Girin Card

What is the Girin Card?

Girin Card is the first card issued natively for the XRP Ledger. It lets you spend XRP and RLUSD at Visa merchants without moving funds to an exchange, a bank or a separate fiat account first, and it markets itself on one promise: your assets stay under your own keys until the moment you pay.

The program sits behind a real corporate and licensing structure rather than a smart contract alone. GirinLabs Pte. Ltd. (Singapore, registration 202428236D) is the program manager, and the card is issued and BIN-sponsored by StraitsX Pte. Ltd., a licensed payment institution in Singapore, on the Visa network. The wallet terms are operated by Airin UK Ltd, the card terms are governed by Singapore law with disputes going to SIAC arbitration, and Girin secured a FinCEN MSB registration in the United States in August 2026 under the Bank Secrecy Act framework. Girin is explicit that it is a technology platform, not a regulated financial institution.

The wider Girin Wallet is not a newcomer: it launched in late 2024 as the first social-login wallet on the XRP Ledger and claims over 150,000 users. The card opened as a waitlist product in March 2026 and is now presented as available with instant virtual issuance. Samsung Pay support has been announced as coming.

How spending works

The flow is deliberately short: add funds to the card in XRP or RLUSD, tap or enter the card at any Visa merchant, and the balance is converted to the local currency at the live market rate at that moment, with settlement taking three to five seconds. RLUSD is a USD-pegged stablecoin, so funding with it is effectively 1:1 with the dollar, while XRP is converted at the market rate. You can also withdraw funds from the card back to your wallet in XRP or RLUSD, with the network fee shown before you confirm.

Two details in the card terms are worth understanding before you rely on the self-custody framing. First, when a transaction is authorised the company or the issuer freezes an amount of your digital assets equal to the settlement amount — which the terms define as the transaction value, applicable fees, foreign exchange charges and any applicable buffer amount — then converts it and settles through Visa. The conversion rate is described only as a commercially reasonable rate set by the company or issuer, so the FX buffer is real but not itemised publicly. Second, once you add funds, you are spending a USD card balance, not your wallet balance directly, so the self-custody guarantee is about your keys and seed phrase, which Girin never sees, rather than about the funds already loaded onto the card.

Virtual and physical cards

The virtual card is issued on approval and needs no shipping: it works for online and in-app payments and can be added to Apple Pay and Google Pay, but it cannot be used at an ATM. The physical card is a premium Visa with a chip and built-in NFC for in-store tap and travel, and it is the only format that can withdraw cash, at any Visa ATM worldwide. Both formats draw on the same balance, and the physical card must be activated in the app before use. Delivery costs and transit risk sit with the cardholder, and each member is limited to one card under the eligibility rules.

What it costs

The headline pricing is genuinely cheap to hold: no annual fee, no monthly maintenance and no inactivity fee, with no charge to add funds and no limit on how much you can load. The one-off cost is the card itself — $5.89 for virtual, $58.90 for physical, paid in XRP or RLUSD plus the network cost.

Use is where the percentages appear. Every non-USD purchase carries the Visa network rate plus a 0.75% Girin FX fee. Converting your asset into card balance costs 0% to 0.75% depending on which asset you use, so funding in RLUSD is the cheaper path than funding in XRP. ATM cash costs 2% on top of the cash limits. One disclosure gap is worth flagging: the terms allow a renewal fee when a card expires and reference that extra FX buffer in the settlement amount, and the help centre page on replacement card fees still says “to be updated”, so not every fee in the program is published.

Limits and cashback

Limits are unusually generous for a crypto card: a $500,000 monthly spending limit with a $5,000 maximum per transaction on both formats, unlimited top-ups, and ATM cash at $500 a day and $3,000 a month. There is also no published per-transaction, daily or monthly cap on adding funds.

Rewards are more modest than the marketing implies. The standing rate is 1% cashback paid in XRP, and it only applies to a limited slice of spending each month: $2,000 of eligible purchases on the virtual card (a $20 maximum) and $3,000 on the physical card ($30 maximum), with no carry-over between months. The “up to 5% cashback” claim comes from the 30-day welcome offer, where the physical card pays 5% on the first $1,000 — a maximum of $50 — and the virtual card pays 2% on the same first $1,000, worth up to $20. The welcome rate is the total rate, not an add-on. Cashback is finalised on the 14th of the following month and paid in XRP on the 15th at 10:00 KST, converted at the XRP reference value of that day, so the dollar value of your reward can move after it lands.

