Head to head
ether.fi Cash vs Krak Card
A self-custodial credit card against a regulated exchange debit card. ether.fi earns more on the first $2,000 each month; Krak pays uncapped cashback that depends on how much you keep on Kraken, with no fees on fiat spending and an Irish MiCA licence.
| Feature | ether.fi Cash | Krak Card |
|---|---|---|
| Our score | 8.4 / 10 | 8.0 / 10 |
| Card type | Credit | Debit |
| Custody | Self-custody | Custodial |
| Cashback | 3% to tier cap | 0–2% by balance |
| Paid in | ETHFI | EUR / GBP / BTC |
| Annual fee | $0 | $0 |
| FX fee | 0% USD/EUR · 0.5% other | 0% (spread on crypto) |
| Availability | EU excl. NL, FI, EE · UK · CH · NO · US · UAE | EEA · UK |
| Net value, eurozone* | +€342/yr | +€180/yr |
| Net value, Romania* | +€432/yr | +€180/yr |
*At €1,500 a month with a typical foreign-currency share for each place (10% in the eurozone, 85% in Romania, where local lei spending counts as foreign currency). Run your own numbers.
Who wins at €500, €1,500 and €3,000 a month
Net value per year from the same calculator that powers the country pages: cashback minus FX, conversion and annual fees, with €1,000 kept on the platform for balance-based cards. Category bonuses and promotions are not counted.
| Scenario | ether.fi Cash | Krak Card |
|---|---|---|
| Eurozone, 10% foreign · €500/mo | +€177 | +€60 |
| Eurozone, 10% foreign · €1,500/mo | +€342 | +€180 |
| Eurozone, 10% foreign · €3,000/mo | +€372 | +€360 |
| Romania, 85% foreign · €500/mo | +€155 | +€60 |
| Romania, 85% foreign · €1,500/mo | +€432 | +€180 |
| Romania, 85% foreign · €3,000/mo | +€547 | +€360 |
Where the difference comes from
This is self-custody credit against a regulated exchange account. ether.fi lends you stablecoins against ETH held in your own vault and pays 3% in its ETHFI token on the first $2,000 a month, or the first $800 of euro purchases. Krak is a debit card on Kraken’s payments app: no annual fee, no fees on fiat spending, and cashback set by how much you keep on the platform, from nothing under €200 to 1% from €1,000, 1.5% from €10,000 and 2% from €50,000. The calculator assumes a €1,000 balance, so Krak sits at 1%.
Krak’s strength is the fee side and the account around the card: no FX markup on fiat, sterling balances for UK users, a virtual IBAN and an Irish MiCA licence. In Romania the gap widens rather than shrinks: lei purchases follow ether.fi’s higher standard ladder, and its 0.5% fee on lei takes back only part of that. If you would keep €50,000 on Kraken, Krak’s 2% beats ether.fi in the eurozone at €1,500 a month (€360 against €342), while outside it ether.fi still comes out ahead. For everyone else, ether.fi earns more and Krak is the simpler, custodial, bank-like option.
Choose ether.fi if…
you want self-custody and 3% on everyday spending.
Choose Krak if…
you keep a large balance on Kraken or want a bank-like account with a virtual IBAN.