Airtm Card

What the Airtm Card is

Airtm is a digital dollar wallet used by freelancers, remote workers and creators in Latin America to get paid in USDC and cash out locally, and the card is its spending product. The card is a virtual Visa prepaid card issued in the United States and funded from your Airtm balance, so purchases settle in dollars without local taxes or card restrictions.

The fee structure is genuinely cheap

Issuing the card is free. Loading funds costs 1% on the first US$200 you add in a calendar month and nothing beyond that, which caps the monthly load cost at US$2. There is no annual fee and no monthly card fee, and because the card is denominated in USD, spending on international platforms avoids the currency-conversion charges that make local cards expensive.

Who issues and regulates it

The Airtm Prepaid Virtual Card is issued by Lead Bank, an FDIC member, under licence from Visa U.S.A. Inc., and managed by Bridge Ventures. That is a clearer regulatory chain than most virtual card resellers offer, though Airtm's own balance is a USDC-based wallet rather than a bank deposit.

Where it fits

The card is aimed at people who earn in dollars and need to pay for international services: subscriptions, ad platforms such as Google Ads and Meta Ads, travel bookings, gaming and marketplaces. Airtm supports over 500 payment methods across about 190 countries, and the platform reports 58.7 million transactions.

Airtm's card competes with the other dollar-denominated cards built for Latin American earners — the ARQ Card, which is also funded from digital-dollar accounts and charges no monthly fee, and the Ripio Card, which adds 2% back in crypto. Airtm's differentiator is the freelancer payout network behind it rather than the rewards, and load fees are capped at about US$2 a month. Our crypto cards directory lists all three by country.

Card

• USD virtual Visa prepaid card, 100% digital with no shipping.
• Issued in the United States, so it works where local cards are refused.
• Apple Pay and Google Pay support for in-store and mobile payments.
• Funded directly from your Airtm balance in a few clicks — no extra bank account needed.

What it is used for

• Subscriptions such as Netflix, Spotify and Disney+ without local tax surcharges.
• Advertising platforms including Google Ads and Meta Ads.
• Marketplaces and shopping sites such as Amazon, Temu and Booking.
• Gaming platforms including Steam, PlayStation and Xbox.

The wallet behind it

• Balance denominated in USDC, the Circle-issued stablecoin backed 1:1 with the dollar.
• US Virtual Account with ACH details for receiving payments as if you held a US bank account.
• Direct Payoneer integration so Payoneer balances can be withdrawn into Airtm.
• Over 500 payment methods across roughly 190 countries for funding and cash-out.

Dollar-denominated by design

Airtm's wallet runs on USDC, the stablecoin issued by Circle and backed 1:1 with US dollars held in US bank accounts or Treasury instruments. That means the card spends a dollar balance rather than converting crypto at the till, which is why there is no per-transaction conversion fee.

What you can load with

The card itself is loaded from your Airtm balance. That balance can be funded through the platform's 500+ payment methods, which include bank transfers, e-wallets and cryptocurrencies, so the practical funding options depend on your country.

Why the model suits freelancers

If you are paid in USDC by platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, Deel or PayPal, the balance already sits in dollars. Spending it through a USD-issued card avoids a conversion to local currency and back, which is the step that normally costs money.

Card pricing

• Issuance: free
• Loading funds: 1% on the first US$200 added in a calendar month
• Above US$200 per month: no fee
• Maximum monthly loading cost: US$2 (2 USDC)
• Annual fee: none

Why the cap matters

Because the 1% charge stops after US$200 in a month, the card's running cost is capped at two dollars regardless of how much you spend. That makes it one of the cheapest cards in this directory for people who load small amounts regularly, and effectively free for anyone loading more than US$200 a month.

Where costs can appear

The card settles in dollars, so US-dollar purchases have no FX step. Costs can still arise on the wallet side when converting between local currency and USDC, or when cashing out locally through Airtm's payment-method network. Deposits in the Airtm balance are wallet holdings rather than FDIC-insured bank deposits, even though the card itself is issued by an FDIC-member bank.

Activation

Request the card from the Cards section of your Airtm account. Activation requires a verified profile and takes a few minutes up to two business days.