Written by: Wu Says Blockchain
The content of this article is a compilation of publicly available information and does not represent Wu Says' views or provide any investment advice. Readers are urged to strictly comply with the laws and regulations of their location and not participate in illegal financial activities.
At the beginning of June, the founder of Infini was still promoting U Card in an interview, but just a few days later, a sudden shutdown announcement was made, sparking huge discussions.
On June 17, Infini suddenly announced that it has decided to stop the Infini Card service. Effective immediately, Global Card, Lite Card, and Tech Card will all be suspended from use and new applications. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this may cause. Core functions such as recharge, withdrawal, and Earn rewards will not be affected; your assets remain secure and controllable. To properly handle this change, we will automatically refund all affected users for the actual card issuance fees paid (deducting any forms of discounts) to your Infini account balance. The issuance fee will be credited within 10 business days, and you will not need to take any manual action. Refunds in transit will be returned to your Infini account, expected to be completed within 5-21 business days. Your funds remain secure.
Infini co-founder the princess explained: Infini will no longer engage in to C card business. The reason is that compliance costs are extremely high, profits are very thin, and operations are very burdensome. Currently, the to C card business occupies 99% of time and costs but contributes 0 revenue. Wealth management and asset management have become priorities. The current path for Crypto card is still to offramp USDT and USDC and then achieve stable-to-fiat payment paths through traditional payment networks. It's too convoluted, too lengthy, and too expensive. Without subsidies, it's very difficult to match web2 rates and cashback. U Card is not the ultimate solution for web3 pay with stablecoin. Currently, infini is a centralized product; in the future, we will fully embrace decentralization. We need to think about decentralized payment solutions. We absolutely will not follow the path of centralization.
The princess also mentioned that when developing U Card, she sought advice from OneKey, not expecting that the outcome would be the same as OneKey. The hardware wallet OneKey also launched U Card but subsequently suddenly shut down its services.
Regarding the recent service closure, there are also speculations related to the recent bewildcard incident. WildCard is a platform focused on providing virtual credit card services, allowing users to easily register and subscribe to overseas services through this platform. The platform has particularly optimized the use experience of OpenAI, including automatic registration and upgrading to ChatGPT Plus functionality. The platform is rumored to be under investigation.
Infini founder Christian introduced the features of Infini Card in the latest space, including: Infini Card always focuses on serving the public and retail investors. This was our original intention when we founded the company. Unlike the VIP user-oriented Crypto cards launched by exchanges, our card is aimed at ordinary users, making it more friendly and practical. The Crypto card itself is actually a 'thankless' product, but we always insist on enhancing the experience from the user's perspective. The fee structure is transparent and highly competitive. Especially in terms of USD transactions, our current card transaction fee is 0.1%, which is at the lowest level in the market. We also plan to further reduce costs through more optimization methods in the future, maintaining a long-term price advantage. Most notably, we offer a yield feature on the card balance. This is not commonly seen in the market. Many users will keep some U (USDT) in their cards for daily use, and we provide a yield for liquid wealth management to hedge against wear and tear during consumption. These yields come from the strategies we are building, which have shown excellent performance in testing; some strategies are even unique solutions that are hard to find on other DeFi platforms, and we are willing to share these with users.
@knowyourself518 tweeted that for the U Card business, an internal report leading to an investigation could result in fines far exceeding the cost of the license; a heavy penalty could be fatal. If the ambiguity of on-chain fund flows is added (such as proving the source of funds), compliance costs could increase exponentially. There are numerous cases of U Card being abused by fraudsters, but the platform lacks the 'contract fee' revenue-generating capability of exchanges while being forced to directly bear risks from retail investors, making long-term operations prone to problems.
More harshly: Card organizations / upstream banks will pass all fines for AML loopholes onto the issuing entity, lightly deducting the margin or heavily revoking the license — while intermediary agencies only care about collecting fees. Buying a bank is useless; if card organizations are dissatisfied, the fine-paying entity is the bank, and if the fines are not paid, they are kicked out of Visa / Mastercard, so buying a bank does not solve the fundamental problem. The actual costs borne by users go far beyond the 1-2% transaction fee: card issuance fees, exchange losses, recharge friction... in the absence of subsidies, the average real rate across the industry is 3-5%. Compared to the fee advantages of traditional credit card giants (Visa/MC) under huge transaction volumes, U Card has no competitiveness in small transactions. Without substantial subsidies, ordinary users simply won't pay for it. Crypto Card is a low-margin project that requires a significant volume of transactions and asset accumulation to be profitable, and it is resource-intensive, but with the expansion of business scale, compliance costs and operational costs will significantly increase. So overall, being able to scale up is key, and ideally, it can create synergies with the main business.
