##美联储FOMC会议 On June 17, Christine, co-founder of Infini, posted a message on X, officially announcing the cessation of the encrypted USB card business for individual users. She confessed that this business took up 99% of the company's energy, but made almost no money, and also brought a lot of operational and compliance troubles.
This also means that Infini has officially withdrawn from the C-end (individual) market of encrypted payment cards and turned to financial management and B-end (enterprise) services.
But do you still remember that just a year or two ago, U Card was touted as the “payment revolution in the crypto world”:
Supports direct consumption of stablecoins such as USDT and USDC
You can buy things online, subscribe to services, and use ChatGP
No need to bind a traditional bank account
Solved the problem of difficulty in withdrawing funds and making overseas payments
At that time, everyone thought that this was one of the most reliable scenarios for the crypto circle to break out of the circle.
But now, not only Infini has withdrawn, more and more U card projects have collapsed.
Not only Infini, many cards are "offline"
Let’s take a look at some of the cases:
OneKey (2024): Stop new user registrations in September and shut down completely in January 2025
Binance (2023): First it stopped service in Latin America and the Middle East, then it also stopped service in Europe
WaveCrest (2018): Visa directly terminated the cooperation, causing multiple U card service providers to "shut down" instantly
What does this mean? It’s not that a certain company is not doing well in U-card, but that the entire industry is having a hard time doing it.
What is the difficulty of U card? Simple on the surface, but complicated behind the scenes
When users look at the U card, they think it is just a card:
Deposit USDT
Credit card payment
Can pay for ChatGPT, online shopping, etc.
But in fact, there are many roles involved behind this:
User wants to top up → U Card Company wants to convert coins into legal tender
How to get legal currency? It needs to be settled through payment networks (Visa, Mastercard)
Banks, card issuers and technical service providers are also needed to support the operation.
Every link is not controllable by the crypto circle. If there is a problem, the responsibility still lies with the U card project party.
Moreover, all these partners have to share the money - transaction fees, currency conversion fees, account management fees... the profit margins are too thin.
Technically, anyone can post it, but you can’t make money.
Are you also curious why it seems that so many wallets and exchanges can issue U cards?
Because there is now a "card issuance as a service" model:
Projects that want to issue cards can find a technology provider to connect to the API and issue their own brand cards.
For example, Coinbase previously used Marqeta for technical support; Bybit and Bitget also have their own cards, but there are also middlemen assisting behind the scenes.
So now many U card projects look like "independent brands", but in fact they are made up of technology outsourcing + cooperative banks + payment channels.
Each floor has to extract money, so the profit is naturally not much
The cost is overwhelming, and no one may use it
U card income mainly comes from handling fees, but after a transaction:
Visa/Mastercard takes 1-3%
Currency exchange for legal currency also costs money
Bank maintenance fee
There is little profit left.
What’s worse is that the human operating costs cannot be cut:
The technical system must run in real time and cannot be down
Customer service needs to handle various refund, recharge, and payment failure issues
If something goes wrong upstream, users complain to you and you have to take the blame.
As Infini mentioned, it is too difficult to operate and not profitable at all.
Compliance: The most expensive “hidden cost”
The most troublesome thing is supervision
Need to do KYC (identity verification) and AML (anti-money laundering)
If you want to serve the European and American markets, you must comply with local regulations (such as US FinCEN and EU MiCA)
USDT is an asset that is also popular among the gray market, which places great pressure on risk control
Some teams "register overseas and work in China", which may also cross the policy red line
To put it bluntly, the U card business is too risky and the rewards are too low.
Who else is doing it? CEX giants, for "brand" considerations
for example:
Bybit is still working on U-card to serve its global users
Bitget also continues to promote cards to strengthen user stickiness
Coinbase has just announced that it will launch a new card "Coinbase One Card" in the fall of 2025, using the American Express network, with a maximum return of 4% Bitcoin per transaction
These platforms themselves make money from transactions, and the U card is just the "icing on the cake" to enhance the user experience, but they are not expected to make a profit.
So in the end, only the leading platforms may be able to afford this business.
Conclusion: U card is just the tip of the iceberg
The failure of U Card is not an isolated case.
It reflects a "long-standing" problem in the entire crypto industry: we have always wanted to break into the traditional world, but we are always restricted by others.
On the other hand, traditional finance is frantically “stealing” from the crypto world:
Issuing stablecoins
Promote RWA (on-chain asset mapping)
Adding Bitcoin to your asset reserves
They have the resources and compliance, and can make money just by entering the market.
When we want to develop niche businesses, it’s not because we lack technology, but because we can’t get rid of the “bottleneck” of the traditional system - we can’t rely on Visa transfers, bank settlements, or legal currency channels.
Therefore, if we really want to find a way out, we may still have to take the path of on-chain native:
Direct payment via wallet
On-chain settlement
Decentralized financial services
This path is indeed "ideal", but if we don't even try it, we can only continue to be "vassals".
I am a cryptocurrency researcher and trader. If you are also interested in the business model and opportunities of the crypto industry, please follow me and let’s take a deeper look at the underlying logic of the industry.#美联储FOMC会议
