Visa is shutting a quiet path that let meme-coin shoppers earn ordinary credit-card points. According to Decrypt’s Sep 20 Crypto In America report, the network is telling processors that purchases powered by crypto payments firm Crossmint can no longer ride the merchant category code meant for everyday digital media—think e-books, movies, and music—when the thing being bought is a meme coin.
The timing is political as much as technical. Banks failed to lock tighter stablecoin-rewards language into the stalled Clarity Act this week. JPMorgan’s Chase still scored a narrower win: get Visa to stop treating speculative token checkouts like Netflix rentals.
How the loophole worked
The Block’s investigation is the spark. Testers using Robinhood Wallet and Fomo could buy meme coins with Visa and Mastercard cards through Apple Pay or Google Pay—without a separate KYC step—because Crossmint-powered checkouts were coded as “digital goods media.” That classification unlocked normal card rewards (points, cash back) that crypto purchases usually do not earn under Visa’s crypto rules.
Chase told The Block at least one Visa transaction was misclassified and should not have earned rewards, then opened a case with Visa. New York’s attorney general’s office said it was aware of the issue and reviewing it. Once a big issuer and a state AG are both watching the same MCC, networks tend to move faster than Congress.
Visa’s answer: recode it or lose the rail
Decrypt reports that Visa correspondence reviewed by its reporters told at least one industry participant the digital-media code is not appropriate for meme-coin purchases. Processors including Checkout.com were notified the code will no longer be accepted for those transactions, with a grace period expected to end next week.
Crossmint had pointed to a 2025 SEC staff statement describing certain meme coins as closer to collectibles than securities. That argument may matter in a securities courtroom. It matters less at the point of sale, where Visa’s job is to keep merchant codes honest so issuers can apply the right fraud tools, rewards policies, and risk controls.
Neither Visa nor Crossmint immediately commented to Decrypt.
What changes for buyers and apps
Meme-coin purchases are not banned. The rewards gravy train probably is. Going forward, those checkouts must process as crypto transactions and follow Visa’s corresponding restrictions—typically tougher on rewards, chargeback handling, and issuer appetite.
For wallets and apps that leaned on frictionless Apple Pay / Google Pay funnels, the product question is immediate:
- Keep the buy button with proper crypto MCCs (and fewer points).
- Add clearer KYC where issuers demand it.
- Or redesign so the purchase never looks like “media” in the first place.
Retail traders who stacked hotel points while aping into joke tokens will feel the change first. The deeper shift is for payment startups that treated category codes as a growth hack.
Banks lost Clarity, won the merchant code
That split matters for anyone watching U.S. crypto policy. Legislative market-structure fights move slowly and fail loudly—Clarity’s cloture stumble this week is the latest example. Card networks move with memos to processors. When Congress cannot decide how crypto should sit inside banking products, Visa can still decide which four-digit code prints on the statement.
Stablecoin-yield fights and meme-coin MCC fights are different battles with the same subtext: traditional finance wants crypto activity labeled as crypto activity, not smuggled under consumer-friendly categories that were invented for iTunes-era digital goods.
A source told Decrypt the industry message is blunt: stop being cute, stay in your lane, use the appropriate codes.
Geeknewz take
This is regulation-by-rails. Chase challenged a mis-tagged transaction; Visa is closing the category game; AG interest adds political heat. Speculators can still tap plastic for meme coins—they just should not expect airline miles for doing it. In a week when Clarity stalled in the Senate, the most consequential crypto “rule” may be a merchant category code ending next week’s grace period.
Source: Decrypt — Visa Moves to Close Meme Coin Credit Card Rewards Loophole (Eleanor Terrett, Sep 20, 2026).