How I led the product design for EthenaPay — bridging the gap between traditional fintech UX and the power of crypto infrastructure.
Traditional neobanks like Revolut and Wise have set the bar for financial UX — fast, clear, and confidence-inspiring. But they're built entirely on legacy rails, with no access to the benefits of crypto: yield generation, non-custodial ownership, or stablecoin-denominated accounts.
On the other side, crypto-native products offer powerful functionality but are often fragmented, jargon-heavy, and hostile to anyone who isn't already deep in the ecosystem. The wallet paradigm, seed phrases, gas fees — all of it creates friction that keeps mainstream users out.
EthenaPay exists in the space between. It's a neobank built on stablecoin infrastructure (USDe), allowing users to hold, send, and manage USD-denominated balances while earning 8.45% APY — all wrapped in an experience that feels as familiar as the fintech apps they already use.
The core challenge wasn't building another crypto app. It was building a financial product where the underlying technology is completely abstracted away. Users shouldn't need to know what a stablecoin is to benefit from one.
How do you give users true ownership of their funds without exposing them to seed phrases, private keys, and recovery flows that feel like a security exam?
The external agency delivered ambitious visual concepts. Translating high-fidelity brand vision into production-ready, usable interfaces without losing the identity.
Users send to both wallet addresses and bank accounts. The experience needs to feel identical regardless of whether money is moving on-chain or through traditional rails.
A new financial product has one chance to earn trust. Every screen — from onboarding through first transaction — needs to communicate safety and competence.
I worked closely with product, engineering, and the external brand agency throughout. My approach was to take the best of what traditional fintech has figured out — progressive onboarding, clear transaction states, glanceable dashboards — and adapt those patterns for a crypto-powered product.
Designed the signup flow using passkey authentication — eliminating passwords while maintaining security. Built progressive KYC that collects information across sessions rather than in one punishing form. The goal: get users to their dashboard as fast as possible, then complete verification in parallel.
The home screen needed to surface balance, yield (APY), recent activity, and account setup status without feeling dense. I designed a card-based account switcher supporting multi-currency accounts, with clear visual hierarchy that puts the number that matters most — your balance — front and centre.
The payment flow handles both crypto and fiat recipients through a unified interface. Recipients show wallet addresses or bank details depending on type, with real-time FX rates and a "no fees" value proposition surfaced at the moment of decision. The transfer review screen was designed to build confidence before confirmation.
Designed the card management experience with freeze, details, and settings controls. The insights tab surfaces spending patterns and net change with period-over-period comparisons. A tiered referral programme rewards users for growth — from Standard through Pro to VIP, with escalating bonuses and card upgrades.
Passkey authentication, progressive KYC, and a home screen that surfaces balance, yield, and account setup status at a glance.
Recipients show wallet addresses or bank details. Real-time FX, zero fees, and a review step that builds confidence before every send.
Card management with freeze and settings controls, spending insights with category breakdowns, and a tiered referral programme that drives organic growth.
Fintech patterns, crypto power. Rather than inventing new interaction models, I deliberately built on patterns users already understand from Revolut, Wise, and Cash App. The innovation is underneath — stablecoins, non-custodial wallets, yield generation — and the design's job is to make that invisible.
Grounding the brand. The external agency delivered a visual direction inspired by liquid glass aesthetics. Beautiful in concept, but many elements weren't feasible or usable in production. I led the work to translate that vision into a scalable component system — keeping the dark, premium feel while ensuring every screen could actually be built, tested, and shipped.
Unified payment rail. The recipient picker was a critical design decision. Users can send to both wallet addresses (0x0011...8899) and traditional bank accounts (HSBC ending 9876) from the same screen, with the same flow. No mode-switching, no separate "crypto" tab. Money is money.
Trust through transparency. Every transfer shows the exchange rate, recipient amount, fee (or absence of fee), and new balance before confirmation. Yield is shown directly on the home screen as APY. No hidden mechanics. The design earns trust by showing its work.
"The hardest part wasn't making it look good. It was making a non-custodial wallet feel as simple and safe as a bank account. Every onboarding decision, every recovery flow, every authentication pattern had to abstract away complexity without sacrificing security."
This project reinforced something I've believed since my time at Revolut: the best financial products don't feel innovative — they feel obvious. The crypto infrastructure powering EthenaPay is genuinely novel. The design's job is to make that novelty disappear.
What matters isn't whether users understand stablecoins. It's whether they trust the app with their money, find it easy to send and receive, and come back tomorrow. Every design decision was measured against those three things.