Who can use it

Eligibility requires an existing Girin Wallet account, completed KYC and AML verification, and no other Girin card; residents and citizens of restricted jurisdictions cannot apply, and the company may decline an application without giving a reason. The card page lists China, Iran and Indonesia as excluded regions. Gambling and adult content merchants are blocked per Visa rules and financial regulation, and the card must be used in line with the laws of whichever country you are in. On the device side, Apple Pay and Google Pay work today for both formats, with Samsung Pay announced.

Custody, structure and what to verify

This is one of the cleanest structures of any card in this directory: a Singapore-incorporated program manager, a licensed Singapore payment institution as issuer and BIN sponsor, a FinCEN MSB registration in the US, and a self-custody wallet underneath where the private keys and seed phrase are never held by Girin. What it does not have is any advertised deposit insurance — there is no FDIC, SIPC or equivalent protection published, because the loaded card balance is a spendable balance with the card issuer rather than an insured bank deposit. Treat the balance on the card the way you would treat funds on any prepaid program: load what you plan to spend rather than parking savings there, and keep the bulk of your XRP in your own wallet.

Before committing, it is worth confirming four things: the exact XRP conversion spread you are charged when funding, how the settlement buffer is calculated on non-USD transactions, the replacement and renewal fees that the published schedule does not yet state, and what the app ratings reflect — the Android app carries a 3.2 rating across around 364 ratings, well below the iOS figure, so recent reviews are the better signal on support and reliability.

Who it suits

Girin Card is a strong fit for someone already holding XRP or RLUSD who wants to spend it in the real world without an off-ramp, an exchange withdrawal or a bank in the middle — particularly XRPL-native users who value a licensed issuer, published limits and a fee schedule they can read in one page. It suits less well anyone chasing meaningful cashback, since the structure caps rewards at roughly $20 to $30 a month after the welcome offer; anyone who wants to fund a card from bitcoin, ether or a stablecoin other than RLUSD, which this card does not accept; anyone who needs insured deposits behind the balance; or anyone who wants cheap ATM cash, given the 2% fee and the $58.90 physical card. Start with the crypto cards directory; the closest comparison for a chain-native, self-custody wallet card is the Solflare card, and if you would rather keep spending and custody separate, the XRP news feed tracks the wider XRPL ecosystem this card is built for.

Girin Card features

• The first XRPL-native card — built for the XRP Ledger rather than bolted onto it.
• Spend XRP and RLUSD directly, with no exchange off-ramp and no separate fiat account to pre-fund.
• Self-custody wallet model — your private keys and seed phrase are never held by Girin.
• Real-time conversion at the live market rate at the moment of purchase, settling in three to five seconds.
• Virtual card issued instantly for online and in-app payments.
• Physical premium Visa card with chip and built-in NFC for tap payments in store and travel.
• Apple Pay and Google Pay on both formats; Samsung Pay announced.
• Global acceptance at 130M+ Visa merchants across 150+ countries.
• ATM withdrawals at any Visa ATM in local currency with the physical card.
• No annual fee, no monthly maintenance, no inactivity fee and no charge to add funds.
• Unlimited top-ups with no published per-transaction, daily or monthly funding cap.
• High spending limits — $500,000 a month and $5,000 per transaction on both formats.
• 1% cashback in XRP on eligible purchases, paid monthly.
• Welcome offer of 2% (virtual) or 5% (physical) on the first $1,000 in the 30 days after activation.
• Withdraw back to your wallet in XRP or RLUSD, with the network fee shown before you confirm.
• Licensed issue structure — issued and BIN-sponsored by StraitsX Pte. Ltd., a licensed Singapore payment institution.
• FinCEN MSB registration in the United States under the Bank Secrecy Act AML/CTF framework.
• Visa zero liability for unauthorised transactions, with global fraud protection.
• Self-serve card management — freeze the card, view transactions and withdraw from the app.
• CaaS infrastructure so partners can launch their own XRPL-native card programs on the same rails.

