Good
- Free physical card, shipping from $24.99 in the US
- Spends USDC directly, with Apple Pay and Google Pay
- Up to 5 points per $1 on purchases of $2,500 or more
- Available in the US, except 17 states
Watch out
- $20 a year membership and no cashback
- Points have no published cash value
- $0.15 on every domestic payment
- Not available in the UK, most of the EU, Canada or Australia
Solayer Card is a Visa card that spends USDC from a Solayer Pay account. Membership costs $20 a year and the physical card is free apart from shipping. Solayer Card pays no cashback, but card spending earns Solayer Card Points, and Solayer hasn't said what a point is worth.
The card is built on Solayer Chain, Solayer's own blockchain, and works with Apple Pay and Google Pay. You can hold a virtual and a physical card at the same time, both drawing on the same balance, with up to 10 cards per account.
Solayer Card cashback
Solayer Card pays no cashback on its single Solayer Pay plan; purchases earn Solayer Card Points, and those points have no published cash value.
Points scale with the size of each purchase. A payment under $100 earns 1 point per dollar, $100 to $499 earns 2, $500 to $2,499 earns 3, and $2,500 or more earns 5. A single $600 purchase earns 1,800 points, while six $100 purchases earn 1,200.
Solayer's docs say points "will soon be redeemable" for partner perks, future airdrops and other utilities, and link them to future LAYER tokens. None of that has a price attached today. If you refer someone, you get 10% of the points they earn, with no end date.
The points are a speculative extra, so anyone who wants a fixed return on spending gets nothing back from Solayer Card.
Solayer Card fees
Solayer Card costs $20 a year in membership and charges $0.15 on every domestic card payment.
The flat $0.15 matters most on small purchases. On a $5 coffee it's 3% of the bill, on a $50 dinner it's 0.3%. Card spending itself is in US dollars, and Solayer uses Visa's exchange rate for other currencies.
The physical card is free, and express shipping costs $24.99 in the US (2 to 5 days) and $59.99 internationally (5 to 11 days). Cards deactivate after 6 months without use, and cancelling a card doesn't free up one of the 10 slots on your account.
Solayer Card ATM withdrawal fees
Solayer Card lets you withdraw cash with the physical card at most Visa ATMs, but Solayer doesn't publish an ATM fee of its own.
Each withdrawal is capped at $250, and you get three attempts in 24 hours, so $750 a day is the most you can take out. The FAQ says local ATM fees apply, which means the machine's owner can add a charge. The virtual card can't be used at ATMs.
Without a published Solayer fee, you can't price a withdrawal in full before you make it, so a card with a stated ATM fee is easier to plan around if you need cash often.
Is Solayer Card safe?
Solayer Card runs on what Solayer calls a non-custodial and fully on-chain account, built on its own Solayer Chain.
Solayer's security page describes a split setup: hot wallets hold a small operating balance for card payments, and most assets sit in offline cold storage protected by multi-signature controls. The page doesn't say who holds those signing keys. Solayer also lists real-time monitoring and circuit breakers that freeze suspicious activity.
Solayer doesn't name the bank or company that issues the Visa card. The FAQ says personal data is handled under "the card provider's privacy policy", and identity checks take 3 to 5 business days. Customer support runs through Solayer's Discord channel, and Solayer lists no phone or email line.
Who should get Solayer Card
Solayer Card suits people who already hold USDC on Solana, live in an eligible country, and want a card that spends it through Apple Pay or Google Pay.
It's also a fit if you're collecting Solayer Card Points on purpose. Large single purchases earn the most: a $2,500 payment earns 12,500 points, five times the rate of small purchases.
For anyone who wants a return on everyday spending, the numbers don't work. You pay $20 a year and $0.15 per payment, and you get points with no stated value. A free card with even 1% cashback would pay back more on $200 a month of spending. The comparison below shows the alternatives in your country.
Where Solayer Card is available
Solayer Card is available in the US, except 17 states, and in much of Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia, but not in the UK, most of the EU, Canada or Australia.
The excluded US states are Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin. Solayer's eligibility page says residents or citizens of a restricted country can't sign up, wherever they currently live. You must be 18 or older and pass an ID check.