A Mexico-only crypto card that publishes no numbers

Updated October 2026

Licensed

Available in US

Fast payouts

18+ Only

Orbi is a crypto-linked Mastercard programme built for Mexican residents, announced on 8 October 2026 by SoFi Tech Solutions, Orbi and Mastercard together. On paper it does something interesting: it turns a crypto balance into an ordinary payment card, with a credit line secured against digital assets. In practice, when I read through the card’s own public pages, I keep running into the same wall — the interesting numbers are not printed anywhere. What does the card cost? Not stated. What does an ATM withdrawal cost? Not stated. Which networks do I send my money on? Not stated. So this review is going to be honest about a product that is genuinely promising and genuinely undocumented, and I will tell you which side of that balance you fall on.

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

The verdict: 5.0 out of 10

Orbi scores 5.0 out of 10. It is a well-built idea attached to a thin public presentation. If you are a Mexican resident, over 18, and you want to spend a stablecoin balance through something that behaves like an ordinary Mastercard, the concept fits your situation well. If you are anywhere else, if you need to know what a payment costs before you make it, or if you are the kind of person who reads the fees page before signing up — this is not the card for you, because there is no fees page with numbers on it.

The audience note matters: this is for Mexican residents borrowing against digital assets on a Mastercard. That is a specific person with a specific problem, and it is the person Orbi was built for.

Here is how the score breaks down, criterion by criterion, with the marks exactly as I have them:

Read that table honestly. The 7 for reliability is not a compliment — it is the absence of a bad record. No complaints were found, no reviews were found, and no Trustpilot page exists. A young product with no complaints is a young product, and I would rather tell you that than dress silence as a track record.

Who will they give you the card to

They will give it to people in Mexico, and to very few others. The card’s own words are “Servicios disponibles únicamente en territorio mexicano” — services available only in Mexican territory. The terms add that some services are limited to Mexican citizens or permanent residents.

That second sentence is the one to read twice. “Territory” and “citizenship” are different tests. If you live in Mexico but are not a citizen or permanent resident, you may be able to use some services and not others, and the public pages do not tell you which is which. If you are a Mexican citizen living abroad, “territory” suggests you are outside the boundary the sentence describes.

There is no country list beyond Mexico, and no list of excluded jurisdictions. So the honest answer to “is Orbi available in my country” is: outside Mexico, no. Inside Mexico, it depends on your status, and you will need to ask.

How to get it

You verify your identity, you get a virtual Mastercard instantly, and the rest is not published. Orbi verifies your email, mobile number, data and documents — though the specific documents are not named. You must be at least 18. Proof of address is not stated. The step-by-step sequence is not stated either.

The card itself is described as a “Mastercard administered by Orbi”. The virtual card is issued “al instante”, instantly. A physical card is not mentioned on the page; news coverage says physical and virtual were planned. The card’s currency is not stated. Delivery, if you order plastic, is not stated — there is no delivery window, no cost, no country list.

The help centre does have a “Verificación de Identidad” section with five articles, which tells me identity verification is a real, documented part of the product rather than a formality. It does not tell me what you will be asked for.

What I would want you to take from this section: getting the virtual card looks quick, and getting verified is a genuine step. Before you invest an afternoon, the two questions worth asking support are which documents are accepted and whether a physical card exists yet.

Fees: what it really costs

Nobody will tell you. This is the section I struggled most with, because there is very little to report. The terms say fees are listed in the fees section of the website — and give no amounts. Card cost: not stated. Fee schedule: not stated. ATM withdrawal fee and allowance: not stated. Limits: not stated, though the terms reserve Orbi’s right to set or change limits per transaction and per day, week or month without prior authorisation. Tiers: not stated; a single card is shown.

What is stated is the mechanism. Funds are converted to fiat at the point of sale, and news coverage notes that merchants receive fiat. Card currency: not stated.

So here is the honest table, with “not stated” where the card’s public pages say nothing:

Three everyday payments, and what I can say about each:

A coffee in Mexico. The card converts your crypto to fiat at the point of sale. Merchants receive fiat, so the shop sees an ordinary Mastercard payment. What I cannot tell you is whether a conversion fee is deducted on top, because no amount is published. This is the everyday case where the missing numbers bite least, if the conversion rate is visible before you confirm — and I would check that in the app before you rely on it.

