Coinbase Shakes Up Crypto Payments: Amex Card & Shopify Integration Go Live

Crypto just got a mainstream shopping cart. Coinbase drops two game-changers—an Amex-powered card and direct Shopify integration—letting users spend digital assets like cash.

No more convoluted conversions. Swipe the Amex-backed card anywhere Amex is accepted, or checkout seamlessly on Shopify’s 1.7M+ merchants. Instant settlement, zero off-ramp headaches.

Wall Street’s watching. The move pressures legacy payment rails—Visa and Mastercard’s 1.5%-3% fees suddenly look Jurassic next to crypto’s sub-1% transactions. (But let’s see how long before ‘network maintenance’ mysteriously spikes costs.)

Bullish for adoption, brutal for skeptics. Another brick in the bridge between crypto and everyday commerce—even your grandma’s NFT crochet shop just got a payment upgrade.

Going premium

Somewhat ironically, though, Coinbase unveiled its American Express card yesterday. 

The Coinbase One Card uses Amex’s network and isn’t free — but they’re promising 2-4% bitcoin back per purchase. The card will only be available in the US, and will launch sometime this fall. It requires an active Coinbase One Basic ($5 a month or $50 annually) or Coinbase One ($30 a month) subscription in order to apply for the card and keep it valid.

Amex is known for being a premium credit card company with some of the highest fees for merchants. 

It’s also known among Amex holders that it can be difficult to find businesses who accept the card outside of the US. (For example, my fiancé and I absolutely struggled earlier this year to find anyone who took Amex during a trip to South Africa. But all shops and restaurants we visited accepted Visa.) 

It’s partly in the name: American Express.  

American Express sees its brand as increasingly catering to a younger audience willing to spend on something that feels like the luxury option. Coinbase also sees itself as a “premium” brand among crypto companies, Coinbase Ventures exec Shan Aggarwal mentioned during the livestream.

I don’t necessarily disagree. Coinbase has long had some of the best user experience product flows and product designs in crypto — though the fallout from a recently-revealed data breach may have eroded some trust in the brand.

For credit card nerds: the Coinbase One card is expected to weigh 17 grams, which is reportedly the same weight as the invite-only Amex Centurion card that costs thousands a year.

The audience

The Coinbase One subscription is most ideal for frequent traders who want no-fee Coinbase trades, more staking rewards, and prioritized customer service.

“Amex plays extremely well to Millennials, GenZ, the younger generations,” said Amex SVP of Global Network Services Will Stredwick, who sees crypto as “so obviously becoming mainstream.” 

A 2024 PolicyGenius survey found that 22% of Millennials surveyed (now between roughly ages 28 to 43) owned crypto, followed by 20% of GenZ (now between ages 19 and 27). 

But just 10% of Gen X and 5% of Boomers said they owned crypto.

The Coinbase One Amex is expected to release this fall. It joins a lineup of other crypto payment cards, including crypto debit cards, credit cards, and others that fall somewhere in-between. This year, we’ve seen a slew of crypto card announcements. 

There’s a MetaMask Mastercard, a Gemini bitcoin rewards Mastercard, an Avalanche Visa, a Solayer Visa, and others.

All of these cards beg the question: Was crypto ever trying to get away from the traditional financial system? Or has the industry decided, collectively, that the best way to beat the Visas and Amexes of the world was to join them?

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