Visa has reportedly told at least one industry participant that a merchant category code reserved for digital media should not be used for memecoin purchases, a shift that could end credit card rewards on a checkout route offered through Robinhood Wallet and Fomo. The report does not establish a change affecting every card-funded memecoin purchase.

How a memecoin purchase earned ordinary card rewards

An investigation published by The Block on September 1 tested purchases of the WIF memecoin through Robinhood Wallet and Fomo. Crossmint powered the checkout, while the buyers paid with Visa and Mastercard credit cards through Apple Pay or Google Pay.

The transactions were assigned merchant category code 5815, which is normally used for electronically delivered content such as books, films, music and digital artwork. The tested cards treated the payments as ordinary purchases and awarded their usual points or cash back.

Chase reviewed one of the transactions and said it believed the digital-media category was inappropriate. The bank also said the purchase should not have earned rewards and opened a case with Visa.

On September 19, Crypto in America reported that Visa had told at least one industry participant that MCC 5815 should not be used for memecoin purchases. Payment processors, including Checkout.com, were reportedly given time to end the practice.

The reported grace period is expected to expire during the week beginning September 21, although no exact date was disclosed. Visa has not announced the instruction publicly, and the report does not establish whether it applies globally or only in particular markets. The Block's earlier test purchases were conducted in New York.

Two ways to code the same purchase

The test purchases, as processed:

• Code: MCC 5815
• Category: Digital goods and media
• Observed result: The tested cards awarded normal purchase rewards

Crypto purchases, under Visa's manual:

• Code: MCC 6012 or 6051, depending on the seller
• Category: Cryptocurrency or another cash-like asset
• Result: Issuer-dependent; rewards, fees and approval policies may change

Why the SEC and Visa can classify the same token differently

Crossmint separates approved memecoins from conventional cryptocurrencies in its checkout documentation. It describes eligible memecoins as collectibles connected to internet memes, characters, current events or trends. The company says each token is reviewed individually and that the checkout supports only secondary memecoin sales, excluding stablecoins, assets such as ETH and SOL, investment-style tokens and assets intended to function money.

That distinction resembles the SEC's treatment of some memecoins. A 2026 SEC interpretation describes certain memecoins as digital collectibles whose value is driven primarily by supply and demand rather than buyers' reliance on the essential managerial efforts of others. The document identifies dogwifhat, or WIF, as one example.

The two frameworks answer different questions. The SEC is addressing a securities-law question: whether the token has the economic characteristics of a security. Visa is addressing a payment question: what the cardholder purchased and how the payment must be identified inside its network.

Visa's official Merchant Data Standards Manual states that cryptocurrency purchases must use MCC 6012 or 6051 and include additional indicators identifying the transaction as crypto. MCC 6012 applies to certain financial institutions, while MCC 6051 covers cryptocurrency sales by non-financial institutions. The manual does allow some NFT purchases made directly in fiat to avoid the crypto transaction indicator, but that exception does not automatically extend to every asset another regulator describes as a collectible.

Visa's reported position therefore treats the direct acquisition of a fungible memecoin as a cryptocurrency purchase, even if Crossmint allows it through a collectible checkout. The separation forms part of a wider US framework: the SEC addresses securities status, the CFTC is pursuing its own market rules after the CLARITY Act failed to advance, and Visa applies private payment-network standards. One decision does not automatically determine the others.

What crypto coding could change for cardholders

Merchant category codes are generally invisible during checkout, but they tell card networks and issuing banks what type of transaction is taking place. The merchant and its payment partners submit the data through Visa's network, while the card issuer applies its own rewards, fee and approval policies.

Rewards may disappear

Chase's Freedom Unlimited rewards agreement says cryptocurrency and similar cash-like transactions do not earn points. That rule explains why the test purchase received rewards under the digital-media code but may not receive them once the payment is identified as crypto. Other issuers can use different terms. Processing the purchase under Visa's crypto requirements would not make every card respond identically, but it would give banks the information needed to enforce their existing rules.

Approval and fees will depend on the issuer

Some banks allow card-funded crypto purchases, while others restrict them or permit them only under particular conditions. An issuer may approve the transaction without rewards, apply its cash-like transaction policy or decline the purchase. The available reporting does not establish that every affected purchase will carry an additional fee. Cardholders would need to check their own agreement to see how the issuer treats MCC 6012, MCC 6051 or transactions described as cryptocurrency, cash-like or quasi-cash.

Apple Pay does not determine the category

Apple Pay and Google Pay provide a tokenized card-payment interface, but they do not decide how the underlying purchase is classified. The checkout can look unchanged on the phone while the transaction reaching the bank carries different merchant and crypto indicators. Using a mobile wallet therefore does not guarantee ordinary purchase rewards or avoid an issuer's restrictions on cryptocurrency transactions.

Crossmint maintains that its procedures have not changed

Crossmint has defended its classification of approved memecoins, saying supported assets undergo individual review and that relevant partners and payment providers are involved in determining how transactions are categorized.

After the September 19 report, a Crossmint spokesperson told The Block that the company remained in good standing with Visa, Mastercard and its other card-network partners. The spokesperson said its procedures had not changed and would be updated if the applicable guidance changed. Crossmint's checkout remained available on Robinhood Wallet and Fomo when The Block checked on September 19. Mastercard has not disclosed whether it has issued an instruction similar to the one reportedly provided by Visa.

The payment route has attracted new users, although the available adoption figures come from the companies involved. Crossmint said more than 68,000 first-time crypto buyers had used its Apple Pay checkout through Fomo as of April, and it attributed a sevenfold increase in Fomo's weekly active traders to the integration. Fomo separately told The Block that Crossmint represented approximately 7% of its user inflows. That limits the immediate reach of the reported Visa move: one route into memecoin trading may become less attractive, but buyers still have other funding methods.

What cardholders can check before buying

• Search the rewards agreement for "cryptocurrency," "cash-like" or "quasi-cash."
• Check whether the issuer permits credit-card crypto purchases.
• Ask how MCC 6012 or MCC 6051 is treated.
• Review any displayed fee before confirming the payment.
• Do not assume Apple Pay changes the transaction category.

A coding change will test how much the easy checkout mattered

The Crossmint integration removed several steps normally associated with buying crypto. Customers did not first need to purchase a stablecoin, transfer it into a wallet and complete a separate exchange transaction. Receiving ordinary credit-card rewards added another benefit, even if the points did not reduce the price charged at checkout.

Processing these purchases under Visa's crypto requirements would not prohibit them, but it could remove the rewards advantage and expose more transactions to issuer-specific restrictions. Activity after the coding change may show how sensitive demand is to payment friction, although it will not isolate the effect of lost rewards from possible fees, declined payments or changes to the checkout itself.

If activity falls after the coding correction, that would not necessarily show declining interest in memecoins. It could instead reveal how much demand depended on a checkout that behaved like an ordinary retail purchase. A token may fall outside securities law and still be processed as crypto, with the category and transaction indicators sent to the issuer influencing whether rewards apply, fees are possible or the payment is approved.

The next concrete signals will be whether Visa publishes or clarifies the reported instruction, how processors implement any coding change, whether Mastercard takes a similar position and how individual issuers treat the resulting transactions. Those developments would clarify the scope of the change without establishing that every card-funded memecoin purchase is affected in the same way.

This article is for informational purposes only. Credit-card rewards, fees, transaction approvals and crypto-purchase rules vary by issuer and may change.