Kraken built a fintech app. Then the fintech app built a cash back debit card. This is what passes for innovation when you've already convinced people to pay transaction fees on imaginary coins.
The card gives you cash back. In crypto. Which you can then pay more fees to convert into actual money. It's like getting your paycheck in Chuck E. Cheese tokens except the mouse has a smaller marketing budget and worse brand recognition.
Kraken says crypto is evolving from an asset class into infrastructure for mainstream financial products. That's the pitch. Hey remember that thing you bought at sixty thousand dollars that's now worth thirty? What if we turned that into your checking account?
The press release probably said something about consumer wallets and market positioning. What it meant was: our trading volumes are down and we need recurring revenue from people too stubborn to use a credit card that actually works at grocery stores.
Cash back programs exist because banks make money on interchange fees. Crypto cards exist because exchanges need you to forget you're paying spread on both sides of every transaction. One of these is a bad deal. The other has a sixteen-step process to buy coffee.
Mainstream financial products. That's what they're calling it. As if the mainstream has been crying out for a debit card that requires a wallet backup phrase and crashes when Ethereum gas fees spike.
The card launches in a bid for consumer wallets. Not a successful bid. Just a bid. Like showing up to an auction with Monopoly money and expecting the auctioneer to take you seriously.
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