Ethena Debuts Crypto-Centric Neobank Ethena Pay

Cryptocurrency company Ethena has launched what it calls an “internet money neobank” called Ethena Pay.

The new offering, which went live Tuesday (Sept. 1), includes card spending, dollar saving, international transfers and “Buy Now Pay Never where your savings rewards covers daily expenses,” as Ethena put it in its announcement.

“The roll-out will be phased with an initial early access list of 400 users which will be increased weekly within supported regions as the product moves out of beta over the course of this month,” the company said in a post on social media platform X.

Ethena Pay’s launch was flagged in a report by CoinDesk, which notes this move is part of ongoing expansion efforts by the company beyond its $4 billion synthetic dollar token USDe. Last week, the project upgraded the economics of the ENA token and introduced plans to use equity perpetuals as another way to generate returns for USDe, the report said.

And earlier in the year, Ethena launched a savings product with Coinbase, giving its dollar products exposure to an exchange with more than 100 million users, CoinDesk added.

With Ethena Pay, the report said, the company is connecting its savings products to payments, as users can hold savings, earn rewards and then spend or transfer money through one app instead of shifting funds between a crypto wallet, exchange and bank.

Meanwhile, recent research from PYMNTS Intelligence shows that while consumers show interest in using stablecoins and other forms of cryptocurrency to make purchases, their options are hindered by issues like acceptance, trust and uneven payment experiences.

However, the report, “From Asset to Everyday Money: Making Digital Currencies Spendable,” completed in collaboration with Paymentology, shows a way forward.

Linked cards, instant conversion and modern issuer-processing systems can link digital assets to the payment tools that customers and merchants are already using. The research found that around three out of four consumers would open a crypto or stablecoin wallet if they could go through an existing banking or FinTech app.

“That figure suggests banks and FinTechs don’t need to persuade customers to enter an unfamiliar financial world,” PYMNTS wrote last month.

“They can add digital asset capabilities to relationships that already carry trust. For providers, the opportunity lies in making access feel like an extension of mobile banking rather than a separate crypto exercise.”