When ether.fi tapped Rain to launch Cash, a non-custodial, cash-back credit card program for crypto users, they had the vision of making digital assets easy to use in daily life. Just a few weeks later, that vision became reality, with ether.fi’s program surpassing $1 million in transaction volume. We sat down with ether.fi CEO and founder, Mike Silagadze, to unpack how they achieved such fast traction, and what other partners can learn from their approach.
Note: Interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Mike Silagadze: ether.fi is building what we call a DeFi bank. So, it is not a traditional bank, but it is a full end-to-end alternative to traditional banking for normal people.
The idea is that you should be able to save your money, be able to deploy that money, invest it in DeFi, and then be able to actually spend that money in real life using our card program.
By offering these services in a way that is non-custodial, in other words, crypto-native, we create a product that really allows people to fully get off of traditional finance and embrace DeFi and all the benefits that it offers.
Mike: We launched a card program because it really is an integral component to giving people an alternative to traditional finance. You could think of it as the last mile of TradFi rails.
A typical crypto user usually starts doing some things within DeFi, hopefully the value goes up and they do well. And then they have to figure out how to off-ramp that money. Maybe they send it to an exchange, sell it for fiat, then transfer it to maybe a custodian, then finally it makes its way to their traditional bank account. Then maybe they can use a card or however they want to spend that money.
It's a process that is cumbersome. It takes a day, multiple days sometimes. It can cost tens or hundreds of dollars depending on a bunch of different factors.
So having a direct, easily integrated card right into your DeFi account—your non-custodial account—lets you actually use your crypto day-to-day in real life.
Mike: We chose Rain to power our card program for number of different factors:
1. Ability to launch & scale quickly: Rain was super responsive and willing to work fast—at the pace of our startup. Without naming any other folks that we looked at, the timelines that we got were somewhere on the order of three to six months to get a new card program up and running. Whereas with Rain, we were able to get up and running in a matter of weeks. That was incredibly important.
2. Proactive customer support: The Rain team was accessible. We were able to talk to everybody all the way up to the founders. It was great to have that level of customer care and communication.
3. Flexible, modern API infrastructure: Rain’s API and actual product was great. And the deal terms were really favorable.
4. Stablecoin-powered solution: Finally, it's worth mentioning that being able to settle in stablecoins was huge for us. This program is specifically designed for users that have assets onchain, and so not having to deal with the fiat off-ramp in order to be able to settle the accounts was really valuable.
Mike: There were a number of things that we had to do in order to have a successful launch and just get the card out there:
1. Use earned media to get the word out: As a starting point ether.fi had an unfair advantage because we have previously launched a number of other products. We had our staking product, and then we had our liquid product with the DeFi strategy vaults. And those products all had hundreds of thousands of customers and pretty well-regarded brands in the crypto and DeFi space. So, that just gave us a leg up. As a result, we were actually able to get a ton of earned media. We got coverage in pretty much every major crypto media publication with respect to the launch. And we got on a number of really solid podcasts.
2. Tap into influential investors and advisors: We also had a couple of our investors, including folks like Arthur Hayes, talk about the card that we launched. So, a lot of our strategy focused on this kind of organic go-to-market, which ended up being very successful.
3. Offer sign-up incentives: Shortly after the initial release, we launched an incentive program where we allocated some number of ETHFI—our governance token—to incentivize getting people signed up early.
4. Encourage spend with perks and rewards: Very shortly, we're going to be rolling out an integration that was just announced around travel bookings. So you'll be able to—as part of the ether.fi DeFi Bank offering—log in, book your hotel and eventually flights, get 5% cashback on all of it, in addition to getting prices that are just wildly good. It's almost hard to believe it. Then today actually, we're rolling out a referral program for our users where you'll be able to refer a friend and get cashback on all of their spending.
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Want to build your own card program?
Rain is a global card issuing and payments platform powered by stablecoins. As a Visa Principal Member, Rain enables partners to launch branded card programs quickly and compliantly—without relying on third-party banks or fragmented infrastructure. Rain’s developer-friendly API offers a fully customizable, full-stack issuance solution that supports both custodial and non-custodial wallets and operates natively across multiple blockchain networks. Rain-issued cards are accepted at over 150 million merchants worldwide, making digital assets instantly usable anywhere Visa is accepted. Trusted by industry leaders, Rain is rebuilding essential financial infrastructure to allow money to flow more efficiently across the globe.
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