Avici: Building a Self-Custodial Onchain Neobank
Avici's metrics have been quietly climbing despite not offering aggressive cashback or headline-grabbing incentives
So I decided to take a closer look at what Avici actually offers and why people keep using it
What Avici offers
- Self-custody: your funds always remain yours
- KYC takes just a few minutes
- Choice between Visa Signature and Visa Platinum
- Both virtual and physical cards are available
- Apple Pay and Google Pay support
- Virtual Signature: $30 (first year), then $20/year
- Virtual Platinum: $15 for the first card, then $10 for each additional card
- Physical Signature: $75 (includes the first year), then $20/year from year two
- Physical Platinum: $50 (one-time fee)
- Paying in EUR from a USD balance resulted in an effective FX fee of ~1.1% in my test.
- Personal IBAN in your own name
- EUR SEPA deposits arrive almost instantly and are automatically converted to USDC (€1 deposit fee)
- Documentation states that third-party bank transfers are supported, but my app currently says the EUR account can only receive payments from my own bank accounts
- Business accounts available
- Ability to spend against borrowed funds
- Stablecoin yield of ~3.2–5%
- SOL yield of ~4.4%
- Up to 10% reinsurance yield
- Buy US stocks through xStocks (NVIDIA, Apple, Tesla, and more)
- Access private market investments (OpenAI, Anthropic, and others)
- Buy gold and silver
- Buy BTC and other cryptocurrencies
- No Avici fees for swaps, card top-ups, or withdrawals to your wallet
- All virtual and physical cards share the same spending balance
- Individual spending limits can be set for each card
- Card top-ups can be made with different tokens, which are automatically converted into USDC
- No ATM withdrawal fee with the Signature card
- Chargebacks are available for disputed or unauthorized transactions
- Refunds are credited back to your card balance and can be spent again, but cannot be withdrawn to your wallet
- Card statements available
- Web version available alongside the mobile app
- Limited-time $5 welcome bonus after card activation and KYC
- Demo Mode lets you explore the app before registering
- MetaDAO virtual card available
- Excellent UX
- Light and dark mode
- Available on both iPhone and Android
- Referral program
- Excellent customer support (my replies came within about 2 minutes)
- Crypto deposits via Solana and EVM networks
What I'd like to see improved
- Lower the cost of virtual and physical cards (or make one card free)
Faster card top-ups and withdrawals (they sometimes took a few minutes in my testing)
- Native EUR balance support
Is there cashback?
Occasionally there are promotional campaigns, but there is currently no permanent cashback program.
Final thoughts
In my opinion, Avici is primarily interesting for people who want to manage their finances directly from a self-custodial crypto account. A personal IBAN, Business Accounts, investing features, and yield products make it much more than just another crypto card
The UX, customer support, and Demo Mode were all genuinely impressive
The biggest downside is the pricing of both virtual and physical cards. I understand that paid cards are common across many projects, but I'd still like to see lower pricing or at least one free card. There are promo codes that reduce the cost, but you first have to find them
Overall, Avici left a very positive impression. Everything I tested worked as expected, and according to the documentation, the ability to receive third-party payments alongside Business Accounts makes Avici particularly interesting for creators, freelancers, and small teams
Have you tried Avici yet? If so, what's been your experience so far?
Avici's metrics have been quietly climbing despite not offering aggressive cashback or headline-grabbing incentives
So I decided to take a closer look at what Avici actually offers and why people keep using it
What Avici offers
- Self-custody: your funds always remain yours
- KYC takes just a few minutes
- Choice between Visa Signature and Visa Platinum
- Both virtual and physical cards are available
- Apple Pay and Google Pay support
- Virtual Signature: $30 (first year), then $20/year
- Virtual Platinum: $15 for the first card, then $10 for each additional card
- Physical Signature: $75 (includes the first year), then $20/year from year two
- Physical Platinum: $50 (one-time fee)
- Paying in EUR from a USD balance resulted in an effective FX fee of ~1.1% in my test.
- Personal IBAN in your own name
- EUR SEPA deposits arrive almost instantly and are automatically converted to USDC (€1 deposit fee)
- Documentation states that third-party bank transfers are supported, but my app currently says the EUR account can only receive payments from my own bank accounts
- Business accounts available
- Ability to spend against borrowed funds
- Stablecoin yield of ~3.2–5%
- SOL yield of ~4.4%
- Up to 10% reinsurance yield
- Buy US stocks through xStocks (NVIDIA, Apple, Tesla, and more)
- Access private market investments (OpenAI, Anthropic, and others)
- Buy gold and silver
- Buy BTC and other cryptocurrencies
- No Avici fees for swaps, card top-ups, or withdrawals to your wallet
- All virtual and physical cards share the same spending balance
- Individual spending limits can be set for each card
- Card top-ups can be made with different tokens, which are automatically converted into USDC
- No ATM withdrawal fee with the Signature card
- Chargebacks are available for disputed or unauthorized transactions
- Refunds are credited back to your card balance and can be spent again, but cannot be withdrawn to your wallet
- Card statements available
- Web version available alongside the mobile app
- Limited-time $5 welcome bonus after card activation and KYC
- Demo Mode lets you explore the app before registering
- MetaDAO virtual card available
- Excellent UX
- Light and dark mode
- Available on both iPhone and Android
- Referral program
- Excellent customer support (my replies came within about 2 minutes)
- Crypto deposits via Solana and EVM networks
What I'd like to see improved
- Lower the cost of virtual and physical cards (or make one card free)
Faster card top-ups and withdrawals (they sometimes took a few minutes in my testing)
- Native EUR balance support
Is there cashback?
Occasionally there are promotional campaigns, but there is currently no permanent cashback program.
Final thoughts
In my opinion, Avici is primarily interesting for people who want to manage their finances directly from a self-custodial crypto account. A personal IBAN, Business Accounts, investing features, and yield products make it much more than just another crypto card
The UX, customer support, and Demo Mode were all genuinely impressive
The biggest downside is the pricing of both virtual and physical cards. I understand that paid cards are common across many projects, but I'd still like to see lower pricing or at least one free card. There are promo codes that reduce the cost, but you first have to find them
Overall, Avici left a very positive impression. Everything I tested worked as expected, and according to the documentation, the ability to receive third-party payments alongside Business Accounts makes Avici particularly interesting for creators, freelancers, and small teams
Have you tried Avici yet? If so, what's been your experience so far?
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