Plutus Review 2023: The Best Crypto Rewards Card?

Plutus is a finance app, currently available in EU/UK (soon also the US) that lets its users earn crypto cashback (up to 8%) while spending money with their VISA card.

Let's see together how Plutus and its card works, including the staking levels and subs, two important aspects to obtain more cashback and perks respectively.

👉 To open a Plutus account and get a $/£/€10 bonus, click here.

What Is Plutus?

Plutus is a fintech app that allows users to make purchases and earn rewards using both traditional money and cryptocurrency. It offers a Visa debit card that can be used to make purchases and automatically earn Pluton, a cryptocurrency developed by Plutus.

Users can also trade cryptocurrency with other Plutus users through the platform's decentralized exchange (DEX).

Plutus aims to make it easy for people to integrate cryptocurrency into their everyday lives, and its services can be used by those who are interested in using cryptocurrency as well as those who just want to use the card as a regular debit payment card with the added benefit of earning rewards in the form of cryptocurrency.

Who Created Plutus?

Plutus is a London-based company, founded in 2015. It is not a traditional bank, but it does offer financial services such as the Plutus debit card and the ability to trade cryptocurrency.

The company was founded by serial entrepreneur Danial Daychopan. The co-founder is Jasper Tay, an entrepreneur with a background in the financial markets. He has worked as a bond trader and has experience as a FinTech entrepreneur. In the past, he has launched a hedge fund trading platform for credit derivatives.

Plutus has also experienced consistent growth since it began collaborating with Curve, another financial technology company.

According to the website footer, Plutus is the trading name of BLOCK CODE LTD, Company number: 09674279 19 Heathman's Rd, Fulham, London SW6 4TJ, England, VAT number (UK): 254982764. Block Code Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales (09674279).

The Plutus Account and Visa Card are issued by Contis Financial Services Ltd who are authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 (registered number 900025) and UAB „Finansinės paslaugos „Contis“ who are authorised by the Bank of Lithuania under the electronic money institution license No. 53.

Inside the app, are present two account and two balances: the Plutus Card balance, and the Plutus account balance, which is managed by another Plutus banking partner called Clear Junction. This company is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority as an Electronic Money Institution.

In 2023 Plutus, together with the expected U.S. landing, will introduce a new banking partner, along with many innovations, such as Apple Pay, Polygon second layer, instant top-ups and more.

How Plutus Works

Plutus allows users to spend and earn rewards in the native cryptocurrency: Pluton (PLU).

The Plutus card is a debit card that is linked to a Plutus account and can be used to make purchases at merchants that accept Visa payments.

The main advantage of the Plutus card is the cashback rewards program, in which users can earn a percentage of their purchases back in the form of Pluton, the platform's native cryptocurrency. Pluton can be redeemed for rewards or converted back into the user's preferred cryptocurrency.

Pluton Rewards

The main advantage of Plutus, is earning up to 8% in Crypto Rewards on every purchase you make with the Plutus VISA Card.

This is the world's first decentralised loyalty rewards token, which means that it is a digital asset that can be earned as a reward for making purchases using the Plutus Visa debit card.

Unlike traditional loyalty programs, which are often restricted to a single merchant or store, Pluton can be earned on purchases made at any retailer that accepts the Plutus card (basically every website that accepts VISA or shop that has a POS).

Pluton can then be used for a variety of purposes, including making purchases, trading with other Plutus users, or holding as an investment.

Pluton Rewards Exclusions

The list of stores and sites that do not provide any cashback with Plutus is surprisingly short, and was created to prevent abuse of the platform.

1. Transferring funds from one bank account to another
2. Loading funds onto a prepaid debit card
3. Investing in financial securities such as stocks, bonds, or savings loans
4. Making a payment to a brokerage or dealer for the purchase of securities
5. Paying off a credit card balance with another credit card
6. Sending money to a foreign currency exchange service
7. Placing bets or wagers, including lottery tickets, casino chips, off-track betting, and race track bets
8. Loading value onto a prepaid store-branded gift card or other form of electronic cash
9. Sending money to friends or family members as a personal transfer or gift.

The Utility of Pluton (PLU)

One of the main efforts of the Plutus team, is to give Pluton more utility. Let's see the use cases for now:

• More perks with staking. The ability to choose up to 8 perks of your choice.
• The ability to convert your rewards into fiat currency at any time.
• Higher reward rates (%), with the ability to increase your crypto reward rate up to 8%.
• The opportunity to receive regular non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which will be available in 2023.

