This digital bank aims to transform blockchain-based finance.

In just three months, Tria, a self-custodial neobank built on BestPath AVS, has achieved $20 million in onchain volume, outstripping early competitors by 13x.

With over 50,000 users and effortless cross-chain transactions, CEO Vijit Katta discusses how Tria is transforming digital asset banking and creating a seamless, user-centric financial future.

Tria achieved $20 million in onchain volume during a closed beta — 13× more than EtherFi’s card for the same timeframe. What drives such exceptional early real-world adoption?

Katta: Simplicity and variety are the main factors. Many crypto cards still limit users to narrow spending options or complicated account structures that hinder everyday utility. Tria is designed for everyday spending at scale. You can top up with over 1,000 assets, maintain complete self-custody, and use it in more than 150 countries where Visa or Mastercard are accepted. It functions like a genuine global bank card, not a crypto workaround.

You reached your first $1 million daily spending on November 19. Was this milestone driven by organic user behavior, or was there a specific event that pushed Tria over the threshold?

Katta: It was a mix of organic growth and targeted activation. Usage consistently increased as more users made Tria their daily card. We also conducted focused value-add campaigns for cardholders. During the holiday shopping season, we introduced Tria Treasure, where one daily purchase could be refunded. This was a straightforward way to reward early users and significantly boosted both activity and retention.

Why do you think consumers are suddenly ready to use onchain assets for real-world purchases?

Katta: Because the experience feels more familiar. People don’t want to deal with bridges, gas fees, or chain switching just to buy something in the real world. With Tria, users can top up and spend, while BestPath manages the cross-chain execution seamlessly in the background. When you eliminate operational friction, onchain assets start to feel less like things to hold and more like assets to use. Lower fees than traditional cards make this decision even easier.

You maintain automatic cross-chain execution without bridges, gas alerts, or UX friction, all while being fully self-custodial. What was the most challenging aspect of achieving this?

Katta: The toughest challenge was providing payments-grade reliability while managing complex cross-chain execution behind the scenes. Transforming a single user action into seamless, gasless execution across varied ecosystems is not only an engineering challenge; it’s also an economic, security, and coordination challenge.

Each chain has its unique characteristics — varying finality times, fee structures, liquidity issues, and potential failure points. Abstracting all of that while maintaining self-custody was exceptionally challenging. Most systems falter when dealing with multiple chains in a single flow — we had to design Tria to excel in that environment. BestPath addresses this by pre-computing optimal paths and powering a permissionless solver marketplace. PathFinders compete using relayers, liquidity routers, and fast-finality layers, with routes ranked in real-time based on cost, speed, and reliability. To preserve full self-custody while facilitating multi-step automation, we developed onchain permissioning coupled with TSS-based execution — so users never encounter bridges, gas, or token approvals.

This is what gives Tria a simple appearance on the surface, despite the complex challenges it’s resolving in the Web3 space.

Self-custody can be daunting for mainstream users. How does Tria make self-custodial banking as easy and secure as a traditional neobank?

Katta: We crafted Tria to resemble a modern banking application first, rather than a Web3 product. The difference lies in user control. You hold the keys, you can transfer your assets anytime, and you’re never confined to a single platform. Tria serves as the practical interface for self-custody, giving users an easy way to spend, earn, and trade while ensuring ownership and decision-making stay with them.

Tria’s 50,000+ users and 5,000 ambassadors show significant engagement for such an early-stage product. What insights have you gained about the user behaviors behind this engagement?

Katta: There’s been a desire for real-world utility for onchain assets for years, but previous products were either too cumbersome or overly custodial. When users are provided with something genuinely easy, transparent, and empowering, they don’t just try it; they adopt it. Our ambassadors are engaged not out of hype, but because the product fosters daily habits and offers something worth sharing. They promote Tria because they grasp the broader vision and recognize this is just the beginning.

Your recent funding round attracted $66.7M in commitments for a modest $1M allocation with over 4,500 applicants. What does this oversubscription indicate about the future of onchain finance?

Katta: It indicates a market shift toward utility. Stablecoins have established their product-market fit, but users and investors are looking for more than just a stablecoin wallet. They want a financial solution that allows for exposure while maintaining self-custody and the ability to spend, trade, and earn all in one platform. This is what we are developing, and the level of demand reflects the market’s readiness for onchain finance that genuinely works for consumers.

What differentiates Tria from previous crypto cards and neobanks — from Coinbase Card to Wirex to EtherFi’s offering?

Katta: Tria is more than just another crypto card. It serves as a fully self-custodial execution layer — not merely an add-on to a wallet or confined to a single ecosystem but built from scratch to convert onchain assets into real-world spending power. Other options necessitate bridging, swapping, or forfeiting custody, but Tria’s BestPath simplifies this process. It intelligently navigates cross-chain transactions in the background, allowing users to pay effortlessly as they would with any traditional card — without gas fees, friction, or compromises on control.

What truly distinguishes Tria is its underlying infrastructure. We’re not just creating a neobank; we’ve developed the foundational technology that supports it. BestPath and CoreSDKs provide a programmable, chain-agnostic base that supports everything from payments and trading to yield, lending, and more. This makes Tria scalable, composable, and fundamentally different: a self-custodial financial operating system built on infrastructure unparalleled by any other crypto card or neobank.

How do you plan to scale globally while ensuring users retain full control of their assets and avoiding traditional custodial models?

Katta: We will expand by maintaining a consistent, reliable product while adapting to the specific needs of each market. Spending habits and regulations may differ, but the core demand remains universal: people desire global access with control. We aim to expand country by country as swiftly as possible while upholding the same self-custodial assurances and user experience. In fact, we are launching in three new countries this week: Argentina, the UK, and Nigeria.

Your early success suggests that onchain banking might be emerging as a mainstream category. What implications does this have for the future of consumer finance in the next five years?

Katta: It signifies that the standard financial experience will evolve to be more open, programmable, and significantly cheaper. Onchain infrastructure can minimize friction and fees, broaden access to yields and global markets, and provide users with more direct ownership of their finances. Over the next five years, we believe Tria will become the leading onchain consumer finance platform, where anyone can save, trade, spend, and borrow, not just crypto enthusiasts.