An online subscription in dollars. Here you are exposed to a currency conversion you did not choose, plus whatever foreign-exchange treatment applies, and neither number is published. If the merchant runs an address-verification check, a foreign-issued card can decline — that is a general property of cross-border cards, and this one is Mexican-issued, so a shop outside Mexico may treat it as foreign.

Withdrawing cash at an ATM. Cash withdrawal at ATMs is listed as a supported use, which is a point in the card’s favour — many crypto cards refuse. But the fee and the allowance are not stated, and ATM withdrawals are where cardholders quietly bleed money when the schedule is hidden. If you use ATMs, get the schedule in writing from support before your first withdrawal.

My judgement: the undisclosed cost is not necessarily high. It is simply unknown, and unknown is its own cost. If you are the kind of person who would rather not spend money to find out, that alone settles the question for you.

Top up: how the money gets in

You send USDG, USDT or USDC, or you borrow against digital assets — and the card does not name the networks. That is the whole of it. The card works with USDG, USDT and USDC, and the credit line “se garantiza con activos digitales”, is secured with digital assets. Which networks are supported: not stated. Minimum top-up: not stated. How long a top-up takes: not stated. Fees for loading: not stated.

Two practical points follow from the stablecoins being USD-pegged rather than from Orbi itself. USDT and USDC are US-dollar-pegged, and the BIS put about 90% of stablecoin market capitalisation in these two as of July 2025. Circle says USDC is redeemable 1:1 for USD and fully backed by cash and cash equivalents. Stablecoins are not immune from trouble: TerraUSD collapsed in May 2022, and USDC temporarily lost its peg in March 2023 during the US banking crisis.

And the network question is not a technicality. Blockchain transfers are irreversible, so a deposit sent on a network Orbi does not support, or to an address belonging to a different network, can be lost or need manual support recovery with no guarantee. Circle stopped supporting USDC on Tron in February 2024, so “USDC over TRC20” is not a native option. Ask support which networks to use before your first transfer, and test with a small amount.

Paying with it every day

Everyday use is the virtual card, spent anywhere Mastercard is accepted, with cash withdrawal as the fallback. The virtual Mastercard is issued instantly. Apple Pay and Google Pay are not disclosed on the card page, though there are Google Play and App Store app links — I did not read the ratings. Wallets: not stated.

Rewards: the card page does not mention cashback. Orbi Boost offers rewards for freezing digital dollars, and carries its own warning that it “no garantiza recompensas” — it does not guarantee rewards. I would treat any Boost figure as a bonus, not a reason.

Disputes: the timeframe is not stated. The terms do allow Orbi to hold assets during a dispute, which is worth weighing before you put meaningful balances on the card.

On the wider mechanics, a few things explain why crypto cards feel different at a till. The card network routes the payment and sets the rules; the issuer is the licensed institution that actually holds the card programme; the crypto brand is often just the programme manager or front end. Mastercard and Visa do not issue crypto cards to consumers themselves — they license issuers and can suspend a programme. In November 2022 Visa said it had “terminated our global agreements with FTX”, and the FTX US debit card was wound down by its issuer.

Declines are part of this world. Some merchants refuse prepaid or foreign-issued cards because the issuer-identification lookup reveals the card type and country. Address verification, which compares the numeric parts of the billing address, is mainly offered in the US, Canada and UK and is generally unavailable for foreign-issued cards — a common cause of declines. A declined authorisation can also leave a hold on your funds for several days, typically up to seven.

What can go wrong

The realistic bad outcomes are a lost transfer, a frozen asset during a dispute, a programme that changes under you, and a wallet that is not really yours. Let me take them in order.

Lost transfers. The networks are not stated. If you guess wrong, the money may be gone, and support recovery carries no guarantee.

Assets held during a dispute. The terms permit it, and no dispute timeframe is published. So if something goes wrong with a payment, your crypto may sit still while it is looked at.

Limits changing without warning. Orbi may set or change transaction, daily, weekly and monthly limits without prior authorisation. That is a broad discretion, and it means a limit that works today may not work next month.

Custody. The credit line is secured by your digital assets, but the custody model is not stated. Freeze and two-factor authentication for the card are not stated. This is the deeper risk in the category: control of crypto belongs to whoever holds the private key, and with a custodial wallet the provider holds the credentials, so you must trust them completely. Transfers are typically irreversible, and a stolen key has no built-in recovery — the network cannot freeze or return the funds. Custodial platforms have a real record of failure: Mt. Gox (about US$350 million reported stolen, 2011–2014), Coincheck (about US$400 million, 2018), Ronin Network (US$625 million, 2022).

