A payment route that let some credit card users buy memecoins and still collect standard card rewards may be nearing its end.
According to The Block, Visa plans to restrict crypto payments processor Crossmint from classifying memecoin transactions under the digital media category. Visa declined to comment.
Visa’s published rules already spell out how crypto purchases should be coded
The dispute turns on Visa’s own public documentation rather than on a question of interpretation.
Under Visa’s April edition of the Merchant Data Standards Manual, merchants that sell quasi-cash must use merchant category code 6051 or 6012, even if quasi-cash sales are not their primary line of business. The manual also states that cryptocurrency purchases must use 6012 or 6051 and include special condition indicator 7 and a quasi-cash transaction indicator in the authorization request, with special condition indicator 7 also included in the clearing record.
In card network terminology, quasi-cash refers to items that can be readily converted into cash, including foreign currency, money orders, traveler’s checks, and crypto assets. Issuers often apply a separate set of rules to those transactions, and rewards or points generally do not apply.
Report says the transactions were coded as digital media
Crossmint is a crypto payments processor that handles the credit card purchase flow for memecoins in apps such as Fomo and Robinhood Wallet.
In an investigation published on Sept. 1, The Block reported that those transactions were coded under MCC 5815, which corresponds to digital media, and were missing a crypto-asset marker.
If a memecoin purchase is routed under digital media, the cardholder can receive rewards in the same way as for an ordinary digital purchase. Set against Visa’s published rules, that coding does not line up with the network’s stated requirements.
The timing of any clampdown rests on a single source for now
For now, the claim that Visa is about to tighten this practice traces back to one source.
The earliest report came from the newsletter Crypto in America, which said it relied on one informed source and on correspondence it reviewed. The Block cited that report rather than saying it had independently confirmed the matter.
According to that account, a grace period will end next week, after which the transactions must be processed as standard cryptocurrency purchases. That timeline comes only from the source above, and Visa told The Block it would not comment.
Crossmint says its procedures for digital goods have not changed
A Crossmint spokesperson told The Block that the company’s 「position and procedures for digital goods on the platform have not changed」.
Fonz Olvera, Crossmint’s head of strategy, also said compliance is 「very important, but there is always a bit of tension between business and law, and that is healthy」.
What can be verified now
Two points can be checked against public information. Visa’s manual says cryptocurrency transactions should use 6012 or 6051 and include special condition indicator 7. Separately, the report says the memecoin purchases in question were coded as 5815.
What remains unconfirmed by Visa is whether enforcement will begin next week and how any change would be carried out in practice.