Lemon has introduced Argentina's first Bitcoin-backed Visa credit card, allowing users to access Argentine peso financing without liquidating their Bitcoin holdings through a collateral-based system.
Customers must lock up 0.01 Bitcoin as collateral, approximately $960 at current prices, to obtain an initial credit limit of 1 million pesos. The Bitcoin remains held as an immobilized guarantee rather than being sold or converted to fiat, according to La Nación.
Lemon plans to expand the product so that users can adjust collateral and credit limits over time. The exchange eventually aims to enable customers to settle dollar-denominated purchases directly in dollar-pegged stablecoins such as $USDC or $USDT.
Addressing Distrust in the Financial System
The launch addresses Argentines' long-running distrust of banks, rooted in repeated devaluations and the corralito deposit freeze in December 2001. That crisis wiped out savings and pushed many households to keep their wealth in cash dollars rather than peso accounts.
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. That stash persists outside the formal financial system 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 turning a favored savings asset into day-to-day spending power without forcing savers to unwind their Bitcoin or hard currency stash. The card arrives as crypto rails become more deeply embedded in Latin American finance.
Regional Crypto Adoption and Global Trends
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.
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.
Unique Positioning in the Argentine Market
What differentiates Lemon's offer is its explicit positioning as a Bitcoin-guaranteed, peso-denominated revolving credit product issued into a highly dollarized banking environment. While inflation has recently cooled from prior 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.