What Ethena Pay charged on 4 real purchases
This test is about fees. We wanted to know what Ethena Pay actually takes when you pay with it, especially in other currencies, including costs that never appear on its fee page. So we checked every purchase on our own Ethena Pay card, 9 Oct 2026 to 11 Oct 2026, against the mid-market rate, and put what we paid next to the advertised fees and the advertised cashback.
AUD purchases, in October, against the mid-market rate.
Advertised fees, what we paid, and cashback
In October
9 Oct 2026 to 11 Oct 2026 · 4 AUD purchases
0.08% more than the advertised fees.
Advertised cashback minus what we paid: +2.92% of spend on Standard plan, first $2,500 a month, before the plan's fee. By plan and spend below.
Advertised cashback is the card's published rate; our test doesn't measure it.
Advertised cashback by plan and spend
Ethena Pay's advertised cashback, plan by plan, at each monthly spend. FX txn is what you keep on purchases in other currencies, after the plan's fee and the 1.08% we actually paid on AUD purchases.
Standard
No fee4% on the first $2,500 a month, 1% on the next $1,500, then 0%
| Spend | Cashback | FX txn |
|---|---|---|
| $500 | 4.00% | +$14.602.92% |
| $1,000 | 4.00% | +$29.202.92% |
| $2,000 | 4.00% | +$58.402.92% |
| $5,000 | 2.30% | +$61.001.22% |
Advertised rates, not measured. Amounts are per month, with each plan's yearly fee spread over twelve months. Category bonuses, such as travel booked through the card, aren't included.
By currency
In October
9 Oct 2026 to 11 Oct 2026 · 4 purchases
| Currency | Purchases | Typical cost | Middle half |
|---|---|---|---|
| AUD | 4 | 1.08% | 0.96% to 1.20% |
How we worked it out
We check every purchase against that day's mid-market rate (the real exchange rate, with no markup) and report the typical cost in each currency. Every card gets at least a week of regular spending on the card first. How we test
- Ethena Pay adds no fee of its own on purchases outside US dollars. The cost is Visa's exchange rate, which Ethena says is typically around 1%. Our four purchases in Australian dollars cost between 0.95% and 1.21%.
- The two purchases on a Friday cost about 0.95%. The two on the Sunday cost about 1.2%, though the market rate hadn't moved, so the weekend rate looks a little higher.
- This is an early result: four purchases over three days. Two more were still pending, so they're left out until they settle.
- Our account is on Ethena's Pro plan, through access that isn't open to everyone, so we don't show the cashback it received. The exchange rate is the same on every plan, so this result holds for the free Standard plan too.
- There were no US-dollar purchases yet, so the 0% on USD comes from Ethena's published terms.
The rankings use Ethena's published 1% plus the 0.3% we add on every card for the exchange rate: 1.3% on purchases outside US dollars, with the free Standard plan's cashback. That's a little more than we measured. We switch to a measured figure only when it comes out higher.
Ethena Pay
Plans, every fee and what it pays back at your spend are on the card's page.
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More cards are being tested every week. See all our tests.
General information only. These figures are calculated from the spend you enter and the card terms we've collected. We haven't considered your objectives, financial situation or needs, and this isn't a recommendation. Consider whether a card suits you and read the provider's terms before applying. Figures are estimates, terms change, and crypto is volatile.