OrbitX spends your own crypto, but the fees and the paperwork around it are the story

Updated October 2026

Licensed

Available in US

Fast payouts

18+ Only

The OrbitX card is a Visa payment card that draws on crypto you hold yourself. You lock USDT or USDC as collateral in a wallet you control; when you pay for something, the card converts what it needs and the rest stays where it was. That is a genuinely different proposition from the common crypto card, where a company holds your balance and issues a plastic card against it. If you have been reading about crypto cards because ordinary bank cards are awkward for you — a payment account you cannot open, a card declined at the shop, a country your bank does not serve — then OrbitX looks designed with you in mind. And in places it is: Apple Pay and Google Pay terms are published, the card works wherever Visa works, and the collateral stays out of a company’s hands.

The catch is everything around that mechanism. The annual fees are real money for a card you spend from a balance you already own. The physical card is not actually available yet, according to the app. The fee table on the company’s own page is garbled enough that I could not read it cleanly. The app sits at 2.5 out of 5 on the App Store from two ratings, one of which describes a transfer that failed on screen while it completed on the sender’s side. And the company states plainly that it is not a bank or a regulated financial institution. I scored it 5.7 out of 10 — a card with a good idea and a plausible use case, attached to a business whose public paperwork is not yet finished enough to trust with a large balance.

Who it suits: people who already hold USDT or USDC on a self-custodial wallet, who spend that balance day to day, and who read terms rather than skim them. Who it does not suit: anyone who wants a reliable, cheap physical card next week; anyone who needs a specific country confirmed in advance; anyone who would keep a large stablecoin balance on the platform while waiting for a physical card that does not exist yet.

The conditions described here are current as of October 28, 2026.

Will they give you the card?

Short answer: probably, if you are not a US citizen and not sanctioned — but nobody can tell you from the public pages whether your specific country is served, because no country list is published.

Here is the actual rule as stated. There are two sets of terms. International users are covered by the International Consumer Terms; US consumers are covered by separate US terms. To get the international card you must attest that you are “not a United States citizen”. You must also not be sanctioned under OFAC. Beyond that: no country list. That is the whole of it. The pages do not enumerate eligible or excluded jurisdictions, and I could not find one.

What this means for you in practice is that the eligibility test is a self-declaration rather than a published matrix. If you are a citizen of a country with its own sanctions regime, or one under broad OFAC exposure, the card may not be for you, and you would find out at the screening stage rather than from a list. If you hold citizenship somewhere unusual while living elsewhere, you are attesting to citizenship, not residence — those are different questions, and the form asks about the first.

One piece of background that helps you read this rule. Merchants can look up the six or eight digits at the start of a card number to see which institution and which country issued it, and may apply extra scrutiny when the issuer country differs from the billing address. That is why a card issued in one country can look “foreign” to a shop in another. A Singapore-registered programme issuing a card you use in, say, Brazil or Nigeria or Vietnam is exactly that situation. It does not mean declines, but it is the background reason to expect some.

What is not stated: whether you can rely on this card in your particular country, and what happens if you move. There is no residency condition published, no list, and no stated policy on relocating.

How to get it

The route is the iOS app. The app is called OrbitXPay, age rating 18+. KYC exists — the app’s own release notes mention the KYC process and, notably, resubmissions, which tells you that applications do sometimes get sent back for more material. What documents you need is not stated. Proof of address is not stated. How many tiers of verification exist is not stated.

On the card itself: it is a Visa. A virtual card is available now. Plastic and metal cards are listed on the fee page, and the table there is garbled — the readable fragments are “Neo: Visa Platinum” and “Lux: Visa Signature” — so treat the tier-to-card mapping as partly unreadable rather than as a clean spec. The app says physical cards are “coming soon”. Delivery, where a physical card applies, is quoted as “1 to 4 weeks depending on user location”. Replacement cost is not stated.

So the honest summary: you can get a virtual Visa now, you may get a physical one later, nobody says when, and the tier names on the fee page do not parse cleanly enough to trust without support confirming them.

Fees: what it really costs

This is the weakest part of the card, and the reason for the low cost score. Let me put the numbers in one place first, then walk through what they mean when you actually spend money.

Three ordinary payments, with what actually applies.

A £30 subscription in your home currency. You are spending a non-USD amount, so the card association converts. The card is USD-based: collateral is measured in USD and non-USD transactions are converted by the card association. For consumer cards the FX fee was not found on the published pages, so what applies to you here is the card network’s own conversion plus whatever conversion the merchant’s acquirer applies — which is usually where the cost actually lives. For corporate cards there is a stated 1.50% forex fee on non-USD spend plus a $0.20 transaction fee, so a £30 charge on a corporate card would carry those two on top of the network conversion.