The company. Orbi Payments, S.A.P.I. de C.V., incorporated in Mexico. The BIN sponsor and fintech infrastructure come from SoFi Tech Solutions, with Mastercard. Licences are not named. A card can depend on two licences — the payment side and the crypto side — and neither is identified here. If you want to check a provider, ESMA maintains an interim register of authorised crypto-asset service providers, white papers and non-compliant entities; it is an EU register, so it will not tell you about a Mexican company, but it is the habit worth building.

Support and complaints. Chat in the app and on the website, 8:00 am to 8:00 pm; the help centre is in Spanish. No official incidents were found, and no reviews of the card turned up in search or on Trustpilot — the page was not found. In this category that is normal for a young product, but it also means you have no read on how disputes are actually handled.

The category’s own warnings. Programme closures follow a pattern: a notice period, then spending and loading stop, then users are asked to withdraw remaining balances. One 2026 closure, reported by a secondary source and unconfirmed, ended new loads on 8 July 2026 and spending on 8 August 2026. WaveCrest, a Visa issuer that supplied crypto card brands, was suspended by Visa in Europe in 2018, closing all its programmes. I am not predicting Orbi will do this. I am telling you that the badge on your card is not a promise about the company behind it.

What to take instead

If Orbi’s geography or its silence does not suit you, there are three other crypto-linked cards, and each makes a different trade. Here is the comparison, including their scores, so you can see where Orbi sits.

Sponge, 4.9 / 10. A virtual card created through the app, described on the homepage as a credit card issued by Rain, a Visa Principal Member, accepted wherever Visa is accepted. Funding is USDC collateral moved from the Sponge wallet with card fund, with base as the example chain and the SDK mentioning base or solana as optional. Country availability is not stated — there is no country list on the card pages, and the platform terms only set a minimum age of 13 for the service. Cost and fees: not stated. Rewards: not stated. Sponge scores below Orbi, and its eligibility picture is even less clear.

Nexo, 6.3 / 10. For residents and citizens of “selected European countries, including the EEA and the United Kingdom”; no country list on the page, and excluded jurisdictions are not named beyond “not available in certain jurisdictions”. This is the best-documented of the three. No monthly, annual or inactivity fee. The virtual card needs at least $50 in the account to activate; the physical card has free shipping but requires a balance above $5,000 in digital assets and at least Gold tier. FX fee on weekdays 0.2% (EEA/UK/CH) and 2% (rest of world); weekends 0.7% and 2.5%. Over 100 digital assets supported. Cashback applies only in Credit Mode with more than $5,000 in digital assets, paid in NEXO tokens or Bitcoin, by tier: Platinum 2%/0.5%, Gold 1%/0.3%, Silver 0.7%/0.2%, Base 0.5%/0.1% — rates may change and vary by region. One thing to weigh independently: Cointelegraph reported a 2025-era Bulgarian police raid on Nexo’s Sofia office over alleged Russia-sanctions and AML violations; Nexo made no official statement about finding any Russians. I am reporting that as press coverage, not as a finding.

Xplace, 7.7 / 10. The strongest of the three on documentation. Visa, with an instant virtual card and a physical one on the Silver tier live and Gold/Platinum coming soon at 7–14 business days. Country list not stated, though “services are not available in all jurisdictions” and Visa acceptance is 160+ countries. Annual fees are published: Basic free, Silver $99/year, Gold $249/year, Platinum $999/year, with no origination fee on borrowing. “0% FX on Platinum”; FX for other tiers and the conversion fee are not stated, though stablecoin spending is described as having “no hidden spread”. Funding is BTC (cbBTC), ETH (wETH), SOL, JitoSOL, USDC, USDT and xStocks, on the Solana network. Credit-mode cashback by tier: Basic 0.5%, Silver 1%, Gold 1.5%, Platinum 2%, paid in USDC to the wallet at settlement; Cash-mode cashback is not stated.

My read on that table: Xplace publishes the most and asks the most. Nexo publishes clearly but gates the physical card behind a high balance. Sponge is the thinnest. Orbi sits in the middle on promise and near the bottom on disclosure.

Who I would recommend it to

I would recommend Orbi to a Mexican resident who already holds stablecoins, wants a virtual Mastercard today, and has decided that the missing fee details are an acceptable trade for a card that works inside Mexico. If that is you, the virtual card is instant, the assets are the three major dollar-pegged ones, and cash withdrawal at ATMs is supported — that combination is more than most cards in this category offer.

