The U Card seems like a "money withdrawal tool in the crypto world," but in reality, it is a tough business with thin profits, high costs, and significant risks; only giants with their own traffic and licenses can afford to play, while startup teams that rush in are likely to find that 1+1 < 2.
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【Business Model Breakdown】
1 How thin are the profits?
• Recharge fees + consumption rebates ≈ 1-2%, considered "blade profits."
• To increase returns, some projects take users' deposited funds to do on-chain financial management — as a result, Infini was hacked, and card services were shut down.
2 How high are the costs?
• Technology, customer service, and compliance are burning money; Infini's co-founder once complained: the U Card takes up 99% of the time but generates almost zero income.
• Retail investors have a few hundred dollars' limit, but there are massive amounts of refunds, freezes, and KYC inquiries; the customer service team expands linearly with users.
3 How great are the risks?
• Compliance: once issues arise with money laundering or fraud, the card organization transfers the full amount of AML fines to the project side, and the deposit is gone in seconds.
• Upstream: the vast majority of projects can only find secondary agents to acquire cards; with Visa/MasterCard's risk control, the entire line can be cut off instantly.
• Trend: direct payments with stablecoins (Stripe, PayPal have already supported) are eliminating the "card swiping" scenario, and the U Card is a transitional product.
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【Who can actually play?】
Exchange systems (Binance, Crypto.com, Bitget) have three strategies to break through:
① Directly sign contracts with card organizations or even acquire small banks to cut out the middlemen;
② Main business traffic comes in, treating the card merely as a user retention tool, without expecting it to earn money itself;
③ Withdrawal channels are scarce, using the U Card to retain large customers, which in turn boosts spot/contract trading volume.
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The U Card is not a "bad business," but a "hard business":
• Requires a large number of users to dilute costs
• Requires licenses and bank relationships to withstand risk control
• Requires the main business to provide cross-subsidies
Without these three trump cards, rushing in is just working for card organizations, customer service, and compliance teams.
As the old saying goes: it seems like you can pick up money by bending over, but in reality, you're picking up blades — the U Card, proceed with caution.
