Lemon, one of Argentina’s largest crypto exchanges, has launched what it describes as the country’s first Bitcoin-backed Visa credit card, offering users Argentine peso financing without forcing them to liquidate their BTC savings.
According to La Nación, a leading Argentine daily newspaper, customers must lock up 0.01 Bitcoin (BTC) as collateral (around $960 at current prices) to obtain an initial credit limit of 1 million pesos, with the BTC held as an immobilized guarantee rather than being sold or converted to fiat.
Lemon plans to expand the product so that users can adjust collateral and credit limits over time and eventually settle dollar-denominated purchases directly in dollar-pegged stablecoins such as USDC (USDC) or Tether (USDT).
From banking crises to mattress dollars
The launch speaks to Argentines’ long-running distrust of banks, rooted in repeated devaluations and the “corralito” deposit freeze in December 2001, which wiped out savings and pushed many households to keep wealth in cash dollars rather than in peso accounts.
Related: Coinbase pauses local fiat rails in Argentina less than a year after its arrival
A Reuters report, citing official data used in Argentina’s International Monetary Fund program, estimated that Argentines hold about $271 billion in undeclared cash dollars stashed “in mattresses and overseas bank accounts,” far outside the formal financial system.
That stash persists even after President Javier Milei’s “Fiscal Innocence” tax amnesty initiative pushed close to 300,000 savers to declare more than $20 billion.
By letting users post Bitcoin as collateral for local credit lines, Lemon is effectively trying to turn a favored savings asset into day-to-day spending power, without forcing savers to unwind their BTC or their stash of hard currency.
Crypto rails deepen in Latam
The card also arrives as crypto rails become more deeply embedded in Latin American finance. Data compiled from Dune and other analytics platforms indicate that centralized exchanges in the region saw their flows grow roughly ninefold over the past three years.
Exchange flows reached around $27 billion in 2024, and cumulative regional crypto activity approached $1.5 trillion between 2022 and 2025, with firms like Bitso, Mercado Bitcoin, and Lemon handling a growing share of remittances, hedging and day-to-day payments.
That backdrop gives Lemon a ready-made user base already familiar with using digital assets for both savings and transactions.
Related: Milei’s party wins midterms, but crypto won’t celebrate
Crypto-collateralized credit goes mainstream
Globally, crypto collateralized credit is no longer a novelty. Various platforms in the United States, Europe and Brazil allow users to borrow against Bitcoin or stablecoin positions, and some fintechs offer cards that draw on crypto-backed credit lines.
What’s different about Lemon’s offer is its explicit positioning as a Bitcoin-guaranteed, peso-denominated revolving credit product issued into a highly dollarized, still-fragile banking environment.
While inflation has recently cooled from triple-digit levels, it remains elevated by global standards in the low-30% range, and memories of past crises continue to shape Argentine saving behavior.
Magazine: Kevin O’Leary says quantum attacking Bitcoin would be a waste of time
