KAST affiliate program review: 0.20–0.50% of card spend, payout only by request
KAST pays affiliates 0.20–0.50% of referred card spend plus cash milestones. Rewards lock for 14 days and are paid only on request through a manager. 6/10.
KAST, the stablecoin card, publishes a rate card most programs in this section do not: 0.20% to 0.50% of a referred customer’s eligible card spend, up to $500 in one-off cash as that customer passes four spending milestones, and $100 to $2,000 when they buy a paid membership. What it does not publish is how the money leaves. Every reward locks for 14 days, and the current help pages say an affiliate who wants to withdraw must ask their affiliate manager, who files a manual request that is processed in batches. No minimum, currency, fee or timetable is stated. We read the rewards guide, the affiliate agreement of 8 May 2026, the rewards terms of 29 April 2026, the platform terms of 7 July 2026, the Anjouan register and Trustpilot on 25 September 2026. Our score is 6/10.
Key points
- 0.20% to 0.50% of eligible card spend, set by the affiliate’s tier (5 to 500 active referrals) and the customer’s membership. The 0.50% ceiling applies only to Tier 5 affiliates whose referral holds a Premium or Private card, and KAST does not say how Tier 5 is reached. Rewards guide, updated 6 July 2026.
- One-off cash on top. Up to $500 in total once a referral’s cumulative spend reaches $6,600 ($250 at Tier 1), and $100 to $2,000 when they buy a first-year Premium ($1,000 a year) or Private ($10,000 a year) membership. Amounts fall or vanish in some countries, which KAST does not list.
- Withdrawal only by request. Rewards lock for 14 days; the program guide of 10 September 2026 then routes every payout through an affiliate manager and a batch process. Asked whether commissions are paid monthly, the same page answers no.
- No cookie window, no click rule, no lifetime clause. The affiliate agreement of 8 May 2026 gives 10 business days to dispute a commission report, promises notice of rate changes only “where practicable”, and forfeits unpaid commission on termination for breach.
- Counterparty: KAST Tech, company 16223, Anjouan. The Anjouan Offshore Finance Authority’s online register shows licence L16223/KT, incorporated 15 December 2025, valid to 15 December 2026. Trustpilot: 2.6/5 from 209 reviews, 60% one-star, on 25 September 2026.
Who runs the program
The Affiliate and Referral Program Terms, effective 8 May 2026, are made with “KAST Tech and its affiliates”. The platform terms of 7 July 2026 pin that down: KAST Tech, registration number 16223, incorporated in Anjouan, Union of the Comoros. No separate payment company is named, so the affiliate contracts with the same offshore entity as the cardholder. KAST’s leadership page names Raagulan Pathy as CEO, and its footer states that it is “a financial technology company, not a bank”, with cards, custody and on/off ramps provided by licensed partners.
The register entry is the one independent record. On 25 September 2026 the verification page at anjouanofa.org, which presents itself as the Anjouan Offshore Finance Authority’s licence register, listed KAST Tech as licensed: company number 16223, licence L16223/KT, incorporated 15 December 2025, valid until 15 December 2026. It names no licence class, and KAST’s own site does not link it; the matching company number in the platform terms is the only cross-check. So the entity you contract with is younger than a year, and an Anjouan licence says nothing about whether a card may be sold in your readers’ country. Thrill’s casino contract pairs a Costa Rican company with an Anjouan licence in the same way; see our Thrill affiliate program review.
Joining is free and open to creators, publishers, community leaders and businesses aged 18 or over; the eligibility page says a small but relevant audience can qualify. Approval is at KAST’s “sole discretion” (§4.1) and affiliates must pass its identity verification (§3). An approved affiliate leaves the retail referral scheme, whose rates “no longer apply” (program comparison); referred users get 20% off their first membership payment through an affiliate link, against 10% through a friend’s code.
