The Sydney fintech - once known as CryptoSpend - that wants a stablecoin to feel exactly like the cash in your pocket.
WAYEX, SYDNEY. The brand mark for the company formerly called CryptoSpend, born from a University of Technology Sydney project in 2018.
Countries live
Users, six years
Merchant locations
USD spending fees
Wayex answers a question that sounds almost too plain for an industry built on jargon: why can't you just spend a stablecoin the way you spend money already in your account?
The mechanics are deliberately unremarkable, which is the point. A Wayex user holds a single US dollar balance. They fund it with a bank transfer or a stablecoin - USDC, USDT, DAI or PYUSD, deposited across more than ten blockchains. Then they spend it with a Visa card at any of the roughly 200 million merchant locations worldwide that already take Visa. Conversion happens in real time at the register, so there is no manual swap, no waiting on an exchange, no mental math at the checkout.
That flatness - crypto going in, ordinary payment coming out - is the entire product thesis. Wayex is not trying to make people think about blockchains. It is trying to make them forget one is involved. Users in Australia have spent stablecoins on groceries, restaurant bills and utilities, the kind of transactions that rarely make headlines but define whether a payment method is actually used or merely admired.
The company frames its mission as bridging "the gap between cryptocurrency and everyday spending, making stablecoins accessible and practical for global commerce." Stripped of the mission-statement gloss, that means one thing: a card that works at the corner shop.
In 2025 the company extended that model beyond Australia with Wayex Global, a unified USD account paired with a Visa card, now available across more than 160 countries. Card issuance began in 18 markets, with expansion to 100-plus planned in the months after launch.
"Stablecoins allow value to move globally, instantly and at much lower cost."
Wayex's most telling customer is not the crypto trader chasing yield. It is the cross-border earner whose local currency loses value while they sleep.
Remote workers, freelancers paid in dollars, families sending remittances, and people in inflation-hit or under-banked regions all share one problem: getting stable, spendable dollars without a traditional bank that will have them. Wayex offers a USD (and EUR, GBP, MXN, BRL) account reachable from a phone, funded through local rails - Brazil's PIX, Mexico's SPEI, US ACH, European SEPA - or through stablecoins directly.
The problem it solves is not "crypto is exciting." It is "money is stuck." Stuck in a slow correspondent-banking chain, stuck behind currency controls, stuck losing purchasing power. By letting balances sit in dollar-pegged stablecoins and be spent instantly, Wayex turns a volatile, hard-to-move asset into something that behaves like a current account.
There is a second, quieter benefit: idle money earns. Wayex pays up to roughly 5% annually on liquid stablecoin balances, with higher fixed-term products - drawn from institutional private-credit lending - on the roadmap. The balance you spend from is also the balance that earns, which is a subtle rewiring of what a payment account is supposed to do.
A free digital card plus optional physical card, spending a unified USD balance at 200M+ merchants with 0% USD fees, Apple Pay and Google Pay support.
One US dollar balance funded via ACH, SEPA, PIX or SPEI - or by stablecoins - with instant conversion at checkout and no manual swaps.
USDC, USDT, DAI and PYUSD accepted across 10+ blockchains, converted into a spendable dollar balance.
Up to ~5% annually on liquid balances, with fixed-term institutional private-credit products planned.
Buy, sell, hold and spend from iOS or Android, with KYC in as little as two minutes, spending controls and real-time alerts.
Local payment systems and card issuance stitched together so money can actually get in - and back out - across borders.
The crypto-card shelf is crowded - Crypto.com, RedotPay, Zypto, Coinbase and Binance all sell versions of "spend your crypto." Wayex's differences are less about flash and more about plumbing.
Three things stand out. First, zero FX fees - unusual for a category that often buries a 1-2% currency spread. Second, a compliance-first track record: six years of licensed, audited-feeling operation before the global push, with cards issued through regulated partners rather than shortcuts. Third, the rebrand itself. Moving from "CryptoSpend" to "Wayex" was a bet that the winning product is a dollar account that happens to use stablecoins, not a crypto gadget that happens to spend.
The trade-offs are real and worth naming: historically an A$1,000 per-transaction cap, no cashback or rewards program, and - until the Global rollout matures - limited reach outside Australia. Wayex is competing on trust and rails, not on loyalty points.
Andrew Grech and Richard Voice start a student-led crypto payments project in Sydney.
The CryptoSpend app goes live on iOS and Android to buy, sell and spend crypto.
A partnership with Visa (via Novatti) delivers the country's first native crypto card.
Growth capital arrives to expand the product and user base.
CryptoSpend becomes Wayex, signaling a shift toward a broader global money platform.
A unified USD account and Visa card go live worldwide, powered by Bridge, Visa and Lead Bank.
Wayex is a consumer fintech - B2C and direct-to-consumer. Rather than charging users upfront, it earns on flow: conversion and FX spreads when stablecoins become spendable dollars, Visa interchange on card transactions, physical-card fees, and the margin on yield generated from balances held. Revenue scales with volume and deposits, which is why reach and trust matter more than any single fee line.
In the wider market, Wayex sits at the intersection of two fast-moving stories: the mainstreaming of stablecoins as a settlement layer, and the unbundling of the bank account. Visa itself has flagged stablecoins as "the next phase of cross-border payments." Wayex's wager is that a small, compliance-minded team with six years of real usage can turn that macro trend into a card people carry - competing less with crypto exchanges and more with the neobanks and remittance apps that never quite solved the dollar-access problem.
A Sydney fintech offering one USD balance you fund with bank transfers or stablecoins and spend worldwide on a Visa card, with real-time conversion at checkout.
Yes - founded as CryptoSpend in 2018, rebranded to Wayex in 2024 as it expanded beyond Australia.
USDC, USDT, DAI and PYUSD across 10+ blockchains, plus fiat via ACH, SEPA, PIX and SPEI.
At 200M+ Visa merchant locations across 200+ countries; card issuance expanding from 18 markets toward 100+.
Up to about 5% annually on liquid stablecoin balances, with higher fixed-term products planned.
Sources: Wayex.com · Australian FinTech · MEXC News · Crunchbase · CoinCodeCap · Visa Australia newsroom. Figures such as yield, limits and country counts are approximate and change as the product expands.