It is worth noting that card organizations, upstream banks, and payment channel providers collect fees and fines, while all operational risks (asset management blowouts, regulatory fines, and fraud losses) are borne entirely by startups. This essentially becomes a compliance arbitrage game, harvesting Web3 VC. Therefore, U Card is not a good business; payments themselves do not make much profit, and highly compliant C-end finance is even more challenging for startup teams to tackle.
Despite Infini eventually announcing its exit, the U Card sector remains very active. On March 14, 2025, RedotPay announced it successfully completed a $40 million Series A financing round, led by Lightspeed, with significant investments also provided by HSG and Galaxy Ventures following their commitments in December 2024. DST Global Partners, Accel, Vertex Ventures (Temasek-backed venture capital) and other investors also participated in this round of financing.
At the State of Crypto conference in June, Coinbase announced a partnership with American Express to launch the 'Coinbase One Card' credit card, offering Bitcoin cashback and staking rewards. The company also collaborated with Shopify and Stripe to expand USDC payment avenues, allowing stablecoins to transition from on-chain to physical consumption.
@portal_kay once dissected the birth of a U Card, including card organizations, BIN providers, issuing institutions, card program managers, fiat-cryptocurrency exchange merchants, and card production & technology integration service providers. In the U Card (virtual credit card or payment tool) ecosystem, the upstream and downstream partnerships have clear divisions of labor, covering the following roles: Card organizations (such as Visa, MasterCard) as the highest upstream, set rules, build a global payment clearing network, and allocate Bank Identification Numbers (BINs) (the first 6 digits of the card number) to licensed financial institutions. BIN providers (such as Evolve Bank, Railsr) are licensed banks or payment institutions responsible for applying for and managing BINs, reviewing cooperation qualifications, allowing project parties to issue cards, and assisting with regulation and settlement. Issuing institutions (such as REAP, Airwallex) create user card accounts, perform KYC/KYT compliance, hold fiat currencies, and process transaction settlements, usually not directly handling cryptocurrencies. Card program managers (such as Bybit Card, Bitget Card) are the core of U Card projects, responsible for product design, user operation, API development, risk control strategies, coordinating KYC with issuing institutions and marketing with card organizations. Fiat-cryptocurrency exchange merchants (such as MoonPay, Circle) handle the exchange of on-chain assets to fiat, for instance converting user USDT deposits into dollars in custody accounts. Finally, card production and technology integration service providers (such as IDEMIA, G+D) provide physical card manufacturing or virtual card API integration, supporting Google Pay, Apple Pay, etc. Modern BaaS companies provide SDK integration solutions. Each role collaborates closely to support the operation and compliance of U Card business.
Compliance risk remains the biggest obstacle for U Card. FinTax points out that there are several legal risks to be aware of when using U Card. For example, in countries with strict foreign exchange controls, although U Card does not set a personal withdrawal limit, transferring funds exceeding the foreign exchange quota out of the country may violate foreign exchange regulations, and if discovered by foreign exchange regulatory authorities, administrative fines may be imposed, and even criminal charges may be involved. Additionally, the legal status of cryptocurrencies is still unclear in some countries, and some countries completely prohibit the use of cryptocurrencies. In such cases, using cryptocurrency U Card for transactions may also be deemed illegal. Therefore, before using U Card, users should understand the basic compliance requirements of their country or region. Furthermore, users should not use U Card as a tool for illegal activities. For instance, if a user conducts frequent and large transactions with U Card or helps others cash out, it may also be considered illegal business operations or money laundering activities, facing criminal penalties.
Due to support for anonymity or minimal real-name requirements, some users hope to evade taxes through U Card, such as concealing income sources to reduce tax liabilities. However, this behavior of tax evasion through U Card is actually infeasible. Firstly, although U Card has a certain level of anonymity, most U Cards still rely on international payment networks (Visa, Mastercard, etc.). These payment networks keep detailed records of each transaction data, including transaction amounts, merchant information, transaction times, etc. Therefore, tax authorities can still trace the flow of relevant funds through these transaction records. Secondly, for cross-border transactions, tax authorities can track cross-border fund flows through foreign exchange monitoring systems, bank information exchanges, and other means. Many countries have signed agreements for automatic exchange of tax information (CRS, Common Reporting Standard), making cross-border fund flows relatively transparent. Through this method, tax authorities can also obtain transaction information related to U Card. Finally, in actual use, payment platforms may also conduct strict real-name verification for large transactions. If users are involved in frequent large fund flows, the platform may require additional information such as proof of the legality of the source of funds. Therefore, the behavior of tax evasion through U Card is actually infeasible and may lead to tax audits and penalties.
