Ethena Pay targets US, UK, and Europe launch within four weeks

Ethena Pay expects to begin expanding into the US, UK and Europe within three to four weeks as the company works with its card partners to bring the consumer money app to additional markets.

Founder and CEO Guy Young said during a Sept. 14 Unchained interview that geographic expansion is currently the team’s top priority, with the US, Europe, the UK and parts of Asia including Taiwan among the next markets expected to come online.

Young said many of those regions could become available within roughly three to four weeks.

The timeline is later than Ethena’s previous guidance. In a Sept. 3 blog post, the company listed US and EU support among features expected to arrive in September.

Ethena Pay’s jurisdictions page currently lists the US, EU, UK, Switzerland, Canada, Taiwan and South Korea as coming soon without providing specific launch dates.

Young said the expansion schedule partly depends on the companies supporting Ethena Pay’s Visa card. The card is issued by Third National and managed by Rain, with Ethena dependent on their ability to bring the product into additional jurisdictions.

The card is currently unavailable to US citizens, residents and other US persons under its terms.

Ethena Labs launched Ethena Pay on Sept. 1 as a consumer facing product designed to give users direct access to its ecosystem rather than relying primarily on exchanges.

Young said the US is not among the company’s five highest priority markets over the longer term, pointing instead to South America and Asia as regions where Ethena already has a significant user base.

Ethena Pay remains in a gated beta, with Young saying the company is intentionally expanding the product gradually.