Commission structure
Three earning types, all in US dollars, all from the rewards guide updated 6 July 2026. The tier is set by “active referrals”, users who have completed qualifying activity rather than merely signed up, and upgrades are automatic.
| Affiliate tier | Active referrals required | Standard card spend | Premium or Private card spend | First-year Premium / Private membership |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | 5 | 0.20% | 0.25% | $100 / $1,000 |
| Tier 2 | 50 | 0.25% | 0.30% | $150 / $1,500 |
| Tier 3 | 100 | 0.25% | 0.30% | $150 / $1,500 |
| Tier 4 | 500 | 0.30% | 0.45% | $200 / $2,000 |
| Tier 5 | Not published | 0.30% | 0.50% | $200 / $2,000 |
Five reward tiers, four published thresholds. The level table stops at Tier 4, so the 0.50% headline belongs to a tier nobody can plan for. Tiers 2 and 3 pay the same despite needing 50 and 100 referrals, nothing is published for fewer than five active referrals, and membership commissions apply to the first year only. The spend commission has no stated end: you earn “as long as your referral continues to use their KAST card”. At $10,000 of eligible Standard spend that is $20 at Tier 1; the same spend on a Premium card at Tier 5 is $50.
| Referral’s cumulative eligible spend | Tier 1, running total | Tiers 2 and 3 | Tiers 4 and 5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| $100 | up to $20 | up to $30 | up to $40 |
| $600 | up to $50 | up to $75 | up to $100 |
| $1,600 | up to $100 | up to $150 | up to $200 |
| $6,600 | up to $250 | up to $400 | up to $500 |
The milestone figures are running totals, not four bonuses. KAST’s own example: a referral who spends $100 earns you $20 at Tier 1; when they pass $600 you receive $30 more, not $50. Every figure is “up to” because the amount “depends on your referral’s country”, and in some regions rewards “may be lower or not available”; the FAQ acknowledges affiliates seeing $0 against a spending referral. The country schedule is not published. Refunds claw a milestone back, and it is reissued if the referral crosses the line again.
“Eligible” spend is narrower than card spend. The rewards terms, effective 29 April 2026, exclude cash-equivalent transactions, P2P transfers, wallet funding, gambling, government payments including taxes, and insurance (§5.5), allow caps per transaction, day or month (§5.2), and bar stacking rewards on one transaction (§5.3). There is no CPA, no hybrid and no negotiated rate on any public page; a sub-affiliate share exists (§4.4) with no published percentage.
Attribution and cookies
Tracking runs through KAST’s own affiliate portal, a sign-in page marked “Beta” that issues a one-time code by email, SMS or WhatsApp. The program guide says to use the portal’s tracking link and warns that “using another link may not track affiliate activity accurately”. The portal reports clicks, sign-ups, verified users, first card transactions, spend milestones and membership purchases. Among the listed reasons a commission may be missing: the referred user has not completed identity verification, or falls outside country eligibility.
That is all that is published about attribution. No cookie duration, no first- or last-click rule, no cross-device statement, no lifetime clause and no named tracking provider appear in the guides or the agreement. The 45-day window in §5.2 of the agreement is easy to misread: it sits under the retail Referral Program and requires the referred friend to generate eligible spend within 45 days of identity approval. It is a qualification deadline, not an affiliate cookie; as our exchange affiliate comparison notes, the two answer different questions. The affiliate side says only that multiple accounts and commission “through accounts you control” are banned (§4.2).
Payouts
Two locks, then a request. Every reward is credited “locked” and becomes redeemable after 14 days; the rewards terms call this the Timelock Period, let KAST extend it during a “fraud, compliance, or risk review”, and let KAST “amend the duration of the Timelock Period at any time… with or without prior notice”. Then, per the program guide of 10 September 2026: contact your affiliate manager, agree the redeemable amount, and the manager “can submit a manual payout request for review and processing”. Requests “are currently reviewed and processed in batches, so withdrawals may not be completed immediately”. The FAQ on the same page reads, in full: “Are affiliate commissions paid monthly? No.”
KAST’s older pages disagree. The July rewards guide says affiliate rewards “can be withdrawn from your KAST account” after tapping Redeem in the app, and the statement guide of 9 August promises a monthly statement listing “expected payout method and timing”. A statement is a report, not a payment; the September pages describe the procedure, and we plan on the manager route.
The contract is harder to reconcile. The rewards terms define the Rewards Balance as something that “may not be transferred to any external account, wallet, or third party, nor withdrawn as cash”, with redeemed rewards applied “to offset the Participant’s next eligible card transaction” (§6.1). Three sections earlier, §4.1 says cash rewards “may be redeemed to the USD Balance Account… from which the Participant may withdraw”, subject to “any applicable minimum payout thresholds”. Where the contracts conflict, the rewards terms yield to the affiliate agreement (§1), which pays commissions “in such form, currency, and at such frequency as specified by the Company on the Platform from time to time” (§4.5). The help pages are the payment terms, and they can change without a contract amendment. Get the withdrawal route, the minimum, the currency and the batch calendar from your manager in writing.
