Pera Card

What the Pera Card is

Pera Wallet is the reference wallet for the Algorand ecosystem, and the Pera Card is its attempt to make on-chain dollars spendable in ordinary shops. The card is a debit Mastercard powered by Immersve, a platform that settles crypto spending through traditional card networks while leaving the assets with the user.

The design is genuinely unusual for this directory. Rather than topping up a card balance held by the issuer, each Pera Card has its own wallet address. You send USDC to that address and spend from it: purchases are withdrawn from the wallet in real time, and you can withdraw the USDC back to your Pera Wallet at any point without asking anyone's permission. Because that address sits on Algorand, balances and transactions are visible on-chain, and settlement is fast and cheap.

The economics

Mastercard, no signup fee, no annual fee, and no charge for applying or issuing the card. Immersve states plainly that the applicable blockchain transaction fees apply when invoking the smart contract to fund the card, and that a foreign currency conversion fee applies to transactions in another currency - a percentage it does not publish. That unpublished conversion rate is the main cost question mark, and independent discussion of the Algorand launch put it around 1.5%.

Where it works

At launch the card was live in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain and New Zealand - the Immersve markets where the programme is licensed. Immersve's onboarding footprint is wider, spanning Australia, Brazil, Mexico, much of Europe and Switzerland, with expansion flagged for the rest of Latin America, parts of Asia, the United States and then MENA.

Current status - and why that matters

Pera's card page now reads Back Soon, Better Than Ever, with a waitlist signup and a promise of expanded country coverage, a card built natively into Pera Wallet, and a cleaner onboarding experience. In other words the first-generation card has been taken offline as the team rebuilds it, so there is nothing to apply for today beyond joining the waitlist. Any comparison against other cards should note that you cannot currently open one.

Who it suits

If you already hold USDC on Algorand and want to spend it without handing custody to an exchange, this was one of the cleanest designs in the market and is worth a waitlist spot. If you need a card this week, look at Bleap or work through the wider crypto cards directory while the relaunch completes.

Card features

• Debit Mastercard issued through Immersve's card protocol.
• Works online and in store once added to Apple Pay or Google Pay.
• Unique wallet address per card, so funds stay in your own control.
• Real-time settlement: purchases are withdrawn from your wallet as they happen, using Algorand's fast finality.
• Withdraw remaining USDC back to your Pera Wallet at any time without issuer approval.
• On-chain transparency: balances and card transactions are visible on the Algorand blockchain.

What is coming in the rebuild

• Expanded country coverage beyond the original five launch markets.
• Native integration between the card and the Pera Wallet interface.
• A cleaner onboarding-to-spending flow.

What the card spends

The Pera Card is built around Algorand-native USDC (USDCa). You fund the card's own wallet address with USDC, and spending triggers an on-chain settlement in real time.

What the underlying protocol supports

Immersve's card protocol currently supports USDC held on Algorand, Arbitrum, Base, Ethereum and Polygon PoS, with more USDC chains to be added. Pera's own launch was Algorand-first, matching its wallet audience.

Custody model

This is the card's defining feature. Funds are not swept into an issuer balance when you load them: they sit at a wallet address tied to your card, on a chain you can inspect, and you can pull them back to your Pera Wallet at any moment. Immersve handles the fiat settlement and regulatory side; the assets stay yours until the moment they are spent.

Published card fees

• Application and issuance: no charge.
• Signup fee: none.
• Annual fee: none.
• Blockchain transaction fees: applicable when invoking the smart contract that funds the card, paid on-chain.
• Foreign currency conversion fee: applies to transactions in a currency other than the card's, at a percentage Immersve does not publish.

Unpublished or estimated

• The foreign currency conversion percentage - community discussion at launch suggested roughly 1.5%, which is not an official figure.
• Load limits, spending limits and per-transaction ceilings.

How the cost compares

On headline pricing this is one of the cheapest structures in the directory: nothing to open, nothing to hold, nothing annual, and network fees on Algorand that are fractions of a cent. The catch is the unpublished conversion markup on non-dollar spending, which is exactly the number you need to compare it against cards with a disclosed 1% or 1.2% FX fee.