Mastercard and SoFi Help Orbi Launch a Crypto Card Program in Mexico

Mastercard and SoFi are backing Mexican FinTech Orbi’s new cryptocurrency-linked card program, which lets customers spend either fiat currency or crypto balances at the point of sale while merchants still settle in traditional fiat. For high-risk payments players, the useful detail is not the branding: it is the plumbing, with BIN sponsorship, issuance, authorization, processing, and compliance all sitting behind the card.

1. According to a Thursday, Oct. 8 news release, the program gives Orbi customers a choice at purchase time: pay with fiat currency or draw from crypto balances, while merchants receive fiat currency.
2. SoFi Tech Solutions President Kathleen Pierce-Gilmore said Mexico is “one of the world’s largest remittance markets” and that stablecoins are becoming “an increasingly important way to move money across its borders.” She said the partnership is meant to give people in Mexico a way to “receive, hold and spend digital dollars.”
3. Stablecoins accounted for 40% of crypto purchases among users of the crypto app Bitso last year in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Colombia in 2025, according to the release. That compares with 18% for bitcoin, and it was the first time stablecoins overtook bitcoin in Bitso’s regional purchase data.
4. SoFi will provide the BIN sponsorship and financial technology infrastructure for the Orbi card program, including issuing, transaction authorization, processing, and compliance capabilities. In other words, this is not just a branded plastic exercise; it is issuer infrastructure wrapped around a crypto funding source.
5. The release also said the platform will support future stablecoin-powered use cases. PYMNTS Intelligence’s July report, From Asset to Everyday Money: Making Digital Currencies Spendable, found that consumers are increasingly interested in using cryptocurrencies and stablecoins for purchases, but acceptance, trust, and uneven payment experiences still limit usage. The report also said 71% of stablecoin holders would use a linked debit card to spend those assets.