Overview
- Ethena rolled out Ethena Pay in beta for 400 early users, which went live Tuesday and will expand weekly across roughly 48–49 countries while the U.S., EU, U.K., and Canada remain excluded for now.
- The app displays up to a 6% annual savings rate on USDe through a tiered ‘Daily Boost’ and pays card rewards in AVAX, though the boost is described in terms as a discretionary promotional incentive rather than insured bank interest.
- Avalanche is the exclusive settlement network for transfers, purchases, and settlement on Ethena Pay, and the card program credits cashback in AVAX with tiered rates and partner merchant bonuses.
- The Ethena Foundation has proposed routing up to 95% of net protocol revenue into ENA token buybacks once USDe supply hits a $7.5 billion trigger, and USDe currently sits near $4 billion so the buyback plan remains conditional and subject to governance and regulatory steps.
- Users should note operational and custody risks because Ethena Pay is self-custodial and cannot restore lost keys, and broader rollout, regulatory approvals, and the programmatic details that would fund buybacks are still pending.