Product Keynote: Raise

After a decade of development and multiple blockchain pivots, gift card industry leader Raise has finally cracked the code on tokenized gift cards—and they're doing it on Solana. At Breakpoint 2025, CEO George Bousis unveiled "smart cards," a new class of programmable digital assets that could fundamentally reshape how the world's billion-plus gift card purchasers transact.

Summary

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Raise, a company that has processed over $5 billion in gift card sales and serves 7 million active customers, announced the mainnet launch of their blockchain-powered smart card platform built on Solana. The company has already issued 50,000 cards on-chain since launching just weeks ago, with plans to scale to millions as they onboard major retail partners including Best Buy, Darden Restaurant Group, and CVS.

The announcement represents the culmination of work that began in 2015 when Raise attempted to launch tokenized gift cards on Ethereum. That initial effort failed to commercialize due to Ethereum's speed and cost limitations for retail-scale transactions. Rather than abandoning the vision, Raise spent the next decade refining their approach, securing dozens of patents, and waiting for blockchain technology to mature enough to handle the demands of a trillion-dollar industry.

The timing couldn't be more significant. The gift card market is projected to double from $1.2 trillion to $2.3 trillion over the next five years, yet the underlying technology has remained essentially unchanged for over a century—progressing only from paper certificates to plastic cards to email. Retailers currently pay up to 20% of gift card value in fees to issuers, processors, distributors, and other intermediaries, amounting to roughly $250 billion annually. Raise believes blockchain technology can dramatically reduce these costs while simultaneously solving persistent fraud and security challenges.

Key Points:

The Smart Card Innovation

Smart cards represent a fundamentally new approach to gift card technology. Unlike traditional gift cards that are static value stores, smart cards are programmable digital assets with configurable inputs and outputs built directly into smart contracts. This enables retailers to create dynamic, responsive promotional campaigns that were previously impossible.

Bousis illustrated this with a compelling example: AMC Theaters could automatically offer 50% discounts when it rains in a specific city. Since theaters incur fixed costs regardless of weather—staff wages, movie screenings, popcorn preparation—filling otherwise empty seats during inclement weather represents pure incremental revenue. Smart cards make this kind of real-time, data-driven promotional flexibility possible through on-chain logic that responds to external conditions like weather, sports scores, or other events.

Solving Industry Pain Points

The gift card industry faces several critical challenges that blockchain technology is uniquely positioned to address. Fraud and theft remain persistent problems, with traditional gift cards vulnerable to various attack vectors. Breakage abuse—where retailers rely on unused balances as a profit center rather than customer benefit—has turned gift cards into financial offsets rather than loyalty tools.

Security vulnerabilities in current systems create ongoing risks, and Bousis notably mentioned future quantum computing threats as an emerging concern the industry must prepare for. By moving gift card infrastructure onto blockchain rails, Raise aims to create fraud-proof, brand-owned instruments that provide retailers with better data, lower costs, robust security, and flexible utility. The platform also promises fast settlement, addressing another operational pain point in traditional gift card systems.

Raise's Market Position and Credibility

Raise brings substantial credibility to this initiative. Founded over 13 years ago, the company has raised $265 million from top-tier venture capital firms including NEA, Accel, PayPal, and Hanwha. Their consumer-facing Raise Cashback app allows users to earn rewards in both fiat and cryptocurrency at millions of stores, while their B2B platform powers loyalty programs for major brands including Built Rewards and Citibank.

The company's Retail Alliance foundation works to promote innovation across the gift card industry, positioning Raise as both a market participant and industry thought leader. This combination of consumer scale (80 million B2B reach), enterprise relationships, and decade-long blockchain expertise creates a unique foundation for driving widespread adoption of smart card technology.

Solana as the Enabling Platform

The choice of Solana reflects the practical requirements of retail-scale gift card transactions. Raise's 2015 attempt on Ethereum demonstrated that mainstream payment applications require transaction speeds and costs that legacy blockchains couldn't provide. Solana's architecture—capable of thousands of transactions per second with sub-second finality and minimal fees—finally makes tokenized gift cards economically viable at scale.

Bousis emphasized the strategic support from the Solana Foundation in bringing this vision to life. The deployment on Solana mainnet represents a significant real-world use case for the network, demonstrating blockchain's capacity to power mainstream financial infrastructure beyond speculation and DeFi applications.

