Ethena pushes stablecoins into everyday banking with high-yield savings, cards and payments
Ethena has launched 'Ethena Pay,' a new app that integrates stablecoin-based savings, card payments, and international transfers into a single neobanking platform. The product utilizes the Avalanche network for settlement and aims to bridge the gap between decentralized finance and everyday consumer banking.
Why it matters
This represents a significant attempt to bring high-yield crypto-native financial products into mainstream consumer use, potentially challenging traditional banking models.
Ethena Pay, which the protocol said went live on Apple's App Store on Tuesday, combines dollar savings, card spending, international transfers and fiat onramps in one app.
The firm is pitching the product as an “internet money neobank,” with a 6% dollar savings rate and 5% cashback on card purchases. It also supports free dollar, pound and euro onramps, local currencies and fiat international bank account numbers (IBANs) linked with self-custodial stablecoin accounts.
ENA, Ethena’s native token, rallied 9% following the announcement, outperforming flat crypto markets.
The move extends a rapid expansion for Ethena beyond the crypto basis trade that originally powered yield on USDe (USDE), its $4 billion synthetic dollar token. Last week, the project overhauled the economics of the ENA token and outlined plans to use equity perpetuals as another source of returns for USDe.
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