Plutus Plans

It's not mandatory to invest (staking) on Plutus to use the card, since the free tier (Starter) already includes 3% of crypto rewards in Pluton (PLU) on up to 250£/€ /mo spend. Also, 1 perk is included in the starter plan. That's very generous!

Plutus offers three subscription levels for its debit card: Starter, Everyday, and Premium. Each level offers a different set of perks, including a certain percentage of crypto rewards on purchases and the ability to choose a certain number of additional perks.

• Starter: the Starter subscription is free and offers 3% crypto rewards on up to €250 in monthly spending, as well as one perk and a 1% fee on DEX trades.
• Everyday: the Everyday subscription costs €4.99 per month and offers 3% crypto rewards on up to €2,000 in monthly spending, two perks, and a 0% fee on DEX trades.
• Premium: the Premium subscription costs €14.99 per month and offers 3% crypto rewards on up to €22,500 in monthly spending, three perks, and a 0% fee on DEX trades.

Staking Levels

For the users that want the highest cashback level possible, (and are aware of the risk that comes with staking) four staking levels are available:

The program includes four levels: Hero, Veteran, Legend, and G.O.A.T. Each level requires a certain amount of PLU to be staked and offers a certain percentage of rewards on purchases, as well as a certain number of additional perks.

• The Hero level requires 250 PLU to be staked and offers 4% rewards on purchases and 4 perks.
• The Veteran level requires 500 PLU to be staked and offers 5% rewards on purchases and 5 perks.
• The Legend level requires 1,000 PLU to be staked and offers 6% rewards on purchases and 6 perks.
• The G.O.A.T level requires 2,000 PLU to be staked and offers 8% rewards on purchases and 8 perks.

Plutus Perks

In the context of Plutus, a perk is a special offer or benefit that allows users to earn additional PLU, a cryptocurrency developed by Plutus. All Plutus users are entitled to at least one perk, and the number of perks can be increased based on the user's account subscription plan and staking level. Perks are triggered when a user makes a purchase from a participating retailer, and the equivalent PLU reward will be granted to the user within the next hour. Once a perk has been consumed, further transactions with the same retailer will earn the user the regular cashback rate for their account.

Thanks to this system, is basically possible to subscribe to services like Apple One, Netflix, Curve and many more "for free". However, this is not entirely true, since one must have to actually pay with fiat in advance for the services. After a day or two, Plutus will reward us in a PLU equivalent sum (limits apply). Let's have a look at the main perks available on Plutus and their limits:

• Netflix: Free monthly subscription;
• Spotify: Free monthly subscription
• Apple One: Free monthly subscription;
• Disney Plus: Free monthly subscription;
• Prime Video: Free monthly subscription;
• Apple Credit: Up to £/€ 10 in PLU per month;
• Curve: Up to £/€10 in PLU per month;
• And many other more...

Withdrawing Plutons (PLU) Rewards

Pluton (PLU) rewards can be earned through cashback and special offers, or perks, when using the Plutus debit card. These rewards can then be used in a variety of ways: they can be kept in the user's account for staking purposes, they can be withdrawn to an external crypto wallet, or they can be swapped for fiat currency to be added to the user's Plutus card balance for use at retailers that accept the card.

In order to be available for withdrawal or exchange, PLU rewards must be kept in the user's account for 45 days from the date they were earned. This is to prevent fraud and abuse of the rewards program. The status of a user's PLU rewards, including the total earned, available, and withdrawn, can be viewed in the Pluton tab of the Plutus web app. Pending PLU rewards are those that have yet to be used for withdrawals. The available balance is the balance of PLU earned from valid card transactions that have been flagged for review by the compliance team or that have not yet reached the 45 day mark. The withdrawal fee is of 3 EUR/GBP.

Pluton: Price Analysis

Pluton (PLU) is the ERC-20 cryptocurrency developed by Plutus. Pluton (PLU) is the world's first crypto rewards token, and was first introduced in 2015, soon after the Ethereum blockchain was launched, and a white paper and yellow paper detailing the token's mechanics and use cases were released in the following years.

In 2020, Plutus launched Rewards 2.0, which improved the rewards model and added new features and benefits for Plutus users.

The PLU token appears to have strong utility as a rewards currency for spending with the Plutus Card. This utility, combined with the low circulating supply and finite total supply of PLU, creates scarcity and adds value to the token.

A reward pool of 20 million PLU was established in 2016 and is currently used to provide customer rewards. The distribution of these rewards is reconciled and verified on a quarterly basis by a third party, Haggards Crowther, which is an ICAEW-accredited UK accountant. This adds transparency and accountability to the process of distributing rewards from the Pluton Rewards Pool to customers.

