Ethena Launches Pay App on Avalanche With Tiered Rate Up to 6%

Ethena has launched the beta of Ethena Pay, a self-custodial iOS money app that uses Avalanche as its exclusive settlement layer and gives USDe a direct route into consumer payments.

Ethena said the initial early-access list contains 400 users and will expand weekly as the product moves out of beta during September. Its supported-country page lists 49 countries across Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Middle East, Africa and Oceania. The U.S., European Union, U.K. and Canada are among the regions marked as coming later.

Ethena Pay combines a self-custodial wallet with transfers, fiat onramps and a Visa card. Ethena Pay Ltd. says it supplies the software rather than banking or custody services; wallet keys remain on the user’s device and cannot be recovered by the company. The card is issued by Puerto Rico-chartered Third National and managed by Rain, and is available only to non-U.S. persons.

Ava Labs said digital-dollar balances in the app are held in USDe, with Avalanche handling transfers, payments and settlement behind the interface. That gives Ethena a consumer distribution channel in which USDe can be held, sent and spent without users selecting a blockchain network.

The 6% Total Rate Comes With Caps

Ethena Pay’s pricing terms say the advertised rate of up to 6% per year is a total made up of the prevailing underlying USDe rate plus a “Daily Boost” contributed by Ethena Pay. It is not an additional 6% on top of the base rate.

Standard users receive a 5% total rate on up to $5,000. Pro users receive 6% on up to $15,000, while VIP users receive 6% on up to $50,000. Balances above those caps earn only the underlying USDe rate, and users must make at least one qualifying card transaction each calendar month to receive the boost.

The boost is paid daily in USDe and is described as a discretionary promotion, not interest, a deposit or an insured return. Ethena Pay can reduce or end it.

The product documents do not say customer balances are converted into sUSDe. They call the variable component the underlying USDe rate. At the protocol level, Ethena’s documentation says sUSDe rewards accrue when a subsidiary of the Ethena Foundation deposits discretionary protocol revenue into the staking contract.

For most of Ethena’s history, its backing was concentrated in spot crypto assets hedged with short perpetual futures, a model that left protocol revenue and risk closely tied to that market dynamic. Ethena now says its backing portfolio is diversifying across lending, real-world assets, stablecoins and non-crypto basis trades. The company announced plans last week to add stock-linked perpetual basis trades, though deployments had not yet begun.

Cashback Tops Out at 5%

Ethena’s launch post and legal pricing page advertise up to 5% cashback, rather than 10%. Standard users earn 4% on their first $2,500 of monthly spending, Pro users earn 4.5% on their first $8,000, and VIP users earn 5% on their first $20,000. Rates step down for spending above each band.

Cashback is calculated after a card transaction settles and is paid in AVAX at the exchange rate when it is credited. Transactions below $1 do not qualify, nor do categories including crypto and securities purchases, gambling, gift cards, peer-to-peer transfers and account funding.

The pricing page identifies Ethena Pay as the party offering the discretionary reward and does not name Avalanche or the card issuer as a separate cashback funder. Ethena Pay says rewards may be reduced, suspended or terminated at its discretion.

The launch therefore extends USDe beyond trading and investment into a consumer payments interface, but the beta begins with limited access and its richest rewards are tiered and capped.