Lolli adds automatic card-linked bitcoin rewards with Kard

Lolli has partnered with commerce network Kard to offer automatic card-linked bitcoin cashback to more than 600,000 customer accounts. The agreement, announced Tuesday, applies to qualifying Visa and Mastercard purchases at merchants across Kard’s network, including Dropbox, Hydro Flask and Stanley 1913. Users must link an eligible debit or credit card in the Lolli app to participate.

When a linked card is used at a participating merchant, Lolli credits bitcoin rewards directly to the user’s Lolli wallet. Rewards can be withdrawn over the Lightning Network or spent through integrations in the Thesis bitcoin stack, including Bitrefill. Lolli described the setup as removing the need to activate individual offers, allowing routine spending to generate bitcoin without extra steps.

Matt Luongo, co-founder of Thesis, characterized the user experience as “low-friction and automated,” adding that users “link a card once, and bitcoin shows up in their wallet from spending they were already going to do.” Kard gains access to a user base Lolli describes as bitcoin-native, while Lolli expands the set of merchant offers it can deliver without building new integrations or requiring manual activation.

Ben Mackinnon, CEO of Kard, called the tie-up a way to provide merchants with “a meaningful new channel into that audience.” Kard’s network gives merchants another method to run promotions to Lolli users who opt in by linking cards.

Lolli was acquired by Thesis in July. The company reports it has distributed more than $20 million in bitcoin to users to date and that some early users have earned more than 2 BTC. Lolli raised $8 million in a 2023 Series B led by Bitkraft Ventures, bringing its disclosed funding to approximately $28.3 million.

The partnership covers purchases made with Visa and Mastercard at participating merchants across Kard’s offer network. Lolli did not provide exact reward rates, saying eligible purchases will trigger bitcoin rewards automatically once a user’s card is linked.