Reversals run deep. Refunds, chargebacks and ineligible transactions reverse the commission, and the rewards FAQ confirms the balance “can go negative”, with future rewards applied against the deficit. Under rewards terms §8.2 a clawback that exhausts the rewards balance is taken from the affiliate’s main USD balance, and a resulting negative balance must be repaid within 14 calendar days. Rewards carry expiry dates (§6.4) with no period stated, and a suspended or terminated KAST account forfeits every unredeemed reward (§9.3).
The terms that bite
From the affiliate agreement of 8 May 2026 unless stated otherwise.
- Ten business days to dispute a report (§4.5). KAST’s tracking records and calculations are “final and conclusive”; a discrepancy not raised in writing within 10 business days “constitutes acceptance of the Company’s records”. Section 17 adds that KAST’s records bind participants “for all purposes”.
- Rates can change with notice “where practicable” (§12). KAST may “introduce, vary, or remove… commission rates” at its sole discretion, with no notice period and no protection for the rate on existing referrals. The rewards terms go further: earn rates change “with or without notice” (§9.1), and a discontinued rewards program gets seven days’ notice (§9.2). We found no evidence that KAST has cut anyone’s rate; the clause allows it.
- Termination reaches unpaid commission (§16.2, §16.3). KAST may suspend or terminate “without prior notice” and “withhold or reclaim any unpaid Commissions” for breach, suspected fraud or irregularity in your referrals’ activity, if it decides you are “no longer fit and proper”, or if it discontinues the program. After termination for breach, fraud or serious misconduct, outstanding commission is forfeited outright.
- Marketing limits, and silence on paid traffic (§6, §4.6, §11). Affiliates may not promote “any third-party product, service, or business in connection with the Programs”, give financial advice, charge referred users a fee, or alter KAST’s materials without written consent. Brand bidding, paid search and incentivised traffic are not mentioned, and KAST “will not reimburse any costs you incur”. Anyone buying placements, through Coinzilla or elsewhere, should get the traffic source and creative approved first.
- Liability capped at $1,000 (§14). KAST’s total liability is the commissions paid in the previous three months or $1,000, whichever is greater; lost profits are excluded, and §15 makes the affiliate indemnify KAST for claims arising from their promotion.
- Two forums (§18). Disputes follow the platform terms, which name the laws and courts of Seychelles in one section and binding arbitration in Singapore under SIAC rules in another. The documents do not say which prevails.
Country rules have two layers and no list. Affiliates may not be resident in or “otherwise connected to” a restricted jurisdiction (§3). Customers learn whether their country is supported from the selector during identity checks, a list KAST “may update without notice” (platform terms); the country help page gives the reasons, bans VPN use, and names no countries. Since milestone rewards also vary by the referral’s country, an affiliate needs two lists KAST does not publish before choosing a market. Affiliate accounts can also be “offboarded due to extended inactivity”, per the statement guide, with no period defined.
What affiliates report
KAST’s Trustpilot profile showed 2.6 out of 5 from 209 reviews on 25 September 2026, 193 of them in the last 12 months, 36% five-star and 60% one-star, on a profile claimed in October 2025 and merged from earlier listings. It is a cardholder profile, and the September complaints concern account access rather than commissions: a 21 September review reports an account blocked after an incoming transfer, to which KAST replied that the transaction was approved and the account reactivated. On the other side, a review updated 17 September says a $981 transfer held for two weeks landed within a minute once support corrected the email on file, and a 10 September five-star review says cashback “has been fully fulfilled”.
One 14 September review complains of “frozen referral rewards” still unpaid after several follow-ups; KAST’s reply says the case is under review. It is a single retail report carrying a plug for another service, so we give it no weight. We found no affiliate-forum thread on KAST at all; Reddit, Bitcointalk and AffiliateFix return retail referral codes, not affiliate experience. There is no non-payment pattern to report, and no professional-affiliate track record either. Cardholder complaints about frozen accounts matter to an affiliate for one reason: a referral whose account is under review is a referral whose spend earns nothing.
