The Ledger Card is a crypto card that allows you to spend your cryptocurrency seamlessly at more than 90 million merchants. The card offers cashback on all purchases, and is integrated with Ledger’s Ledger Live wallet software.
If you’re an active cryptocurrency user and use Ledger’s hardware wallets, the CL Card powered by Ledger can be an extremely convenient tool that will enable you to spend your crypto just as conveniently as what you’d get from using any other debit or credit card.
What is the Ledger Card?
The CL Card is a prepaid Mastercard card powered by technology from cryptocurrency security firm Ledger. The card itself is offered by fintech company Baanx, and is available to customers in the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area (EEA). The “CL” in the card’s name stands for “Crypto Life”.
CL Card owners can seamlessly transfer crypto from their hardware wallet to the card using the Ledger Live app. Once you top up the CL Card with some crypto, it’s ready to spend at any merchant that accepts Mastercard. Your crypto will be automatically converted into the local currency at the time of purchase. You can use the CL Card to spend cryptocurrencies like BTC, ETH, USDT, USDC and EURT.
How to get the Ledger Card?
In order to get the CL Card powered by Ledger, you’ll need a Ledger hardware crypto wallet.
If you own a meaningful amount of crypto, buying a Ledger wallet is a good idea even if you don’t plan on getting the Ledger card. Ledger wallets are quite affordable and will drastically improve the security of your crypto holdings. Check out our comparison between the Ledger Nano X and S Plus to find out which Ledger wallet is right for you.
Get a Ledger Wallet
If you already own a Ledger wallet, you can get the CL Card by creating an account on the CL platform. Please note that you will need to verify your identity using the CL platform if you want to get and use the CL Card.
Cashback rewards
The CL Card provides cashback rewards on every purchase. The rewards are paid out in the form of crypto assets. Currently, users can choose between Bitcoin (BTC), Tether (USDT) and Baanx (BXX). Users who choose BTC or USDT will see 1% cashback rewards, while 2% cashback rewards are available for users who choose to receive them in the BXX token.
The cashback rewards are calculated and distributed on a monthly basis. At the end of each month, you will receive the cashback reward according to how much you spent using your card during the month.
Stableloan and Cryptodraft features
By partnering with Baanx to launch the CL Card, Ledger has delivered a very convenient way for users to spend their crypto holdings and earn some cashback rewards along the way.
However, CL Card holders also get access to extra features such as the ability to use their crypto as collateral to borrow funds.
Stableloan
Stableloan is a crypto lending feature that allows users to provide their cryptocurrencies as collateral to borrow funds. At the moment, you can use either BTC or ETH as collateral to borrow funds via Stableloan. You can use the feature to borrow the USDC, USDT and EURT stablecoins.
The CL platform provides a calculator which will tell you how much collateral is required given your desired loan amount, length and interest rate. You can take out a loan with a duration between 3 and 12 months, but you can settle the loan at any time you wish. The interest is credited monthly, and will be automatically deducted from your wallet.
Like with any other crypto-collateralized lending product, you need to keep in mind that the assets you use as collateral can be volatile. Therefore, it’s important to monitor your LTV (loan-to-value) ratio. If the value of your collateral ddrops too much, you might be required to add additional collateral.
Cryptodraft
Cryptodraft is a crypto credit line feature that allows users to spend up to 60% of the value of their collateral as credit. As long as your LTV is kept below 10%, you can benefit from interest-free spending. However, the platform does charge a 1% monthly percentage rate if you tap into more than 10% of your collateral.
Ledger Card alternatives
Of course, the CL Card powered by Ledger is not the only crypto card available on the market. In fact, there’s quite a few options available that will allow you to spend your crypto balances for everyday purchases. Here’s a few examples:
Binance Card
Coinbase Card
Crypto.com Visa Card
Wirex Card
BitPay Card
Gemini Credit Card
If you’d like to learn more about these cards and how they stack up against each other, take a look at our comparison of the best crypto cards.
The bottom line - The CL Card is a solid product for Ledger users
If you own a Ledger wallet and use the Ledger Live software as your primary way of engaging with your crypto, the CL Card can be a good option.
The card’s close integration with Ledger’s ecosystem of products ensures that topping up the card and using it is a smooth process. The biggest downside of the CL Card is the 2% spend fee. Even though this fee is offset to an extent by the cashback rewards, the fees associated with the CL Card are quite high when compared to most competitors.
While the cashback rewards aren’t as flashy as what’s offered by some competitors, the CL Card is very accessible and you don’t have to own any special tokens in order to get one. As long as you own a Ledger hardware wallet and live in a supported country, you can order a CL Card and get started with spending your crypto seamlessly.