A $60 grocery shop. This is the easy case. USD spend against USD-measured collateral, no conversion question, no stated consumer FX fee. On a corporate card you would still pay the $0.20 transaction fee.

A $200 cash withdrawal. Here the number that is published is “Base ATM charges + 2% + $2” — and the tier this applies to is unclear from the table. Add the ATM operator’s own charge on top of that. If the card is USD-based and you are paying local cash in another currency, the conversion question comes back too.

Two things to hold onto. First, the highest single figures here are the card prices: $100 for plastic and $350 for metal, on a card that spends collateral you already own and cannot go overdrawn. You are buying a physical object, and metal at $350 is a purchase decision, not a fee. Second, the $12 and $30 annual fees are charged annually only — no monthly version exists to average out.

For context on why the fiat side of this is normal: a prepaid card draws on a stored balance, while a standard debit card asks your bank to withdraw from a linked account at purchase time. Many crypto cards behave like the prepaid model — crypto is converted and loaded as fiat balance. In the pre-loaded balance model the card can only spend what you loaded, which is the safety property that keeps a bad week from becoming an overdraft.

Top up: how the money actually gets in

There is no top-up. That is not a gap in my research — it is the design. The card is collateralised directly from a self-custodial wallet: you hold USDT or USDC yourself, you post it as collateral, and the stablecoin is liquidated at the point of sale when you pay. The app shows two accounts, “Cash Account” and “Card Account”. On-chain network fees for your deposit are charged by the blockchain, not by OrbitX.

Which networks is not stated. This is the part that catches people, so let me be blunt about why. A deposit sent on a network the card provider does not support, or to an address belonging to a different network, can be lost or need manual support recovery with no guarantee. Blockchain transfers are irreversible by nature. If OrbitX supports Base and you send on Tron, or supports Ethereum and you send an ERC-20 token to a Solana address, there is no undo button anywhere in the stack. The card pages do not name the networks, so the practical advice is the only advice available: get the supported-network list from support in writing before your first transfer, and read it twice.

Some context worth having. USDT has been issued on networks including Ethereum, Tron, Solana, Polygon, Avalanche and others; Tether describes it as a token built on multiple blockchains with reserves intended to back it 1-to-1. Circle lists USDC as natively supported on 38 networks as of 16 September 2026, including Ethereum, Solana, Base, Polygon PoS, Avalanche, Arbitrum and Stellar — but also stopped supporting USDC on Tron in February 2024, so “USDC over TRC20” is not a native option. On Ethereum, fees are paid only in ETH, so a wallet holding USDT with no ETH cannot send at all.

On withdrawal: no balance-return process is described. What the terms do say is that “Any unencumbered Collateral balances shall remain freely accessible” — unencumbered, that is, not tied up against charges. For consumer cards, top-up details are not stated beyond the collateral mechanism itself.

Paying with it every day

This is where the card is genuinely good, and it is why the everyday-use score is the highest of the five.

Apple Pay and Google Pay terms are published, which means both mobile wallets are supported. If your bank card works, this can work: Apple Pay replaces the card number with a device-specific Device Account Number stored in the Secure Element, never on Apple servers, and each payment uses a one-time dynamic security code. You can also add a tokenised number to a phone that the issuer later restricts — the issuer can block a tokenised number on magnetic-stripe, phone or website use — so the mobile-wallet route is not automatically the protected one.

Where you can spend: wherever Visa is accepted, subject to the prohibited list. Prohibited are cash-like transactions including cryptocurrency itself, wire transfers, and betting, and the card may deny “internet gambling”. That last part is worth understanding rather than discovering at a till. A merchant category code is a four-digit number classifying a business, and MCC 7995 covers gambling — casinos, betting, lotteries. Many issuers block it by policy rather than by law, and the blocked list varies by issuer.

If a payment declines, two ordinary culprits: some merchants decline prepaid or foreign BINs because the BIN lookup reveals the card type and issuer country, and Address Verification Service — which compares numeric parts of the billing address a buyer typed against issuer records — is generally unavailable for foreign-issued cards, which can cause declines. Also, a declined authorisation may leave a hold on your funds that can stay for several days, typically up to 7.

Disputes work in a documented way: report a disputed charge within 60 days of posting, the issuer has 10 business days to respond to a Notice of Dispute, and if it is unresolved after 30 days it may go to arbitration. That is a real process with real deadlines. Do not let a charge sit past the 60 days thinking you will get to it.

Two things not stated: rewards of any kind, and the app’s quality. OrbitXPay sits at 2.5 out of 5 on the App Store from two ratings, read on 2026-10-21 — a sample far too small to judge anything, but worth knowing before you rely on the app daily. A Google Play listing was not found.

