Visa is taking steps to close the cashback loophole for purchasing Meme coins with credit cards

Visa has informed participants in the payment industry that the "digital goods media" merchant category code used by Crossmint for processing Meme coin transactions is not applicable for Meme coin purchases. Visa has notified payment processors, including Checkout.com, to stop using this category code and has provided a transition period for relevant institutions, which is expected to end next week.

Previously, Robinhood Wallet and Fomo users could purchase Meme coins using Visa and Mastercard credit cards through Apple Pay or Google Pay, with the transactions processed by Crossmint, but categorized as digital media transactions such as e-books and movies, thereby bypassing cryptocurrency transaction classification and earning regular credit card points or cash back.

JPMorgan Chase had previously raised concerns with Visa regarding the classification of these transactions, and Visa subsequently determined that at least one transaction was misclassified and should not have received credit card rewards. In the future, purchases of Meme coins will need to be processed as cryptocurrency transactions and will be subject to Visa's corresponding rules and restrictions.