New Lemon Release Bitcoin-backed Credit Card In Cash-hoarding... (2026)
Crypto exchange Lemon has launched a Bitcoin-backed Visa credit card in Argentina, letting users lock up BTC as collateral to access peso credit lines without selling their coins.
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).
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.
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.
Source: CoinTelegraph
