What does Visa's move to recode credit card memecoin purchases mean?

Visa's decision means that buying a memecoin with a credit card will once again be treated as a crypto transaction rather than a purchase of digital content. Payment processors can no longer route these payments under a "digital media" code that let buyers earn ordinary points and cash back. Memecoins can still be bought by card, but under the issuer's crypto rules — often with no rewards and terms similar to a cash advance.

What actually happened with card purchases of memecoins?#

On September 1, 2026, The Block published an investigation showing that users of Robinhood Wallet and Fomo could buy memecoins with a credit card via Apple Pay or Google Pay, while payments infrastructure provider Crossmint processed the transactions under merchant category code (MCC) 5815 — "digital goods and media," the same bucket as e-books and movies. Test purchases of the WIF memecoin on the Visa and Mastercard networks earned standard card rewards and required no separate identity check.

The scale was meaningful. According to the same report, around 150 tokens were supported at the time, covering roughly 80% of memecoin trading volume, and more than 68,000 "first-time crypto buyers" had used the Apple Pay checkout in Fomo. On September 19, The Block, citing the Crypto in America newsletter, reported that Visa had told processors to stop this classification and gave them a grace period expected to end the following week. Decrypt notes that purchases will continue afterwards, but as crypto transactions.

How does a merchant category code decide what happens to a payment?#

Every card transaction carries an MCC, a four-digit code that tells the issuing bank what the customer is buying. That code drives rewards, limits, fees and whether the bank approves the transaction at all. Under the rules cited by The Block, crypto purchases on the Visa network must use MCC 6012 or 6051 along with an additional crypto transaction indicator; Mastercard requires MCC 6051 plus its own identifier.

Code 5815 carries no such flag. To a rewards engine the transaction looks like buying a TV series or an audiobook, so points accrue automatically — and the bank never sees that the customer is using borrowed money to buy a volatile asset. That is what JPMorgan Chase flagged: the bank told The Block it considered MCC 5815 inappropriate and referred the matter to Visa.

Why do banks treat crypto purchases like cash?#

Many issuers classify crypto as a "cash-like transaction," alongside wire transfers, traveler's checks and foreign currency. This has been litigated before: in 2018 Chase began treating crypto purchases on Coinbase as cash advances, and cardholders sued over the added fees and higher interest. In 2019 a court allowed two of four claims to proceed, including breach of contract.

The bank's logic is straightforward. A credit card is a loan, and buying a memecoin effectively turns a credit line into a market position that can be quickly converted into another asset. A digital book carries no such risk. So the correct code matters for more than cash back: it triggers the rules the bank has already chosen for high-risk transactions.

Why doesn't the SEC's view of memecoins settle the question?#

According to The Block, Crossmint pointed to an SEC staff statement to justify its approach. In the February 27, 2025 statement, SEC staff concluded that typical memecoins are not securities and compared them to collectibles. But a payments expert at Vanderbilt Law quoted by The Block stresses that these are two separate regimes: securities law on one side, card network rules on the other.

The SEC statement itself also reminds readers that memecoin buyers get no protection under federal securities laws. Calling a memecoin a "collectible" for one regulator does not make it digital content for a card network that classifies transactions by its own standards.

What changes for buyers after the grace period?#

Once recoded, the transaction falls under the issuer's crypto policy. Depending on the bank, that may mean no rewards, a cash advance fee, a higher APR from day one, or a declined transaction. The exact terms depend on the specific cardholder agreement, not on the app used to make the purchase.

There is also a regulatory angle: the New York Attorney General's office, per The Block, is aware of Crossmint's product and reviewing the matter. Mastercard has not said publicly whether it will issue similar instructions. Two tokens, GENIUS and DEGEN, were removed from Apple Pay checkout after reporters asked about them.

What limits and risks does Visa's move leave untouched?#

The change is about how a transaction is coded, not about the risk of the asset itself. Memecoins remain extremely volatile: in September 2026 the LAPTOP token, per CoinDesk, hit $190.81 within two minutes of trading and fell to $3.70 within the hour — a drawdown of about 98%. A reward worth a few percent of the purchase cannot offset a move like that, and the card balance remains owed even if the token goes to near zero.

Also keep in mind:

• the measure applies to Visa; Mastercard's and other processors' positions have not been publicly defined;
• a correct code does not guarantee identity checks or protection from fraudulent tokens;
• crypto terms vary from issuer to issuer, so "no more rewards" is not true for every card;
• buying on credit adds interest costs on top of market risk, and that interest accrues regardless of the token's price.

The broader takeaway goes beyond one case: a transaction code is part of a risk-control system, and workarounds that sidestep it usually last only until the first review by a bank or network.