In Brief
- Aven launched a Bitcoin-backed Visa card offering credit lines up to $1 million, extending its asset-backed credit model from home equity into Bitcoin.
- The card allows Bitcoin holders to borrow against BTC without selling it.
- Aven raised $110 million in Series E funding in 2025 at a $2.2 billion valuation, with backers including Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, Caffeinated Capital, GIC, Electric Capital and Founders Fund.
Aven, the machine-banking platform and provider of asset-backed credit cards, is taking the secured-credit model it built for homeowners into Bitcoin.
The San Francisco fintech has launched the Aven Bitcoin Visa Card, a Bitcoin-backed line of credit accessible through a credit card. The product gives bitcoin holders access to credit lines of up to $1 million without requiring them to sell their holdings.
Bitcoin holders can borrow against the asset while avoiding a sale that may trigger a taxable event. They also retain exposure to future bitcoin price moves, though the loan still carries collateral and liquidation risks if the asset falls sharply.
“Bitcoin is becoming a bigger part of people’s lives and net worth, but using bitcoin productively remains challenging,” said Sisun Lee, Aven’s chief of crypto, who announced the launch at the Bitcoin Conference 2026 in Las Vegas.
“We built the Aven Bitcoin Visa Card to give bitcoin holders the opportunity to borrow against their bitcoin and access their line of credit through a credit card with lower rates, better terms and rich rewards,” Sisun added.
The card’s rate starts at 7.99% APR, according to Aven. The company said it also offers fixed-rate, fixed-term plans of up to 10 years for cash-outs and balance transfers.
That structure makes the product different from many crypto-backed loans, which are often built around shorter loan terms.
Borrowers deposit bitcoin as collateral with BitGo Inc. and BitGo Bank & Trust, National Association. Aven said it does not rehypothecate or lend out pledged bitcoin.
Why does it matter?
Crypto lending is still recovering from the failures of the last cycle, when platforms such as Celsius and BlockFi collapsed after aggressive lending, maturity mismatches and counterparty exposure damaged customer confidence. Aven is trying to distance its product from that history by emphasizing custody, collateral controls and a mainstream credit-card interface.
The card is issued by Coastal Community Bank, a Washington state-chartered bank, and carries Visa branding. Aven says it charges no annual or origination fees and offers unlimited 2% cash back.
For Aven, the bitcoin product is not a sudden pivot into crypto.
It is an extension of the company’s broader business model: using assets as collateral to offer consumers larger credit lines at lower rates than unsecured borrowing.
Aven was founded in 2019 and built its name around a home-equity-backed credit card. The product lets homeowners access revolving credit by using property equity as collateral, placing the company between traditional credit cards and home-equity lines of credit. Contrary Research describes Aven as a fintech competing across the consumer credit and home-equity lending markets, alongside banks and fintech startups.
The company’s original argument was simple.
Many homeowners have significant wealth locked in their homes but still rely on high-cost unsecured credit cards. Aven’s card tries to convert that home equity into cheaper, flexible credit.
The same logic now applies to bitcoin.
Aven is betting that long-term bitcoin holders represent a similar customer segment: asset-rich users who may want liquidity without selling their core holding. The company is positioning bitcoin as another form of collateral inside its secured-consumer-credit framework.
The move follows a period of rapid growth for Aven.
In September 2025, the company raised $110 million in Series E funding at a $2.2 billion post-money valuation. The round was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from General Catalyst, Caffeinated Capital, GIC, Electric Capital and Founders Fund.
Aven said at the time that it had issued more than $3 billion in aggregate credit lines and delivered more than $215 million in interest savings to homeowners since inception. It also said its customer base had grown threefold year over year.
That funding round came after Aven reached unicorn status in 2024.
The company raised $142 million in Series D funding led by Khosla Ventures and General Catalyst, with participation from existing investors including Caffeinated Capital, Electric Capital, Founders Fund and The General Partnership. Finextra reported that the round gave Aven unicorn status five years after it was founded by former Facebook and Square executives.
Aven’s investor base gives it a different profile from many crypto-native lenders.
Its backers are more closely associated with venture-backed fintech and consumer finance than with crypto lending alone. That may help the company market the Bitcoin Visa Card as a mainstream credit product using crypto collateral, rather than a purely crypto-native loan.
The company has also described its broader strategy as “machine banking.”
In practice, that means using automation, robotics and machine-learning systems to underwrite and manage asset-backed credit products. Aven said its Series E funding would support its push to build a full-service machine-banking platform and expand beyond home equity.
The Bitcoin Visa Card fits that roadmap.
It moves Aven from one collateral category to another, while keeping the core structure intact: the customer pledges an asset, Aven extends credit, and the user spends through a card.
The opportunity is clear.
Bitcoin has become a meaningful part of many investors’ net worth, but it remains difficult to use in daily finance without selling, transferring to exchanges or taking on complex crypto loans. A card-linked line of credit could make bitcoin-backed borrowing feel more like ordinary consumer credit.
The risks are also clear.
Bitcoin is volatile. If the price falls, borrowers may face margin calls, reduced borrowing power or liquidation of collateral, depending on the card’s terms. That makes the product materially different from a normal rewards card.
There is also a broader market test.
Aven must prove that bitcoin-backed lending can work inside a more regulated, custody-focused structure after the reputational damage caused by the 2022 crypto lending crisis. Its decision to use BitGo for collateral infrastructure and avoid rehypothecation is aimed directly at that concern.
The launch signals another attempt to bring bitcoin into mainstream finance without requiring holders to sell.
For Aven, it is a test of whether its home-equity playbook can travel.
The company became a $2.2 billion fintech by arguing that valuable assets should unlock lower-cost credit. Its new Bitcoin Visa Card applies that argument to digital wealth — and asks whether bitcoin holders are ready to treat their coins like collateral for everyday borrowing.
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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Read our Editorial Policy. Parts of this article were drafted/ researched with the assistance of AI tools and subsequently reviewed, edited, and verified by the author and our editorial team to ensure accuracy and journalistic integrity. The final version reflects human editorial judgment and fact-checking. Read our AI Policy.
Image Credits: Aven, Canva
