Ethena ($ENA) is expanding beyond its yield-generating dollar business with Ethena Pay, a consumer finance app designed to package stablecoins into a bank account-like experience.
The protocol said Ethena Pay went live on Apple’s App Store on Tuesday. The app combines dollar savings, card spending, international transfers and fiat onramps in one platform.
Ethena is promoting the product as an “internet money neobank,” offering a 6% dollar savings rate and 5% cashback on card purchases. The app also supports free dollar, pound and euro onramps, local currencies, and fiat international bank account numbers (IBANs) linked to self-custodial stablecoin accounts.
Ethena’s native $ENA token rose 9% after the announcement, outperforming broadly flat cryptocurrency markets.
Ethena expands beyond its crypto yield strategy
The launch marks another step in Ethena’s rapid expansion beyond the crypto basis trade that originally generated yield for $USDe (USDE), its $4 billion synthetic dollar token.
Last week, the project revised the economics of the $ENA token and outlined plans to use equity perpetuals as another source of returns for $USDe.
Earlier this year, Ethena introduced a savings product with Coinbase, opening another distribution channel for its dollar products through an exchange with more than 100 million users.
From stablecoin savings to everyday spending
Ethena Pay connects Ethena’s savings products with payments, allowing users to hold savings, earn rewards, and spend or transfer money through the same app. The approach is designed to reduce the need to move funds between a crypto wallet, exchange and traditional bank account.