In fact, the price of Plutus held very well both during bull and bear markets:

Pluton, seems to be completely unaffected by trends (negative or positive) in Bitcoin and other altcoins. Indeed, when Bitcoin lost more than 70 percent in 2022, PLU instead continued a slow but steady climb in its price.

In fact, supply and demand is totally internal to the Plutus ecosystem. There are many users who are content with the free tier, and as soon as the 45-day "lock" of their rewards in Plutus expires, they exchange them into fiat. But it is also true, at the same time, that there are a niche of users who are staking PLUs to increase their cashback.

There is also a minority of people who trade short term PLU at centralized exchanges, as PLU is present on platforms like KuCoin, AscendeX and Coinbase, thus increasing the liquidity available in the market.

This is undoubtedly one of the main advantages of Plutus, allowing many to invest more boldly in this token.

2023 Difficulty Adjustments

One topic that brought not a little controversy, was the recent announcement of the change in the difficulty with which it will be possible to obtain PLUs through rewards.

Without getting too much into the technicalities, Plutus founder Danial Daychopan in December 2022 affirmed that to increase the longevity of the project, the PLU staking requirements for each Reward level, will have to increase periodically.

Starting in June 2023, the requirements will be raised quarterly for the first year. Semiannually for the second. Annually for the third year.

This announcement had a mixed reception from the community, because it will certainly drive the Pluton price higher, but with the cost of making the staking unattainable for a potentially big part of the newcomers.

Best Plutus Plan

Although the price of Plutus remained stable during the years, there is still an investment risk when staking. In fact, for staking is necessary to buy PLUs, or earn them by making payments with the Plutus card.

But if you are not an high spender, it is virtually impossible to expect to get to 250 PLUs in a short time. In fact, to obtain 250 PLUs through the free tier 3% cashback, considering the current value of €8.70, you would have to spend well over €/£ 60K.

The most attainable staking plan, the Hero, allows you to get only 1% more with 250 PLUs in staking. At the time of writing this article, the fiat currency equivalent of 250 PLU is about 2000 EUR / 1770 GBP.

Is it worth investing 250 PLU to get only 1% more than the free plan? For the vast majority of people, no, but for those who spend a lot each month, it might make sense.

For high spenders, the higher tiers (Veteran, Legend) could also be very attractive, especially the G.O.A.T tier, which with an investment of 2000 PLU, allows you to get even 8% cashback on every purchase.

On the other hand, for those whose spending does not exceed 2000 euros per month, the Everyday plan, which includes a monthly fee of 4.99 €/£ and no staking, is the best solution.

This way you will be able to get 3% cashback on a maximum monthly expenditure of 2000 €/£, without any investment (at zero risk), while also enjoying two perks. With this plan, the exchange fees on the DEX are also 0%, which is ideal for when you have to change your PLUs for FIAT.

It is also important to note that staking PLU is not a true staking as with other tokens. But it is a type of staking that, first of all, is non-custodial, and furthermore, it is possible to stop at any time, by moving funds elsewhere (but losing the attained level).

Plutus Pro & Cons

The main pros of Plutus are as follows:

• Plan everyday at 4.99 and the Starter are perhaps the best in the industry;
• Non-custodial wallet (Trust, Metamask, Walletconnect supported);
• Plutus token with a stable and slowly rising price. Does not follow Bitcoin;
• A large and close-knit community;
• Regular company-organized meetups;

The cons of Plutus are these:

• Due the banking partner limitations, it is still necessary to connect the Plutus Card to Curve, in order to use features such as Apple Pay;
• Increased difficulty in 2023 will allow fewer people to staking;
• Top-up from account to card is often slow and does not work on holidays;
• Still few utilities for PLU;

Bottom Line

Plutus is one of the most exciting crypto rewards card out there. It offers cashback rewards for spending on basically everything, which are paid in a proprietary cryptocurrency called PLU.

The Plutus card is linked to a user's Plutus account and must be topped up from the main account. Thanks to the DEX (available only in EU) Plutus allows users to buy and sell PLU, whose value can fluctuate on a daily basis. The PLU can be stored in your own non-custodial wallet (also valid for staking) and the internal earned PLU is stored in Plutus wallet, which can be withdrawn after a lock period of 45 days.

The service offers a variety of subscription levels, with different fees and benefits, and even the free level offers cashback rewards and one free perk. Plutus may be a good option for users who want to earn cryptocurrency rewards for their spending. In light of future changes in the difficulty adjustment, staking can secure higher rewards up to 8%, but is more tailored for high spenders and risk-conscious users.

👉 To open a Plutus account and get a $/£/€10 bonus, click here.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)