Gems are BOXED's in-app currency. Everything you do on the site is priced in gems, so this guide covers what they are worth, every way to get them, what you can spend them on, where to review your history, and what to do if your balance goes negative.

Gems are the currency used across BOXED for opening boxes, entering Box Battles, playing Hop or Drop, using vending machines, and paying shipping when you withdraw a physical card. One gem is worth roughly one US cent, so 100 gems is about one US dollar. You can buy gems with a card or with crypto, or earn them through missions and surveys, gem drops, vouchers and gift codes, affiliate referrals, and the monthly gems included with a subscription. Your balance and every transaction are listed under Account, then Balance History, and your plays are under Account, then Game History.

Gems are a closed in-app currency. One gem is approximately equal to $0.01 USD, which makes 1,000 gems roughly $10 and 10,000 gems roughly $100. Gems have no value outside BOXED and are not a bank balance, but the items you obtain with them can be withdrawn as physical cards, exchanged, or, where you have access, withdrawn in crypto.

Gems are sold in bundles, with the exact pricing shown at checkout. Standard bundles are available at $25, $50, $100, $250, $500, and $1,000. If you would rather choose your own amount, a custom purchase is available with a minimum of 500 gems.

One thing to know before you start: BOXED is not available in Michigan, Washington, Louisiana, and South Carolina. That is a block on the whole platform in those states rather than a restriction on one payment method, so accounts cannot be used from there and gems cannot be purchased by card, by crypto, with a gift code, or through Skinsback. If you believe you are seeing that restriction in error, check whether a VPN or proxy is routing your connection through one of those states. See regional availability and "action not permitted" errors.

Card payments are handled by Stripe, and you can pay with a credit card, a debit card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay. If a card is declined, the decision usually comes from your bank rather than from BOXED, and the fixes are set out in why didn't my gem purchase go through.

You can also purchase gems with BTC, ETH, USDC, or USDT. A few things worth knowing before you send:

If a purchase does not land in your balance, see why didn't my gem purchase go through.

Buying is not the only route. You can also add gems to your balance through:

Gems are spent across the whole platform:

Going the other way, any card in your inventory can be sold back for its gem value at any time, which returns gems to your balance. See cards: sell back, withdraw, exchange or display. Every outcome is generated by our provably fair system, which you can verify yourself.

A negative gem balance means your account shows fewer than zero gems. It is usually caused by a reversed transaction or a payment dispute, where gems were spent before the underlying payment was returned. While your balance is negative, spending is restricted.

What you can do to clear it is purchase gems to bring the balance back to zero or above. As soon as the balance is at zero or higher, normal use resumes automatically. If a dispute was raised by mistake with your bank or card issuer, withdrawing that dispute with them is usually the cleanest first step, and you can then top up the remaining difference.

There is also an Allow Negative Balance setting, which lets an account continue operating with a negative gem balance down to a limit of 50,000 gems. To enable it, you need both a verified phone number and completed identity verification. See phone verification and identity verification (KYC). For background on what can and cannot be reversed, see refunds: what's refundable.

You can get more gems by purchasing them with a card or with crypto through Refill Gems, or by earning them through missions and surveys, gem drops in site chat, gift codes, daily rewards, affiliate referrals, or the monthly gems included with a subscription.

One gem is worth approximately $0.01 USD, so 100 gems is roughly one US dollar and 1,000 gems is roughly ten US dollars. Exact bundle pricing is shown at checkout.

You can see your gem balance and every transaction on your account under Account, then Balance History. Your box openings and other plays are listed separately under Account, then Game History.

A negative gem balance is normally the result of a reversed transaction or a payment dispute. You can clear it by purchasing gems to bring your balance back to zero or above, at which point normal use of your account resumes. If you believe the reversal was an error, please ask to speak to a human and our team will look into it.

No, gems cannot be bought from Michigan, Washington, Louisiana, or South Carolina, because BOXED is not available in those states at all. The block applies to the whole platform rather than to card payments alone, so crypto, gift codes, and Skinsback are not alternatives and accounts cannot be used from those states. If you are not in one of those states and still see the restriction, check whether a VPN or proxy is placing your connection there.

No, Watch 4 Gems is not available. The watch-to-earn rewarded ads feature has been removed, and we do not have an estimate for if or when it might return. In the meantime you can still earn gems through missions and surveys, gem drops in site chat, daily rewards, and affiliate referrals.

Gems themselves are an in-app currency and are not converted back into a cash balance. What you can do is use gems to obtain items, and then withdraw those items as a physical card, exchange them, or, where you have access, withdraw value in crypto. See cards: sell back, withdraw, exchange or display and crypto (ETH) withdrawals.