What can go wrong

Let me separate what is documented from what is my own reading.

The app complaint. An App Store review warns that a bank transfer showed as failed in-app while the sender’s side completed, and that support replied from an address that looked non-official. That is a user report, not an established fact, and I am weighting it accordingly — but a transfer-status mismatch is precisely the failure mode that matters for a card backed by collateral. If the app says your deposit failed when it did not, and you top up again, you have funded twice. I have found no official incidents and no Trustpilot page.

The company. OrbitX Network Group Pte. Ltd, 3 Fraser Street, #04-23A Duo Tower, Singapore, UEN 202448623M. The terms state the company is “not a bank or regulated financial institution”. The card issuer is named as Third National, under licence from Visa. That structure — a Singapore programme manager in front, a named licensed issuer behind — is the standard architecture for a card like this, where the crypto brand is often only a programme manager or front-end that markets the card while the issuer holds the programme. It also means your agreement with the programme manager is not a banking agreement.

Custody. This is the good part and it is worth stating precisely: the terms say “OrbitX and Issuer will not, in any circumstance, be holding custody of your Collateral”. With a self-custody-linked card the funds stay in your own wallet until the moment of payment. The trade is explicit — you bear sole responsibility for key loss, phishing, and clipboard-hijacking malware that swaps copied addresses. A seed phrase is typically 12 to 24 words and anyone who obtains it can restore the wallet and spend its funds; a stolen key has no built-in recovery, because the network cannot freeze or return anything.

Liquidation. Two triggers are named: a payment not settled within one calendar day, and collateral falling below the charges. If you rely on this card for something time-critical and your collateral is thin, a failed authorisation followed by a price move against your stablecoin is a real scenario. Stablecoins are not necessarily stable — TerraUSD collapsed in May 2022 and USDC temporarily lost its peg in March 2023 during the US banking crisis. Tether also says it disables tokens in wallets on the OFAC sanctions list and has frozen funds tied to illicit activity, so these assets are not censorship-proof in your favour either.

Not stated. Whether 2FA or an instant card freeze exists, contact-form languages and support hours, and any news I could find. Support is reachable at [email protected].

The category risk. Programme closures in this space are not theoretical. Visa terminated its global agreements with FTX on 13 November 2022 and the FTX US debit card was wound down by its issuer. WaveCrest, a Visa issuer that supplied crypto card brands, was suspended by Visa in Europe in 2018, closing all WaveCrest-issued Visa programmes. A closure typically means a notice period, then loading and spending stop, then you are asked to withdraw remaining balances. That is the scenario where “non-custodial” matters most — your collateral is yours regardless — and also the scenario where your spending card stops working with no alternative.

KYC reality. If due diligence cannot be completed, EU rules require the institution to refrain from the transaction or relationship and, where necessary, end existing relationships. That is why accounts get closed or frozen pending documents, and it is the normal reason a self-custody user loses access to an interface — the funds are safe in your wallet, the card is not.

What to take instead

Three alternatives with published detail, for comparison.

Sponge scores lowest of the four but is the simplest shape: a virtual card created in the app, issued by Rain, funded from USDC in the Sponge wallet. Almost everything else — who qualifies, what it costs, fees — is not stated at all, which is the real problem. An age minimum of 13 on the platform terms sits oddly against the 18+ norm for cards.

Xplace is the strongest of the set on published detail, and the closest competitor if you want a card with a physical option on the way. Virtual cards are instant; Silver is live, Gold and Platinum are coming soon with 7-14 business day delivery. It has two modes — Cash mode spends your stablecoin balance, Credit mode borrows against your holdings with no origination fee. Deposits run on Solana and include BTC (cbBTC), ETH (wETH), SOL, JitoSOL, USDC, USDT and xStocks. Platinum carries 0% FX. What it lacks is a country list, with the same “not available in all jurisdictions” hedge. Tier fees are steep — $99 to $999 a year for the physical-metal end.

ether.fi is the one that publishes its jurisdiction list most honestly, including the line “if your jurisdiction is not listed, you will not be able to apply” and a country-by-country roster with 31 US states, plus Belgium and Ireland eligible without physical delivery. It is the most compliant-looking of the four and also the one with the most intricate fee logic: an FX fee layered on the base rate by tier, and cashback in ETHFI locked for 7 days with monthly ladders that step down at $2,000, $3,000 and up to $50,000 depending on tier. That token choice is a real cost of the reward.

My read: if your priority is a country you can verify in advance, ether.fi is the honest page. If your priority is a physical card already shipping, Xplace. If your priority is spending collateral you personally hold with no platform balance in between, OrbitX is still the cleanest architecture of the three — it is the only one whose terms explicitly promise no custody of your collateral.

