Tria’s $20 Million Beta Surge: How a Self-Custodial Neobank is Transforming Onchain Finance

In just three months, Tria, a self-custodial neobank built on BestPath AVS, has managed to process an impressive $20 million in onchain volume, outperforming its early rivals by 13 times. With over 50,000 users and seamless cross-chain payment capabilities, CEO Vijit Katta explains how Tria is revolutionizing digital asset banking and creating a future where users have full control over their financial transactions.

Key Takeaways

Impressive Growth: Tria processed $20 million in onchain volume during its closed beta.
User Experience Focus: Simplifies transactions with over 1,000 assets, full self-custody, and wide acceptance globally.
Engaging Community: 50,000+ users and strong ambassador engagement demonstrates the product's utility.
Innovative Infrastructure: Combines advanced features for a seamless user experience while maintaining self-custody.
Global Scaling Plans: Tria aims to expand while ensuring users retain control of their assets.

Tria's $20m beta surge: How a self-custodial neobank is redefining onchain finance - 1

Tria's Milestone in Onchain Volume

Tria's success during its beta phase is remarkable, having processed $20 million in onchain transactions — a figure that is 13 times more than what EtherFi’s card achieved in the same timeframe. This raises the question: what is fueling such rapid adoption?

Katta: The key drivers are simplicity and versatility. Many crypto cards still offer limited options or complicated account structures that hinder daily use. Tria is designed for widespread use, allowing users to top up with more than 1,000 assets, maintain complete self-custody, and transact in over 150 countries where Visa and Mastercard are accepted. It operates like a conventional global bank card instead of a mere crypto alternative.

Daily Spending Trends

Tria reached its first $1 million in daily spending on November 19. Was this achievement the result of organic user growth or a specific market event?

Katta: It resulted from a combination of steady organic growth and targeted activation. As more users adopted Tria for daily spending, we also initiated specific campaigns to add value for our cardholders. For instance, during the holiday shopping season, we launched Tria Treasure, where users could get one purchase per day refunded. This simple initiative effectively boosted both user engagement and retention.

Consumer Readiness for Onchain Transactions

What is prompting consumers to embrace onchain assets for real-world purchases?

Katta: The experience has become more familiar and accessible. Users no longer want to deal with complex processes like managing bridges and gas fees to make real-world purchases. With Tria, users can top up and spend effortlessly while BestPath manages cross-chain execution behind the scenes. By reducing operational hurdles, onchain assets shift from being cumbersome holdings to usable financial tools. Additionally, lower fees compared to traditional card options make this transition even more enticing.

Challenges in Executing Cross-Chain Transactions

Tria manages automatic cross-chain execution without the need for bridges or gas prompts while remaining fully self-custodial. What were the biggest challenges in building this system?

Katta: The most significant challenge was ensuring payments-grade reliability while handling complex cross-chain execution seamlessly. Turning a straightforward user action into a fluid process that avoids the pitfalls of fragmented ecosystems is not merely an engineering issue; it involves economic, security, and coordination complexities. Each blockchain has unique characteristics — diverse finality times, fee structures, liquidity gaps, and failure modes. Abstracting this while retaining self-custody was incredibly challenging. Many systems falter when faced with multi-chain dynamics; we had to design Tria to excel in that arena. BestPath addresses this by pre-computing optimal transaction routes and providing a permissionless solver marketplace. PathFinders compete using relayers, liquidity routers, and fast-finality layers, effortlessly ranking routes in terms of cost, speed, and reliability. To ensure full self-custody and multi-step automation, we applied onchain permissioning along with TSS-based execution, freeing users from bridges, gas, and token approvals. This is why Tria appears simple to users — beneath the surface, it tackles some of the toughest challenges in Web3.

Making Self-Custodial Banking User-Friendly

Historically, self-custody has been daunting for the average user. How does Tria simplify self-custodial banking to make it as intuitive and secure as traditional neobanks?

Katta: We designed Tria primarily as a contemporary banking app rather than a Web3 product. The crucial difference lies in user control. Users hold the keys to their assets, can transfer them at any time, and aren't confined to a single platform. Tria serves as the interface that transforms self-custody into a practical experience, allowing users to spend, earn, and trade while retaining ownership and control over their finances.

Engagement and Community Insights

Tria's early user engagement, with over 50,000 users and 5,000 ambassadors, is impressive for such a nascent product. What insights have you gained about the behaviors driving this engagement?

Katta: Users have been craving genuine utility for their onchain assets, but previous products often fell short in either functionality or custodial concerns. When users find a solution that is genuinely simple, transparent, and gives them control, they not only try it; they embrace it. Our ambassadors aren’t just enthusiastic due to hype; they are engaged because Tria fosters daily habits and offers them something valuable to share. They promote Tria because they understand our broader vision and realize that this is only the beginning.

Vijit Katta, co-founder and CEO of Tria

Investor Interest and Market Trends

Tria’s recent funding round attracted $66.7 million in commitments for a modest $1 million allocation, with over 4,500 applicants. What does this high level of interest signal about the future of onchain finance?

Katta: This level of oversubscription indicates a market shift towards utility-focused solutions. While stablecoins have established their market fit, users and investors are looking for more than just a stablecoin wallet. They are seeking a comprehensive financial product that allows them to maintain exposure while keeping self-custody, enabling spending, trading, and earning all in one place. This is what we’re dedicated to building, and the strong demand reflects the market's readiness for functional onchain finance.

Differentiating Tria from Other Crypto Solutions

What sets Tria apart from existing crypto cards and neobanks, such as Coinbase Card, Wirex, and EtherFi’s offerings?

Katta: Tria is not just another crypto card; it is a fully self-custodial execution layer that is built from scratch to convert onchain assets into real-world spending power. Unlike other products that require bridging, swapping, or relinquishing custody, Tria’s BestPath simplifies all these complexities. It intelligently manages cross-chain transactions behind the scenes, allowing users to tap and pay like they would with any traditional card, without any gas fees, friction, or loss of control.

What truly differentiates Tria is what happens behind the scenes. We are not merely creating a neobank; we are developing the foundational infrastructure that supports it. BestPath and CoreSDKs create a programmable, cross-chain framework that enables everything from payments and trading to yield and lending, making Tria scalable, composable, and fundamentally distinct: it serves as a self-custodial financial operating system built on unique infrastructure that no other crypto card or neobank currently offers.

Global Scaling and User Control

How does Tria plan to expand globally while ensuring users retain full control over their assets and move away from traditional custodial models?

Katta: We aim to scale by delivering a consistent and reliable product while tailoring our operations to each market. Spending behaviors and regulations may differ, but the fundamental demand is the same: people want global access with control over their assets. We are committed to expanding country by country as quickly as possible while upholding our self-custodial guarantees and user experience standards. In fact, we are set to launch in three new countries this week: Argentina, the UK, and Nigeria.

The Future of Onchain Banking

Your early success suggests that onchain banking could finally emerge as a mainstream category. What does this mean for the future of consumer finance over the next five years?

Katta: It indicates that the default financial experience is poised to become more open, programmable, and cost-effective. Onchain technologies can cut down on friction and fees, broaden access to both yield and global markets, and enhance users’ direct ownership of their money. In the next five years, we anticipate that Tria will be at the forefront of onchain consumer finance, enabling anyone to save, trade, spend, and borrow — not just crypto enthusiasts.