Stablecoin Blockchain Plasma Launches Neobank, Plasma One

Plasma, a Layer 1 stablecoin-focused blockchain network backed by American billionaire Peter Thiel and Tether sister company Bitfinex, is launching Plasma One, a “stablecoin-native neobank.”

In a press release shared with The Defiant, Plasma said that its new platform is built to expand access to stablecoins and combines payments, savings, and transfers into a single application to address “fragmented experiences that have limited stablecoin adoption and usability for people everywhere.”

Plasma’s CEO, Paul Faecks, said in a statement that the firm created Plasma One to address the distribution problem for USD-pegged stablecoins: “The dollar is the product, and most of the world is desperate to access it. Stablecoins provide a fundamental, permissionless way to hold and move dollars anywhere.”

At launch, Plasma plans to target emerging markets where demand for dollars is highest, the press release notes. Plasma One, which the team says is the world’s first stablecoin-focused neobank, will deploy localized teams and language support in its target regions.

Speaking with The Defiant, a spokesperson for Plasma said that for the initial rollout, the neobank is planning to focus on “regions where there are already large movements of capital, and where there is existing stablecoin penetration, such as the Middle East.”

Using the platform, stablecoin holders will be able to spend stablecoins, earn yield above 10%, and receive up to 4% cash back via physical and virtual Plasma One cards, issued by Rain, the spokesperson revealed in commentary to The Defiant.

Yield for stablecoin holders will be generated through Plasma ecosystem opportunities, the spokesperson added, explaining that “Plasma’s onchain ecosystem is built around non-volatile assets and a cheap USDT borrow rate. As a result, key DeFi strategies become far more efficient and profitable on Plasma, without substantially increasing risk.”

$2B in Liquidity at Launch

The stablecoin neobank’s debut comes ahead of the launch of Plasma’s mainnet beta and its native token, XPL, scheduled to go live on Thursday, Sept. 25.

As The Defiant previously reported, the mainnet beta will launch with $2 billion in stablecoin liquidity deployed across more than 100 decentralized finance partners, including Aave, Ethena, Fluid, and Euler.

As part of the rollout, users will be able to bridge vault deposits to Plasma and withdraw USDT0, Tether’s omnichain version of USDT. The launch will also introduce zero-fee USDT transfers through Plasma’s dashboard, initially limited to Plasma’s own products with broader access planned over time.

Dislcaimer: This article has been updated to add exclusive commentary from Plasma.