Lucio Amaro, an Argentine accountant, put his subscribers' questions to Santiago Coates, Airtm's content marketing manager, in an interview published on October 13, 2024. They cover the prepaid card, the US virtual account, the cashier program and what Airtm reports to Argentina's tax authority. One answer matters more than the rest: the card is issued in Argentina, so it does not behave like a card from abroad.
I would read the rest as a snapshot of what Airtm offered that month, since several features discussed in it were still in development. Where the card is issued, which rails the US account uses and what triggers a report to the tax office are the parts least likely to have moved.
What the Airtm USD Virtual Prepaid Card is
A prepaid card holds money you have already loaded, so the balance caps what you can spend and no credit line sits behind it. Airtm's version is for Argentine users only: Coates said the plastic is issued in Argentina and the card, launched there, is for users in that country. Outside Argentina, the product described here was not open to you.
That detail answers the question most viewers sent. They wanted to know whether Airtm's card works like Payoneer's, which the viewer described as issued abroad and therefore outside the surcharge Argentina applies to foreign-currency card purchases. Coates said it does not, because the Airtm plastic is issued locally.
The card also inherits the rules of the account behind it. Airtm asks new users to verify their identity before the account is fully usable, and the card draws on that same verified balance rather than a separate pot of money.
The tax question behind the card
Argentina applies a surcharge, the impuesto PAIS, to card purchases made in foreign currency. Residents have looked for ways around it for years, and a card issued abroad by a fintech has been one of them: if the plastic is foreign, the argument goes, the local surcharge does not apply at the point of purchase.
The viewer put the question in exactly those terms. Coates said Airtm's card does not qualify, because it is issued in Argentina: a purchase abroad with it is a purchase with an Argentine card, and the surcharge applies. The follow-up, whether you can buy a plane ticket abroad without paying the tax, got the same answer.
Both men framed the rule as following the country where the card is issued. I would price the surcharge in first when comparing Airtm's card with another, because a card that dodges the tax and one that does not are different products at different costs. Spending dollars you already hold does not change what Argentina charges on foreign-currency purchases.
What a prepaid card costs, and what to check before loading it
A prepaid card's real cost shows up in fees. Expect a charge to issue the plastic, a monthly maintenance fee, a fee or spread on loading, a markup when you spend in a currency other than your balance, and a charge for ATM withdrawals. Any one of those can outweigh the headline rate, and a card with no monthly fee but a wide conversion spread can cost more than one that charges a flat fee and converts near the market rate.
The conversion rate is the number I would watch. If your balance is in dollars and you pay in pesos, the issuer sets the rate, not the shop, and a small spread across many purchases adds up faster than a monthly fee. Compare the rate on the receipt with the market rate that day.
A second cost has nothing to do with the fee table. Spending crypto through a card can count as a taxable sale in many countries: tax authorities generally treat the moment you convert or spend a coin as a disposal, and the gain is measured against what you paid for it. Keep the date and amount of every conversion, because a card statement will not tell a tax office what your cost basis was.
The card's own fee schedule, its network and who holds the balance behind it are not set out in the interview, so read Airtm's terms before you load anything.
Limits: $5 to $100,000
The US virtual account has a floor of $5 and a ceiling of $100,000. The same ceiling came up for paying Bolivian imports, where Coates said amounts under $100,000 are not a problem. Peer-to-peer operations have their own, lower limits.
Bolivia is where the account has been used hardest. Coates said usage rose sharply around mid-August, when the dollar peaked against the boliviano, and that the banking restriction Bolivians face, a $75 cap at the official rate, does not apply to Airtm. Users there can receive and buy digital dollars with bolivianos within the account's limits, which matters when local banks will only sell a small amount of dollars at the official price.
The numbers from the interview:
| Figure named in the interview | Value |
|---|---|
| Minimum for the US virtual account | $5 |
| Maximum for the US virtual account | $100,000 |
| AFIP reporting threshold | about six minimum wages, roughly $1,600 USDC |
| Transactions needed to become a cashier | five or six |
| Cashier approval time | about 72 hours |
| European peer-to-peer order the representative called very high | €5,000 |
A $100,000 ceiling is generous on paper. The practical limit is liquidity: someone has to take the other side of a peer-to-peer order, and that gets harder as the amount grows. The ceiling tells you what the platform allows, not what the market will fill.
How the US virtual account moves money
Money sent to the US account does not land in a separate place. The account is an address you give a platform, and payments arrive in your Airtm balance. Coates described it as a US account number you can hand to any service that pays out to an American bank.
