San Francisco startup Blockrize is proposing a different take on the traditional rewards card model: instead of offering cash back, it wants to give users 1% back in cryptocurrency on every purchase. Under the concept described by the company, cardholders would receive a line of credit and then choose to earn rewards in either Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH).
A rewards card built around “crypto back”
The project was launched by Thomas Harrison, a 25-year-old entrepreneur who previously served as head of operations for the now-defunct polling app Whatsgoodly. In comments cited by Market Watch, Harrison said the card had already attracted more than 2,000 people to its waiting list, suggesting early interest in a rewards product tied directly to digital assets.
Blockrize’s pitch is straightforward: consumers continue using a credit card for everyday spending, but instead of accumulating airline miles or conventional cash back, they build positions in crypto over time. The company says users simply swipe the card, select the cryptocurrency they want to accumulate, and the platform handles the reward process in the background.
Why the model stood out
The company framed its appeal by comparing standard cash-back economics with the historical performance of crypto assets. According to the Blockrize website, a traditional rewards card user spending an average of $1,250 per month might earn about $150 to $300 annually in cash back. By contrast, the company claimed that if the same spending had been routed through its crypto rewards model during 2017, the user would have ended up with approximately $998 in BTC or $2,487 in ETH.
That comparison was central to Blockrize’s marketing message. The firm argued that earning 1% back in crypto could, in the right market environment, become far more valuable than a traditional card’s headline rebate. In its own example, earning rewards in Bitcoin during 2017 would have been equivalent to roughly 6.7% cash back, while Ethereum rewards would have translated into about 16.6% cash back.
For crypto supporters, the concept is easy to understand. Rather than treating reward points as a small rebate against spending, the model turns those rewards into exposure to an asset class many users may already want to own. It effectively automates incremental crypto accumulation through ordinary consumer purchases.
No-fee rewards, but not no-risk rewards
Blockrize also said users would pay no fees on cryptocurrency rewards, allowing them to keep 100% of the rewards they earn. That claim adds another layer to the product’s appeal, especially for users who are sensitive to the friction often associated with buying, transferring, or converting digital assets.
Still, the startup did not hide the central tradeoff: crypto rewards are inherently volatile. Unlike a dollar-denominated cash-back balance, the value of BTC or ETH earned through a card can rise or fall significantly after the reward is issued. Harrison acknowledged that this could be a problem for some customers, noting that if prices moved lower, some users would likely be unhappy with the decline in value of their accumulated rewards.
This point is critical to understanding the product. A traditional credit card reward is usually designed to be stable, predictable, and easy to redeem. Blockrize’s model changes that equation by linking rewards to market performance. The upside can be much larger in a strong bull cycle, but the downside is that the effective rebate can shrink if the underlying crypto asset falls in price.
An early-stage team with industry support
At the time described in the source material, Harrison was the only full-time employee handling Blockrize’s day-to-day operations. Even so, the project was not being developed entirely in isolation. He was working with several industry figures, including Shogun Enterprise lead fintech engineer Zak Allen, Opensea.io cofounder Alex Atallah, and Card Linq managing partner Jonathan Gelfand.
That combination suggested the startup was trying to bridge multiple domains at once: consumer payments, card infrastructure, and cryptocurrency incentives. Launching a credit product tied to digital assets requires more than a compelling slogan. It depends on execution across compliance, card issuing, reward accounting, and a user experience simple enough for mainstream consumers to understand.
A broader signal for crypto-financial products
Whether or not Blockrize ultimately reshaped the market, the concept reflected a broader industry direction: integrating cryptocurrency into familiar financial products rather than asking users to adopt entirely new spending habits. The rewards-card format is already well understood by consumers. By placing crypto inside that framework, Blockrize was effectively betting that adoption could come through convenience and incentives, not just ideology.
The proposition also highlighted how crypto products often market themselves around historical upside. The company’s use of 2017 performance numbers made the concept look highly attractive, but those figures depended on a period of major appreciation in both Bitcoin and Ethereum. As with any rewards structure tied to a volatile asset, historical examples may help explain the opportunity, but they do not guarantee future outcomes.
In that sense, Blockrize’s planned card sat at the intersection of two consumer impulses: the desire to earn more from everyday spending, and the appeal of gaining exposure to crypto without making separate investment decisions each week or month. For users already comfortable with digital assets, the card promised a passive accumulation strategy. For more conservative consumers, however, the same feature could look like an unnecessary layer of price risk added to a simple rewards program.
Ultimately, the startup’s pitch rested on a clear message: everyday purchases could become a way to build crypto holdings. That message was compelling enough to attract a waiting list of more than 2,000 people. But the model’s long-term appeal would depend on whether consumers valued the possibility of amplified returns more than the certainty offered by ordinary cash-back cards.