TL;DR
Ethena Pay launched Earn+, a feature that allows users to earn higher rewards on a portion of their dollar balances.
Deposits are routed into an Upshift vault managed by Steakhouse, which uses Aave’s lending markets on Avalanche.
Earn+ has no lock-up period and processes withdrawals within 24 hours. Deposit limits range from $20,000 to $200,000, depending on the account tier.
Ethena Pay launched Earn+, a new savings feature that allows users to earn higher rewards on their dollar balances through a strategy that uses Aave V4 lending markets on Avalanche .
The app, developed by Ethena, launched in approximately 50 countries in September. Users can hold dollar balances, make payments, and earn rewards automatically. With Earn+, they can allocate a portion of those funds to an option that offers a higher rewards rate.
The service operates through an Upshift vault managed by Steakhouse , which executes the financial strategy using Aave’s infrastructure. Each platform plays a specific role in managing deposits and lending operations.
Ethena: Higher Rewards Without Locking Up Deposits
Ethena Pay users can choose how much money to transfer from their dollar balance into Earn+ and review the transaction before confirming it.
The feature has no mandatory lock-up periods . Withdrawals are processed within 24 hours of the request, and the funds are returned to the user’s dollar balance in the app.
Deposits are subject to limits based on account tiers. Standard users can allocate up to $20,000 , while the maximum increases to $50,000 for Pro users and $200,000 for VIP users.
Upshift provides the infrastructure that receives deposits and holds assets in the vault. Meanwhile, Steakhouse manages the yield strategy and determines how the available lending markets are used.
Aave V4 provides the financial infrastructure needed to execute these operations, although users must access the service directly through Ethena Pay.
Aave V4 Provides Liquidity Through Its Hub and Spoke Architecture
The Earn+ strategy uses Aave V4 on Avalanche , a version of the protocol that organizes liquidity through an architecture known as Hub and Spoke .
Liquidity Hubs pool available deposits, while Spokes operate as markets that can borrow funds from that shared liquidity. Each market establishes its own collateral requirements and risk parameters .
On Avalanche , this structure allows the strategy to supply USDe and borrow USDT using liquidity available in the network’s Hub.
Aave Labs explained that this architecture enables financing operations at a larger scale and allows liquidity to be shared across different markets.
Ethena already provides lending markets used by exchanges, wallets, and fintech companies offering blockchain-based savings services.
