All of the top stablecoin neobanks offer some form of fiat account: a US account number, an IBAN, or other personalized bank details similar to those provided by a traditional bank.
While the experience may feel similar, these products are entirely different under the hood.
Most neobanks don't operate their own banking infrastructure. Instead, they rely on a handful of providers that issue accounts, process bank transfers, and handle foreign exchange. These providers quietly determine everything from supported currencies to FX spreads and KYC requirements.
We set out to find out whether these differences actually matter. To do so, we traced the banking stacks powering five leading stablecoin neobanks: @RedotPay, @Ether_fi, @KASTxyz, @avici, and @gnosispay.
We discovered who the underlying providers are, compared advertised USD fees and currency coverage, and deposited and withdrew tens of thousands in EUR to determine real FX rates and transfer times.
The State of Neobank Banking Rails, At a Glance
We compared EUR rails using a hands-on test, depositing and withdrawing €5,000 from each neobank. With a few exceptions, deposits usually took a few minutes and withdrawals took hours.
After adjusting for fluctuations in the FX rate, we found that foreign exchange spreads and other fees for completing a deposit and withdrawal round-trip varied anywhere from just $2 to over $130:
Neobank EUR rails as tested with a €5,000 deposit and withdrawal. For Gnosis Pay, funds were swapped into USDC via an aggregator to provide a fair comparison. For EtherFi's Bridge account, costs are based on exchange rate spreads from a €5 test and exclude platform fees.
For USD rails, we compared fee schedules. Here, fees are largely determined by flat ACH, wire, or SWIFT costs, with occasional percentage fees. In total, the cost to complete a $5,000 deposit and withdrawal round-trip via ACH ranges from $2 to $16:
USD rails compared using advertised fee schedules for a $5,000 deposit and withdrawal via ACH.
We determined which underlying providers these neobanks use based on a variety of clues, including branded KYC domains, named bank account details, and in some cases, the neobanks’ helpdesks.
A note on our testing methodology: we performed all test transactions between the 21st and 23rd of July. As FX rates fluctuated during this time, we scaled some numbers by up to 40bps to normalise all findings to the FX rate at the start of our tests (€5,000 = $5,704.7).
The Complete Findings
As we tested each neobank we noted down the fees, how long transfers took, and whether the accounts were in our name. We also found that leading neobanks have extensive local payout features, which allow you to withdraw a currency using its local rails, but don't provide dedicated banking details.
RedotPay
RedotPay offers EUR and GBP (but not USD) virtual accounts powered by @OpenPayd, a lesser-known vendor also serving major platforms like eToro and Kraken. Opening a virtual account in either currency costs $7, while every other neobank we tested was free.
While our €5,000 test deposit would have typically arrived within minutes, a lengthy review process meant it ultimately took ~60 hours until we could access the funds.
RedotPay offers a distinct EUR balance, meaning our deposit was not automatically swapped into stablecoins. When we did swap, we were credited 5,591.01 USDC. This means we were hit with a $113.69 (2%) effective fee. This is by far the highest fee on this list, suggesting it is an intentional additional source of revenue for RedotPay.
To withdraw €5000, we paid 5,722.58 USDC. This corresponds to $17.88 (approximately 0.3%) in fees. Notably, the withdrawal was processed by a different vendor — Red Dot Payment — and took less than a minute.
RedotPay's local payout functionality is significantly more expansive, with over 30 currencies supported across Latin America, Asia, Africa, and other regions. Fees for this feature are typically a few dollars depending on the currency, but for USD specifically, we saw a fee as high as $50.50. We tested an SGD payout out of curiosity, and saw that the funds were sent by a partner called iSend.
EtherFi
EtherFi has fairly extensive banking rails, including USD, EUR, BRL, MXN, COP, GBP, and AED virtual accounts, as well as payouts in a further five currencies (CAD, HKD, HNL, ILS, and INR). This coverage is facilitated by two leading vendors: Bridge (@Stablecoin) and @due_network.
For EUR virtual accounts, EtherFi provides two separate IBANs. This allows the user to choose whether the proceeds should be credited as EURC or USDC.
We made our €5000 test deposit through a Due virtual account, choosing to receive USDC in order to test the FX fees. We received 5,695.12 USDC via Due, for a $9.21 (0.16%) effective fee. To withdraw €5000 against our USDC balance, we were debited the equivalent of 5,714.04 USDC, which amounts to a $9.34 (0.16%) fee.
Prior to the test, we had been shown banking details for a Bridge-provided EUR account, which later disappeared from the user interface. We dug up email receipts from a €5 deposit and withdrawal we had made with this account earlier on, and saw that Bridge had applied an FX spread of over 0.5% on both legs!