Which rail a platform uses decided whether it worked. The account took ACH, the US batch payment network that payroll and freelance platforms use to pay into American bank accounts. It did not take SWIFT, the messaging network banks use for cross-border transfers. That gap explains the YouTube answer: YouTube's payout setup asks for a SWIFT code, so the account could not receive those payments.
The rail also decides which platforms you can use. Anything that pays out to a US bank account by ACH can send to it, and Coates listed PayPal, Deel, Ontop, Upwork, Airbnb and Grabr as examples. Withdrawing from a third party's PayPal account was possible too, because ACH transfers to and from third parties were supported. Sending money out over ACH or WIRE was not, and he would not give the date for it, saying only that one existed.
| What you want to do | Status in October 2024 |
|---|---|
| Receive ACH payments from US platforms | Available |
| Withdraw from a third party's PayPal account | Available |
| Receive international SWIFT transfers | Not yet |
| Receive YouTube payouts | Not yet, because YouTube asks for a SWIFT code |
| Send ACH or WIRE transfers out | Not yet, and no date was disclosed |
| Deposit from a European bank over SEPA | In development |
| Open a business account for a Latin American LLC | Not yet, expected by the end of October |
The 24% PayPal question
Viewers had read that linking the Airtm US account to PayPal would trigger a 24% US tax. Coates said that is a misunderstanding. PayPal asks non-US users to complete Form W-8, the standard certificate that says you do not live in the United States, and with that on file the 24% withholding does not apply. He agreed that PayPal's own screens explain it poorly. The point covers US withholding only; your own country's tax rules still apply to the income.
What Airtm reports to AFIP
A PSAV is a virtual asset service provider, the category Argentina's securities regulator, the CNV, uses for companies that exchange or hold crypto for customers. Airtm appears on that register under the name AirConnect LLC, and Coates confirmed that the company reports to AFIP, Argentina's tax authority.
The reports are not blanket. Coates said Airtm informs AFIP about operations above roughly six minimum wages, which he put at about $1,600 USDC. Below that threshold, he suggested, a small digital business collecting modest amounts through Airtm had little to worry about.
Amaro was more careful, and I think he is right to be. He said the exact scope will only be clear the following year, when AFIP's Nuestra Parte section shows the holdings and movements the agency has on file. A register entry tells you information will flow; it does not tell you the final shape of the flow.
Reporting is not the same as a new tax. What changes is that the tax office can see the movement, so the record you keep and the return you file have to match. If you sell goods or services and get paid in digital dollars, that income belongs in your books whatever the platform reports, and the threshold should not be read as a tax-free allowance.
Becoming a cashier
Cashiers are the people on the other side of peer-to-peer deposits and withdrawals, taking local payment methods and handing over digital dollars. The requirements were modest:
- Fill in the cashier application form.
- Request the payment methods you want to handle.
- Complete between five and six transactions.
- Wait about 72 hours for approval.
Deposits from a European bank were the weak spot. A €5,000 order could sit unfilled for a long time, Coates said, because few counterparties wait with that much on the other side. A direct SEPA method for euro transfers was in development.
Where the risks sit
Liquidity is where a plan breaks first. Peer-to-peer works when someone wants the opposite trade, and the bigger the amount the thinner the queue, which is why a large European deposit could wait for hours or not fill at all.
Your plan also depends on features that were not live. Receiving SWIFT transfers, sending ACH or WIRE, taking YouTube payouts and opening a business account for a Latin American LLC were all unavailable when the interview was recorded. Check a feature is live for your country and account type before you build a routine around it.
The CNV register was new, and a reporting threshold can move. A number that keeps a small seller below the line this year is not a promise about next year, which is why the caveat about waiting for the Nuestra Parte section is worth taking seriously.
Custody is the part I would check before leaving a large balance. A balance on a platform is a record the company keeps; you see it in the app, and you do not hold the keys. The company's terms and its standing matter as much as the app's design.
Identity checks and phishing are the two risks you control. Accounts are verified against documents, and a payout from a platform registered in a different name can be held or returned, so use the same name everywhere. Fake login pages turn up around card launches, so type the address yourself before you enter a password or a code.
How to judge the next Airtm announcement
When Airtm ships the features Coates described as coming, I would ask two things: whether they are live for your country and account type, and which rail they use. A payout feature built on ACH reaches US platforms; one built on SWIFT reaches different senders; SEPA reaches European banks. The rail decides who can pay you, long before any fee schedule matters.
Coates expected the business account for Latin American LLCs by the end of October. The other figure worth carrying forward is $1,600, the rough AFIP reporting threshold. If you run a small business through Airtm, compare each month's volume with that number rather than with your memory of it.