Facts + Figures

• Over 1 billion people will purchase $1.2 trillion in gift cards this year
• The gift card market is projected to reach $2.3 trillion within five years, effectively doubling
• Retailers pay up to 20% of gift card value in fees, totaling approximately $250 billion annually
• Raise has completed over $5 billion in gift card sales since founding
• The company has raised $265 million from investors including NEA, Accel, PayPal, and Hanwha
• Raise serves 7 million active customers through their consumer platform
• The B2B platform reaches 80 million people
• Raise has issued 50,000 smart cards on Solana mainnet since launching weeks ago
• The company holds dozens of patents related to blockchain gift card technology
• Raise first attempted tokenized gift cards on Ethereum in 2015
• Major retail partners include Best Buy, Darden Restaurant Group, and CVS
• A token launch is planned for the first half of 2026
• The gift card concept has remained largely unchanged for over 100 years

Top Quotes

"When we tried to commercialize it, we realized that Ethereum was just too slow and too expensive for this to work. So where a lot of other startups quit, we put our heads down and tried to figure this out."

"We spent the next decade trying to solve this issue. And what I'm most excited about today is I think we finally cracked it."

"This year, more than a billion people will purchase $1.2 trillion in gift cards. And that number is going to 2x over the next five years to more than 2.3 trillion."

"The industry really hasn't evolved in over a hundred years since the first paper certificates were created. We've merely gone from paper certificates to plastic cards to email, all which are pretty non-secure ways to send and receive money."

"Retailers are stuck having to spend as much as 20% of the value of a gift card in fees... Retailers will pay a quarter trillion dollars in fees."

"We believe gift cards are one of retailers' most overlooked assets. Raise turns them into fraud-proof, brand-owned instruments that convert everyday purchases into more measurable and deeper engagement and measurable loyalty, all at a fraction of the price."

"This isn't just a vision anymore. We launched on Mainnet just a couple weeks ago and have already issued 50,000 cards on chain."

Questions Answered

What are smart cards and how do they differ from traditional gift cards?

Smart cards are blockchain-powered digital assets built on Solana that can be programmed with specific conditions and responses. Unlike traditional gift cards that simply store a fixed value, smart cards can incorporate external data inputs—such as weather conditions, sports scores, or event outcomes—and automatically execute promotional logic based on those inputs. For example, a movie theater chain could program smart cards to offer automatic discounts during rainy weather to drive attendance during slow periods. This transforms gift cards from static value stores into dynamic marketing and loyalty instruments.

Why did Raise choose Solana over other blockchains for smart cards?

Raise actually began developing tokenized gift cards on Ethereum in 2015, but discovered that Ethereum's transaction speeds and costs made commercial deployment impractical for retail-scale applications. Gift card transactions require fast, cheap processing to be viable at the volumes retailers need—potentially millions of transactions daily. After spending nearly a decade searching for the right blockchain solution, Raise determined that Solana's high throughput, low latency, and minimal transaction costs finally make blockchain gift cards economically feasible. The company is now working with strategic support from the Solana Foundation to scale the platform.

How much money do retailers currently lose on gift card fees?

Retailers currently pay up to 20% of gift card value in fees to the various intermediaries involved in gift card programs—including issuers, processors, distributors, activators, and card printers. With $1.2 trillion in gift cards sold annually, this translates to approximately $250 billion in fees paid by retailers each year. This cost structure forces retailers to rely on "breakage" (unredeemed gift card balances) and customer overspend just to break even on their gift card programs, turning what should be a customer benefit into a financial offset. Raise aims to dramatically reduce these costs through blockchain efficiency.

What retailers are already working with Raise on smart cards?

Raise has mentioned several major retail partners for their smart card platform, including Best Buy, Darden Restaurant Group (owner of Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, and other chains), and CVS. The company has already issued 50,000 cards on Solana mainnet since launching weeks before Breakpoint 2025, with plans to scale to millions of cards as more retailers join the platform. Raise's existing B2B business already powers loyalty programs for companies like Built Rewards and Citibank, providing established enterprise relationships to leverage for smart card adoption.

When will Raise launch a token?

Raise announced that a token launch is planned for the first half of 2026. While specific details about the token's utility or distribution weren't provided during the keynote, the announcement suggests that Raise intends to incorporate token economics into their smart card ecosystem. Combined with the ongoing product launches scheduled for 2026, this positions next year as a significant expansion period for the platform following the recent mainnet deployment.

What security problems do smart cards solve?

Smart cards address multiple security vulnerabilities inherent in traditional gift card systems. Current gift cards—whether physical cards or email delivery—remain susceptible to fraud and theft through various attack vectors. Blockchain-based smart cards create fraud-proof instruments by leveraging cryptographic security and immutable transaction records. Bousis also mentioned that smart cards help prepare for future quantum computing threats, suggesting the platform incorporates quantum-resistant security measures. The transparent, traceable nature of blockchain transactions also reduces breakage abuse and provides retailers with better data about gift card usage.