Head to head
ether.fi Cash vs Nexo Card
The two ways to spend against crypto without selling. ether.fi keeps your collateral in your own vault and pays 3% cashback; Nexo is custodial, and its cashback is paid only on borrowed spending, but it has a longer track record as a lender.
| Feature | ether.fi Cash | Nexo Card |
|---|---|---|
| Our score | 8.4 / 10 | 7.6 / 10 |
| Card type | Credit | Debit + Credit |
| Custody | Self-custody | Custodial |
| Cashback | 3% to tier cap | 0.1–2%, credit mode only |
| Paid in | ETHFI | BTC / NEXO |
| Annual fee | $0 | $0 |
| FX fee | 0% USD/EUR · 0.5% other | 0.2% Europe · 2% other · +0.5% weekends |
| Availability | EU excl. NL, FI, EE · UK · CH · NO · US · UAE | EEA · UK |
| Net value, eurozone* | +€342/yr | −€6/yr |
| Net value, Romania* | +€432/yr | −€54/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 | Nexo Card |
|---|---|---|
| Eurozone, 10% foreign · €500/mo | +€177 | −€2 |
| Eurozone, 10% foreign · €1,500/mo | +€342 | −€6 |
| Eurozone, 10% foreign · €3,000/mo | +€372 | −€13 |
| Romania, 85% foreign · €500/mo | +€155 | −€18 |
| Romania, 85% foreign · €1,500/mo | +€432 | −€54 |
| Romania, 85% foreign · €3,000/mo | +€547 | −€107 |
Where the difference comes from
Both let you spend against crypto without selling it, and that is where the similarity ends. ether.fi keeps your ETH collateral in a vault you control and pays 3% cashback in its ETHFI token on the first $2,000 a month, or the first $800 of euro purchases. Nexo is a custodial lender: its card switches between a debit mode that earns interest on idle balances and a credit mode that borrows against your portfolio, with cashback of 0.1% to 2%, paid in BTC or NEXO, only in credit mode and only with a portfolio above $5,000. The higher tiers need NEXO tokens worth 1% to 10% of the rest of your portfolio.
The calculator scores Nexo at zero cashback. Its cashback is paid only on borrowed spending, and on the base tier borrowing costs 17.9% a year, more than the 0.5% back unless you repay within days; the higher rates need NEXO tokens. Nexo also charges 0.2% FX on other European currencies, plus 0.5% at weekends, so every row above favours ether.fi. Nexo’s case is the credit line itself, its longer track record as a lender, and coverage of the whole EEA and the UK, where ether.fi is missing three EU countries. Its risk is the counterparty: Nexo has no MiCA licence of its own and operates through partner custodians, whereas ether.fi’s collateral never leaves your wallet.
Choose ether.fi if…
you want self-custody and meaningful cashback.
Choose Nexo if…
you want a pure credit line and are comfortable with a custodial lender.