Who I would recommend it to

I would recommend OrbitX to someone in this position: you already hold USDT or USDC on a self-custodial wallet, you spend stablecoins rather than long-term crypto, and you are comfortable reading terms and treating a card as a thin layer over your own funds rather than as a financial product. If that is you, the design fits — the collateral never leaves your control, mobile wallets are supported, and the card cannot overdraw because it only spends what you have posted.

I would not recommend it yet to someone who needs a working plastic card this week, who is in a country they need confirmed first, or who plans to keep a large stablecoin balance parked on the platform while a “coming soon” physical card finishes being built. The annual fee plus the card price is a poor trade for that wait.

The one thing I would tell anyone: before your first transfer, ask support in writing which networks are supported for collateral deposits and for withdrawals, and get the answer in a message you can keep. The pages do not say, and getting it wrong on an irreversible transfer is the one mistake here that has no recovery path. Check the app’s current ratings too — the one complaint on record was a transfer-status mismatch, which is the failure you are most exposed to.

Finally, keep your own records. If the IRS treatment ever matters to you, note that digital assets are treated as property, so exchanging them for goods, services or dollars generally produces a taxable gain or loss measured in local fiat currency at the fair market value on the transaction date — each card payment funded from crypto can be a separate disposal. That is context, not advice, and what applies to you depends on where you live.

Frequently asked questions

What is the OrbitX card?

It is a Visa payment card that spends crypto you hold yourself rather than a balance a company holds for you. You post USDT or USDC as collateral from a self-custodial wallet, and the card liquidates what it needs at the point of sale. The company behind it is OrbitX Network Group Pte. Ltd in Singapore, which states it is not a bank or regulated financial institution, and the issuer is named as Third National under licence from Visa.

Is OrbitX a bank, and who owns it?

No. The terms say directly that OrbitX is “not a bank or regulated financial institution”. The registered entity is OrbitX Network Group Pte. Ltd, 3 Fraser Street, #04-23A Duo Tower, Singapore, UEN 202448623M. It is a card programme manager in front of a licensed issuer, which is a common structure for cards of this kind — but it means your relationship is not a banking relationship.

Who can get the OrbitX card?

International users under the International Consumer Terms, and US consumers under separate US terms. For the international card you must attest you are “not a United States citizen” and are not sanctioned under OFAC. There is no country list published, so you cannot confirm your own country from the pages — that has to come from support.

Does the OrbitX card require KYC?

Yes. KYC exists and the app’s release notes mention both the process and resubmissions, which suggests applications do get sent back. What documents are required, whether proof of address is needed, and how many verification tiers exist are all not stated on the card’s public pages.

How much does the OrbitX card cost?

The annual fee is $12 for Neo and $30 for Lux, charged annually only. Card prices are listed as $100 for plastic on Neo and $350 for metal on Lux, though that table is garbled. For corporate cards the forex fee is 1.50% on non-USD spend, with a 0.50% deposit fee and a $0.20 transaction fee. Consumer FX was not found on the pages.

Can I use the OrbitX card in my country?

There is no published list of countries, so you cannot check. The only stated conditions are that you are not a US citizen for the international card and not sanctioned under OFAC. Because the BIN lookup reveals the issuer country, expect the card to look foreign-issued in some places, which can cause extra scrutiny or declines at some merchants.

How do I top up the OrbitX card?

You do not top it up in the usual sense. Collateral is USDT or USDC in your own self-custodial wallet, liquidated at the point of sale. The app shows a Cash Account and a Card Account. Networks are not stated on the card pages, and an irreversible transfer on the wrong network can be lost, so confirm the supported list with support first.

Is the OrbitX physical card available?

Not yet, according to the app, which says physical cards are “coming soon”. Virtual is available now. Plastic and metal are listed on the fee page with quoted delivery of “1 to 4 weeks depending on user location” where a physical card applies. Replacement cost is not stated.

Is OrbitX safe for my money?

The strongest thing on the page is custody: the terms say OrbitX and the issuer “will not, in any circumstance, be holding custody of your Collateral”. That removes counterparty risk on the crypto itself. Against that, the app sits at 2.5 out of 5 on the App Store from two ratings, one review reporting a transfer that showed failed in-app while completing at the sender, and support replied from a non-official-looking address.

Is OrbitX worth it?

For someone spending stablecoins they already hold in self-custody, potentially — the architecture is cleaner than most, with Apple Pay and Google Pay supported and collateral that stays yours. Against that: $12 to $30 a year, card prices up to $350, no published limits, no published networks, a garbled fee table, and no physical card yet. I scored it 5.7 out of 10.

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