Aven and BitGo have partnered to launch a bitcoin-backed Visa credit card enabling consumers to access credit secured by bitcoin collateral.
The product allows eligible consumers to access a line of credit secured by their bitcoin holdings, without requiring them to liquidate those assets.
BitGo, a digital asset infrastructure company listed on NYSE under the ticker BTGO, serves as the infrastructure provider for the product. Its subsidiary, BitGo Bank & Trust, operates under oversight by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the primary US federal bank regulator. Together, the two entities provide wallet infrastructure, custody services, and operational controls underpinning the card's collateral management model.
Per-borrower custody model
According to the announcement, the Aven Bitcoin Visa Card operates on a per-borrower custody structure, in which each borrower's bitcoin collateral is held in a dedicated wallet. This approach is designed to support collateral segregation, meaning that each user's assets are kept separate rather than pooled, alongside operational controls intended to maintain security and compliance standards.
In addition, the credit limit available to cardholders is tied to the value of their bitcoin holdings. This positions the product within a growing category of asset-backed consumer credit, previously more commonly associated with home equity or securities-backed lending facilities.
Extending bitcoin's utility beyond trading
The partnership reflects a broader trend in the digital assets space: moving beyond trading and long-term holding towards integrating bitcoin into everyday financial products. For bitcoin holders who view their assets as a long-term investment, the card represents an alternative means of accessing liquidity without triggering a taxable disposal event that a sale would typically entail, though the source material does not address tax treatment explicitly.
According to the companies, the infrastructure model is designed to scale securely, with BitGo's custody architecture supporting the operational requirements of a consumer credit product. Aven describes itself as a machine-banking platform, using automated systems to assess and manage asset-backed credit products.
The launch adds to a handful of existing bitcoin-collateralised lending products in the market, though the combination of a Visa-branded credit card with institutional-grade, segregated custody infrastructure represents a specific configuration of these components.
