Ethena launches USDe payments app, offers 6% rewards
Ethena launched Ethena Pay, a self-custodial global money app built around USDe, its synthetic dollar. The app lets users hold USDe in a dollar balance, earn up to 6% annualized rewards, spend via a payment card, and use fiat onramps. It also supports IBAN transfers to move money between bank accounts and local currencies, with Avalanche as the exclusive settlement layer and MoonPay-owned Iron handling backend infrastructure. The beta is live in 48 countries across Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and other regions, but access is initially capped at 400 users and will expand weekly. The app is not yet available in the US, EU, Canada, Taiwan or South Korea, though Ethena plans to enter those markets if regulators approve. USDe has grown to about $4.1 billion in market cap, making it the sixth-largest stablecoin. ENA, Ethena’s governance token, has also rallied sharply, helped by a proposal to direct most protocol revenue toward ENA buybacks once USDe supply reaches $7.5 billion.
