free if you spend over 1000$ in the first three months.

I will always include FX fees by default in my calculations and deduct them from the token incentives that you are getting.

I assumed here that you will spend between 500$-2500$ over this card per month. I also assumed that the token price will be between 0,003$ and 0,1$ at TGE which will give you between 2,50$-250$ that you can sell instantly at TGE. If you deduct this from the FX fees, you paid between 0.68%-1.95% in fees on your stablecoin spending. If you opt to stake 50 SOL tokens to their staking program the fees will be between 0,28%-1,88%.

This is by far the lowest-risk option with which you can spend your crypto, without thinking too much about the token value. The numbers also don’t change that much if you were to spend say 5000$ over the card you would still be in that range with a reasonable token valuation.

Solana Illuma (X) Card

When you decide to pay 800$ (instead of 1000$ because of my referral link) for the Illmua card, you have to have a positive view on the token in the long-term (at least 2 years), as you are essentially buying KAST tokens worth 1000$ at the current price and the only perks you will get are higher token incentives.

Let’s say you spend 2500$-6000$ with the card with the same valuation assumptions from above. You are paying between 0,73%(good scenario) - 6,35% (bad scenario). As you can see, there is a bit more risk here as you could pay up to 1200$ in fees for a total spent of 20.000$ over 8 months until TGE, not a great deal!

So the conclusion here is, that if your time horizon is TGE at the end of November, the card is not for you. The card pays off, when you spend more than 3500$/month over the card, you have a bullish long-term view on the token price at >0,07$ and stake (500) Solana to the KAST validator. With these assumptions you would have generated 8.257,14$ in token value at TGE, of which you can sell $2.064,29$ instantly to cover FX fees + card fees (1440$), which means you made money until TGE and will profit from perpetually higher future token incentive on card transactions.

Solana Gold

You can get the Solana Gold Card for 8000$ (instead of 10.000$ with my referral). If you don’t need a Gold Card to flex, the only scenario in which the card makes sense is if you have the strong belief that KAST is going to be an established financial player who is going to be around for a long time and/or you have a lot of Solana to that you can stake to the KAST validator. Spending alone won’t make the card worth your while, in fact, if you spent 50.000$ over the card at a TGE token price of 0,1$ per KAST token without staking any SOL, you would still be better off with the Solana Illuma Card which gained you +0,26% if you sell your 25% liquid allocation to cover the FX fees, while the Gold card still cost you -0,28% and the regular virtual card only costs a bit more with -0,83% and a lot less risk.

On the other hand, if you stake 5000 SOL to their validator and spend 10.000$ a month, you would gain almost 30% (+29,76%) on the Gold Card, +18,74% on the Illuma and only +8,58% on the regular card with the same parameters.

So the Gold can be considered if you plan to get your card soon because incentives now are still high, you spend at least 6000$ over the card and/or have at least 2500 SOL to stake over the KAST validator.

If you want to come to your own conclusions, you can use my spread sheet to make assumptions about token valuation, money spent and SOL staked.

Conclusion

Overall the KAST card options are a promising way to spend your stablecoins for everyday products. The sign up process is easy & fast, fees and limits are competitive, the token incentives and referral programs can be attractive, depending on your spending preferences and view on the KAST & SOL token.

It is limiting that you can only spend stablecoins over the card and no other crypto assets. Also, ATM withdrawal fees are high, especially if you withdraw non USD currencies. The fact that you give up custody over your assets, may be an advantage to some, but if you like to be in full control over your money it might bother you.

If you found this article helpful and want to sign up over my referral link, I highly appreciate it:
Sign up via my referral link here.

If you already have signed up, try my Code: “QT6YT8HT” to take advantage of the 20% discount on your premium card.