The app, called Ethena Pay, lets users receive funds either through a traditional bank account number (IBAN) or directly via crypto. In both cases, money is converted into USDe, Ethena's synthetic dollar, and held in a self-custodial wallet. That means users retain control of their funds rather than depositing into a custodial account. Confirmed markets include Kenya, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines, Singapore, Japan, the UAE, and Australia. Ethena says it will add countries, currencies, and features on a weekly basis during the beta period.

Savings rates are structured in three tiers. Standard accounts earn 5% annually on balances up to $5,000. Pro accounts earn 6% on balances up to $15,000, and VIP accounts earn 6% on balances up to $50,000. The app's debit card returns cashback in AVAX, the native token of the Avalanche blockchain: 4% for Standard users, 4.5% for Pro, and 5% for VIP. Cashback at selected brand partners can reach 10%, though that figure does not apply to everyday card spending.

What USDe Actually Is

USDe is not backed one-to-one by dollars sitting in a bank. Ethena maintains its peg through what is called a delta-neutral basis trade: the protocol holds long staked ETH and liquid restaking collateral, and simultaneously holds an equivalent short position in ETH perpetual futures.

The two positions cancel out price risk, and yield accrues from perpetual funding rate payments and staking returns.

This structure matters legally. Under Section 4(a)(11) of the US GENIUS Act, yield-bearing stablecoins face restrictions that forced competitors including Circle and Coinbase to restructure products. Because USDe is synthetic rather than fiat-backed, it falls outside that definition. A June 2026 Forbes Digital Assets analysis described USDe's synthetic design as the mechanism that allows Ethena to continue paying yield legally while rivals cannot easily replicate the structure.

The 6% rate offered through Ethena Pay is lower than the protocol's raw yield. As of April 2026, the 7-day trailing return on staked USDe (called sUSDe) was 9.4%, and the 90-day average was 11.8%. The spread between those figures and the app's capped rate is not publicly explained by Ethena. Verse Press analysis suggests it likely covers operations and cashback costs while smoothing out yield volatility.

During a period of market deleveraging in early 2026, the 7-day rate fell to roughly 3.72%, illustrating that underlying yields are not guaranteed.

Ethena founder and CEO Guy Young described the product as "the first neobanking app vertically integrated with a stablecoin issuer's own product, rather than relying on USDC or USDT," according to The Block's coverage of the launch.

Avalanche's Role and the Payments Collective

Ethena Pay runs on Avalanche's C-Chain, the network's primary smart contract environment. In Q2 2026, the chain processed 235.6 million transactions, with a median fee of $0.000014, according to a Nansen report. Stablecoin transfer volume on Avalanche reached $84.4 billion during the same quarter. Ethena is already a member of the Avalanche Payments Collective, a group of 28 organisations including Franklin Templeton, VanEck, and Paxos that collectively covers 150-plus countries and 96 currencies, representing roughly 22 billion payout endpoints. The collective launched on June 18, 2026.

Avalanche already supports established payments infrastructure in several of the beta's target regions. Binary Holdings operates an Avalanche Layer 1 serving telecom loyalty programs across South Asia and reports 36 million daily active addresses. LuLu Financial processes more than $19 billion in remittances annually across Asia, Africa, and Europe on a dedicated Avalanche Layer 1. Ethena Pay is therefore entering an ecosystem with active regional infrastructure rather than building from scratch.

Regional Gaps and Regulatory Friction

For users in Africa and South Asia, Ethena Pay's IBAN onramp carries real practical significance. Diaspora workers who send or receive dollar-equivalent funds internationally and want to earn yield on savings have had limited self-custodial options at competitive rates. The appetite for such products is demonstrated by recent data: South Asia recorded an 80% increase in stablecoin-driven crypto volumes through mid-2025, making it the fastest-growing region for stablecoin adoption globally, according to Nansen.

Kenya and South Africa are both confirmed in the beta, and both have functioning crypto licensing frameworks as of late 2025.

However, on June 2, 2026, South Africa's SARB and FSCA issued two separate regulatory declarations: first, that stablecoins do not constitute legal tender, and second, that foreign stablecoins cannot be used as payment tools, citing concerns about dollarisation. Whether either ruling applies to USDe, which is synthetic rather than fiat-backed, has not been clarified publicly. That ambiguity is a risk for South African users of the product.

Nigeria, which has one of the largest crypto user bases on the continent and recently relaxed its regulatory stance on digital assets, does not appear on the confirmed country list based on publicly available information. Because Ethena has not published the full 48-country list, this absence is an inference rather than a confirmed exclusion. India is similarly absent from available information, possibly due to regulatory ambiguity around stablecoins and the Reserve Bank of India's resistance to foreign dollar-denominated digital products. The same caveat applies: India's exclusion cannot be confirmed until the full list is published.

Both gaps limit the product's reach in two major global remittance markets.

Broader Momentum Behind the Launch

Institutional backing for Ethena has grown considerably in 2026. Coinbase made an open-market purchase of ENA tokens in June and became Ethena's primary custodian, wallet provider, and perpetuals venue, supporting more than $5 billion in assets. Traditional asset manager Janus Henderson also invested in ENA and announced plans to distribute USDe to institutional clients.

USDe's circulating supply stood at roughly $5.92 billion as of Q1 2026, down from a 2025 peak above $14 billion but still ranking it as the third-largest stablecoin globally by supply outside fiat-backed categories.

ENA tokens were trading at approximately $0.15 on September 1, 2026, giving the project a market capitalisation near $1.48 billion. The fully diluted valuation stood at approximately $2.25 billion, with 9.83 billion of a maximum 15 billion ENA tokens in circulation, a dilution profile relevant to readers assessing long-term exposure through the cashback structure.

The decision to pay cashback in AVAX rather than USDe or fiat also carries a structural implication. Every cashback transaction links Ethena Pay user activity directly to AVAX token demand, creating an ongoing incentive alignment between the product's growth and the health of the Avalanche network.

Ethena has not published a full list of the 48 countries included in the beta. The pace of the rollout and the outcome of regulatory reviews in markets like South Africa will determine whether the product's practical reach matches its stated ambition.