What the card does not include

• Any asset other than XRP and RLUSD — no BTC, ETH or other stablecoins
• A bank account, IBAN or fiat on-ramp — it is a spend card funded from crypto, not a dollar account
• Advertised deposit insurance: no FDIC, SIPC or equivalent cover is published for the loaded balance
• Cashback that keeps paying: rewards are capped at about $20 a month on the virtual card and $30 on the physical card
• A published replacement or renewal fee — the replacement fee page still says “to be updated”
• An itemised FX buffer: the terms include an unnamed buffer inside the settlement amount
• Free foreign-currency spending — every non-USD purchase carries the Visa rate plus 0.75%
• Cheap cash: ATM withdrawals cost 2% and are capped at $500 a day and $3,000 a month
• Availability in every country — China, Iran and Indonesia are excluded, and restricted jurisdictions cannot apply
• Gambling or adult content merchants, which are blocked under card network rules
• Apple Pay and Google Pay on a physical card that has not yet been activated in the app

Supported assets: XRP and RLUSD

Girin Card supports exactly two assets, which is the point of the product: it is built for the XRP Ledger ecosystem rather than for whatever token a user happens to hold.

• XRP — the native asset of the XRP Ledger, converted at the real-time market rate when a card transaction settles
• RLUSD — Ripple’s USD-pegged stablecoin, which converts effectively 1:1 with the dollar and removes price exposure from your card balance

Both can be added as funds, both can be withdrawn from the card back to your wallet, and both can be used to pay the issuance fee. The conversion fee ranges from 0% to 0.75% depending on which asset you use, so funding with RLUSD is the more predictable option: you know your dollar balance at the moment you load it, and the conversion is effectively one-to-one.

How the balance behaves

Adding funds creates a USD card balance inside the app, and the card spends from that balance. That means no token is sold at the point of sale, and no merchant ever touches crypto — they receive fiat through the Visa network exactly as they would from any card. It also means the card balance is a spendable balance at the issuer, not a self-custodied position: there is no published deposit insurance behind it, so the sensible pattern is to keep your holdings in your own wallet and load the card with what you intend to spend.

Rewards are paid in XRP

Cashback is calculated in dollars, finalised on the 14th of the following month, and paid in XRP on the 15th at 10:00 KST using the XRP reference value of that day. Because the payout is in a volatile asset, the dollar value of a reward can change after it is credited — a small but real difference from cards that pay stablecoin or cash. The standing rate is 1% on up to $2,000 of eligible monthly spend on the virtual card and $3,000 on the physical card, with a 2% or 5% welcome rate on the first $1,000 during the 30 days after activation.

Where the funds come from

There is no bank transfer, card top-up or other crypto accepted: you fund the card from a Girin Wallet holding XRP or RLUSD, which in turn is funded by sending XRP or RLUSD on the XRP Ledger. Girin Wallet itself is a self-custody wallet requiring a 1 XRP base reserve to activate an address, with support for trust lines to add other XRPL tokens, swapping, bridging to XRPL sidechains, and the Girin Point System rewards programme for ecosystem activity. If you need to buy XRP before funding the card, that happens outside Girin, on an exchange.

Girin Card fees

The fee schedule is published in full by the help centre and is one of the simplest in this directory: nothing recurring, and the costs that do exist are per-transaction percentages.

Limits

The numbers that decide the real cost

For a pure spender, Girin is cheap to hold and moderate to use: nothing recurring, no funding fee, and a 0.75% FX fee that is below what most traditional cards charge for international use, though it sits on top of the Visa rate and any settlement buffer. For cash users it is expensive: a $58.90 physical card plus 2% per ATM withdrawal inside a $3,000 monthly cash ceiling. And for anyone funding with XRP rather than RLUSD, the conversion fee of up to 0.75% is the number to compare against the spread you would pay on an exchange off-ramp instead.

What to confirm before funding

• The exact XRP-to-USD conversion spread applied when you load the card, and whether RLUSD is genuinely free to convert
• How the settlement buffer in the card terms is calculated, and whether it is refunded after settlement
• The replacement and renewal fees, which the published schedule does not yet state
• Whether the conversion fee differs by card format or region, since it is published only as a range
• How long refunds take to return to the card balance, and whether they are returned in XRP or RLUSD
• Any country-level restrictions beyond China, Iran and Indonesia that apply to your residency