Hacking and Optimizing the Coinbase Debit Card

Hacking and Optimizing the Coinbase Debit Card

By ericdoescrypto | Eric Does Crypto | 7 Nov 2021


If you weren't aware already, Coinbase launched a VISA debit card (see: https://card.coinbase.com/). This card lets you spend your cryptocurrency anywhere in the world instantly.

As of the time of this writing, the card offers 4% back in XLM, GRT, AMP, and RLY. It also offers 1% back in BTC, ETH, DOGE, and DAI. You can change how you want to receive rewards at any time. Once you make a purchase, after it's been processed, Coinbase will give you that coin back based on the current market rate of the coin.

Needless to say, 4% back is one of the best deals you can get on a card anywhere. Plus, you can earn additional rewards on top of that by staking the various cryptos. This usually will involve transferring them off to a different platform unless you're using something like ETH in Coinbase. Of these options, GRT and ETH are one of the only ones that have an easy way to stake so I suggest looking at them first. For the others, you'll have to provide liquidity with them through something like Uniswap. This makes GRT one of my favorite picks since it is 4% back and easy to stake. This turns the 4% back into nearly 5% without any fluctuation in the coin's price.

Beyond this, I wanted to test interactions with the Coinbase debit card in daily life and see ways I could get the 4% back without actually spending any money. I tried two different loopholes but only the first works.

Hack 1:
Another interesting offer that Coinbase has is the ability to earn $10 BTC for every 4 recurring purchases of $50 or more. When you deposit money into your Coinbase card, there is no transaction fee if you buy USDC, so you should always buy USDC. This means you can also earn some free BTC (about $50-100) by putting recurring purchases as USDC.

Hack 2:
Coinbase debit card does not give rewards on ATM withdrawals. They mark the transaction as "Completed" without giving anything back to you. This prevents you from earning 4% back from ATM withdrawals and cycling the money back to your bank which in theory lets you churn infinite free crypto.

Similarly, Coinbase's transaction system seems to be smart enough to also know whether you get cash back at a grocery store. For example, I tried to go and buy a soda and get $20 back. They don't bother to even give you 4% back on the soda; they classify the entire transaction similar to an ATM withdrawal to prevent abuse in the same way.

This means that unfortunately you can't churn the card forever, but it is still a great card.

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ericdoescrypto
ericdoescrypto

Hi, my name's Eric and I am exploring the world of cryptocurrency with the perspective of an expert software developer.


Eric Does Crypto
Eric Does Crypto

Hi, my name's Eric and I am exploring the world of cryptocurrency with the perspective of an expert software developer.

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