I would not recommend it to you if any of the following is true. You live outside Mexico, because the services are limited to Mexican territory. You plan to use the card abroad as your main card, because the fee schedule, limits and currency are all unpublished and cross-border cards get declined for reasons that have nothing to do with you. You want cashback, because the card page does not mention it and Orbi Boost explicitly does not guarantee rewards. Or you are the sort of person who needs to know the price of a coffee in pesos before you buy it — and if that is you, no amount of goodwill will make an undisclosed schedule feel acceptable.

Before you commit, I would ask support four questions in writing and keep the answers: which networks do you send USDT and USDC on; what does an ATM withdrawal cost and what is the allowance; is there a physical card, and when does it ship; and what licences does Orbi Payments hold. Any product that answers those clearly has nothing to hide, and any that does not has told you something important.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Orbi card?

Orbi is a crypto-linked payment card programme for Mexico. Orbi Payments, S.A.P.I. de C.V. offers a Mastercard administered by Orbi, with the virtual card issued instantly. You spend from a balance of USDG, USDT and USDC, or borrow against digital assets through a credit line secured by them. Funds are converted to fiat at the point of sale, so merchants receive ordinary fiat.

How does the Orbi card work?

You hold crypto, the card converts it to fiat when you pay, and the merchant receives fiat as with any Mastercard purchase. The card works like a stored-balance card rather than a bank debit card, which means it draws on what you have loaded. On 8 October 2026 SoFi Tech Solutions, Orbi and Mastercard announced the programme in Mexico, with SoFi providing the BIN sponsor and fintech infrastructure.

Is Orbi a bank?

Not on the public evidence. Orbi is a Mexican company, and the licences it holds are not named on the card’s pages. What is named is SoFi Tech Solutions as BIN sponsor and fintech infrastructure, with Mastercard as the network. In this category the crypto brand is often only a programme manager, and the licensed institution sits behind it — here that institution is not identified.

Who owns Orbi?

Orbi, incorporated in Mexico, is the company behind the card. The announcement of 8 October 2026 was made jointly with SoFi Tech Solutions and Mastercard. SoFi Tech Solutions is described as the BIN sponsor and fintech infrastructure provider rather than an owner, and the card is a Mastercard administered by Orbi.

Is Orbi available outside Mexico?

No. The card states “Servicios disponibles únicamente en territorio mexicano” — services available only in Mexican territory. The terms add that some services are limited to Mexican citizens or permanent residents. So living in Mexico and being a citizen or permanent resident are two separate tests, and the pages do not say which services follow which rule.

Does Orbi require KYC, and what documents?

Orbi verifies your email, mobile number, data and documents, and you must be at least 18. The specific documents are not named, and proof of address is not stated. The help centre does have a “Verificación de Identidad” section with five articles. Under anti-money-laundering law, regulated businesses must verify customers and monitor transactions, so expect this to be a real gate rather than a formality.

Is the Orbi card free?

Nobody will say, and that is the honest answer. The terms point to the fees section of the website without giving amounts. Card issuance cost, monthly fee, conversion fee and foreign-exchange fee are all not stated. The same goes for ATM withdrawal fees and daily or monthly limits, though Orbi reserves the right to change limits without prior authorisation. Ask support for the schedule before you rely on the card.

How do I top up the Orbi card?

You send USDG, USDT or USDC, or you draw on the credit line secured against your digital assets. The supported networks are not stated, nor are minimum amounts, timing or loading fees. Be careful here: blockchain transfers are irreversible, so sending on a network Orbi does not support can mean the money is lost. Ask which networks to use, and test with a small transfer first.

Is Orbi safe for my money?

The card has no published track record to judge: no official incidents were found, and no reviews turned up in search or on Trustpilot, where no page exists. The credit line is secured by your digital assets but the custody model is not stated, and freeze and two-factor authentication for the card are not stated. In this category, custodial failures are real — Mt. Gox, Coincheck and Ronin Network are the names people remember.

Is the Orbi card worth it?

For a Mexican resident already holding USDG, USDT or USDC who wants an instant virtual Mastercard and accepts not being told the fees, the feature set is competitive: three major dollar-pegged assets, a collateral-backed credit line, and ATM withdrawals supported. If you need published prices, published limits, cashback, Apple Pay and Google Pay, or use outside Mexico, it is not worth it — and I would point you at a card that publishes its numbers instead.

Content created by the «cryptocardcheck» team