We asked around and confirmed this is the case for other Bridge-powered EUR virtual accounts. It's no surprise that EtherFi now defaults to giving us Due banking details.
For US Dollars, EtherFi has the same fees regardless of vendor. There's a 0.1% fee on inbound and a 0.2% fee on outbound transfers, plus flat fees depending on the network: $0.5 for ACH, and $20 for SWIFT or wire transfers.
KAST
We identified two banking vendors for KAST: Bridge and @Noah_HQ. It appears that Bridge is primarily used for USD accounts, while Noah is used for EUR accounts, as well as payouts in all or some of 20 other currencies.
Since KAST only offers a USD balance, our €5000 deposit was automatically converted into Dollars. We were credited $5,704.43, meaning we experienced close to zero fees ($0.27). When paying out, the app showed a $2 SEPA fee which is waived for the first 3 transfers every month. However, the effective FX rate was just over 1%, as we were debited $5,762.78 for an effective cost of $59.29.
KAST also heavily subsidizes USD deposit and withdrawal fees; while there is a $2 ACH fee (or $15 and $30 when depositing with wire transfer or SWIFT, respectively), there are no percentage fees on either leg. It appears that off-ramping usually has a 0.5% percentage fee which is currently waived.
Avici
Avici offers USD and EUR virtual accounts through @Iron, which was acquired by MoonPay in 2025. For both currencies, there is a $1/€1 flat fee on both deposits and withdrawals (or $15 for wire transfers) with no percentage fee.
Avici does not offer a EUR balance, so our €5000 test deposit instead credited $5,702.81 to our balance. After adjusting for the €1 fee, this came out to the effective mid-market FX rate at the time of the deposit.
The same was true when withdrawing: we were debited $5,705.99. We confirmed with the Avici team that no FX fee is applied to deposits nor to withdrawals, regardless of size.
While this was by far the best fee schedule we saw, it would be amiss not to comment on the extremely slow and invasive due diligence process we went through with Iron's KYC provider, Sumsub. To regain access to the €5000 we initially deposited, we submitted 10+ personal documents including bank and exchange statements, tax returns, business registrations, and rental contracts over the course of just over one full week.
Gnosis Pay
Gnosis Pay is a neobanking stack powering products such as Rebind, Picnic, and Zeal (the last of which we tested). Here, only EUR virtual accounts are supported via a vendor called @monerium.
Upon depositing, we received Monerium's EURe stablecoin one-to-one with zero fees; withdrawal was also entirely free. For a fair comparison, we also looked at how much it would cost to swap EURe for USDC onchain:
- 5000 EURe → 5,705.39 USDC (a gain of $0.69!)
- 5,713.76 USDC → 5000 EURe ($9.06 cost)
What Our Testing Tells Us
On the surface, most stablecoin neobanks offer a similar banking experience: local bank details, fast transfers, and the ability to move between fiat and stablecoins. Behind the scenes, the economics depend on the vendor and how much the neobank chooses to collect or subsidize.
We did find some recurring patterns across neobanks and their vendors:
- For USD and EUR virtual accounts, platform fees range from 0% to 0.3%, with on-ramping typically heavily subsidized.
- For USD transfers, ACH, wire, and SWIFT processing fees are often passed onto the user.
- For EUR users, SEPA transfers are free of flat fees. However, FX spreads come into play, ranging from 0% to as high as 2%.
We were surprised to see the large variation in FV spreads. In particular, @Stablecoin seems to charge significantly higher fees than others, leaving less revenue for neobanks to capture. Although we were unable to confirm this, we got the sense that KAST and RedotPay's higher fees are a source of revenue for them, and not vendor overhead.
On the coverage front, we identified the following currencies as being supported for virtual accounts by the vendors mentioned above:
For payout functionality in other currencies, OpenPayd, Due, and Noah offer the most extensive support, with dozens of currencies supported by each.
When asking neobanks about their choices, we learned that compliance and banking relationships are a major factor:
- The EtherFi team, users of Bridge and Due, specifically noted "compliance, operational UX, rails offered, [and] fees" as top factors.
- The @KoloHub team — who just recently also integrated Due — similarly commented on their recently-acquired MiCA license and picky compliance as selling points.
Afterword
While the vendors listed above account for the vast majority of neobanks, it's worth noting there are plenty more teams building in this space. Although we didn't come across them in our tests, names that kept coming up include:
We're thrilled to see neobanking rails become increasingly competitive, and are excited to see the coverage and fees users can choose from in 12 months' time and beyond.
Did we miss your favourite banking vendor? Want us to uncover another aspect of neobanking? We'd love to hear from you, reach out at https://paymentscan.xyz/contact