KAST against the alternatives
Two other card and wallet programs read the same day. Neither is a like-for-like rate card, which is itself the finding: KAST publishes more numbers than either.
| Program | Published rate | Base | Payment terms |
|---|---|---|---|
| KAST | 0.20% to 0.50% of eligible spend, by tier; milestones up to $500; $100 to $2,000 per first-year membership | Referred customer’s eligible card spend and membership purchases | 14-day lock, then a manager-filed batch request; minimum, currency and calendar unpublished |
| RedotPay affiliates (our review) | “Up to 40% commission”; base and default tier unpublished | “Instant commissions for every card application, plus monthly earnings from your users’ transactions” | Instant on activation, monthly on transactions; amounts, minimum and currency unpublished |
| Tangem affiliates | Influencer rate by application; the retail referral scheme of 7 December 2023 pays 5 USDT per wallet sold | Hardware wallet sales, no spend share | USDT on TRC20; “no earlier than 30 days” after delivery in one place, “no later than 30 days after each purchase” in another |
RedotPay’s 40% is a ceiling with no floor and no stated denominator on its public page, so it cannot be compared with KAST’s percentage of spend; our RedotPay review later found the ladder behind it, 20–40% of a $10 or $100 card fee and 0.05–0.25% of spend. Tangem sells a product once, pays in a named currency within a named window, and leaves the influencer rate to a form. KAST is the only one of the three with a tier table, a milestone schedule and a signed agreement to read, and the only one whose payout requires a human. The two exchange programs we reviewed this week, GRVT and Flipster, leave the payment calendar unpublished in the same way; the habit is the sector’s, not KAST’s alone. Axiom, the Solana trading terminal reviewed later in this series, publishes a 30% share and a seven-tier fee ladder but no payout terms at all; see our Axiom affiliate program review.
Verdict
6/10. KAST earns the middle of the scale for a published tier table, a public affiliate agreement with a version date, a company number that matches a register entry, and a spend commission with no stated end. A publisher can model the offer: a Standard-card referral spending $1,000 a month is worth $2 a month plus $50 to $100 in milestones over its first $1,600 at Tier 1, and a Private membership sale is worth $1,000 on its own.
It misses what our wallet, card and tool rubric needs for 8 or above: a cookie window of at least 30 days, and a monthly payout. KAST publishes no attribution rule at all, and its payout is a request to a manager with no minimum, currency or date, described one way in July, another in September and a third in the rewards contract. Add the unpublished Tier 5 threshold, the country-dependent “up to” amounts, a clawback that reaches the main USD balance, and a nine-month-old Anjouan counterparty, and the score stays at 6. What keeps it above 5: the rates are published, approval is by application rather than invitation, and no affiliate has reported unpaid commission. The sensible use is a measured test with an existing audience, after written confirmation of the withdrawal route, the country schedule and the attribution rule.
FAQ
What is the KAST affiliate commission?
0.20% to 0.50% of a referred customer’s eligible card spend, depending on your tier and their membership, plus cumulative milestone cash of up to $500 per referral and $100 to $2,000 when a referral buys a first-year Premium or Private membership. The 0.50% rate needs Tier 5, whose threshold is not published, and a Premium or Private referral.
How and when does KAST pay affiliates?
Rewards lock for 14 days after crediting. To withdraw, you contact your affiliate manager, agree the amount, and the manager files a manual payout request that is processed in batches. KAST’s help page states that commissions are not paid monthly. No minimum, currency or processing time is published.
Is the KAST affiliate program legit?
The program has a public agreement dated 8 May 2026 with KAST Tech, and the Anjouan Offshore Finance Authority’s online register lists that company under licence L16223/KT until 15 December 2026. Those are records of a counterparty, not of payment performance; we found no affiliate reports of non-payment, and none of payment either.
What is the difference between KAST referral and affiliate?
Referral is open to every user in the app and pays milestone rewards on friends who spend within 45 days of identity approval. Affiliate requires an application, uses a tracking link and portal, and pays the tier-based spend, milestone and membership commissions above. Once approved as an affiliate, the referral rates no longer apply to your account. GMGN, a memecoin trading terminal, runs the inverse: one referral code for every account at 10% to 30% of its 1% fee, a higher rate by application, and general terms that ban publishing the link at all; see our GMGN affiliate program review.
Does KAST have a cookie window or lifetime attribution?
Neither is published. Spend commission continues “as long as your referral continues to use their KAST card”, but no page states how a customer is assigned when more than one link was clicked, or for how long a click counts. Ask for the rule in writing.
Can KAST take affiliate rewards back?
Yes. Refunds, chargebacks and ineligible transactions reverse the commission, the rewards balance can go negative, and under the rewards terms a shortfall is taken from your main USD balance, repayable within 14 calendar days. Termination for breach forfeits outstanding commission, and a terminated KAST account forfeits unredeemed rewards.
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