Empowering universal access to financial services. Your money, your rules.
Copyright© 2026 Anodos Labs Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Empowering universal access to financial services. Your money, your rules.
Copyright© 2026 Anodos Labs Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Articles
22 Jan, 2026
Anodos
Team
7 mins read
The train of financial progress seems to be unstoppable at first glance. Over the centuries, the industry has undergone seismic shifts over the past decade, but why does it still feel like we’re running in circles?
Neobanks emerged as digital disruptors, eliminating physical branches and reimagining banking through mobile-first experiences. They promised lower fees, instant access, and unprecedented convenience, and consumers responded enthusiastically. Now, as stablecoin adoption accelerates and decentralized finance matures, the market is signaling a profound opportunity: the rise of dedicated crypto neobanks that can truly operate beyond traditional financial rails, bringing a true onchain experience to the masses. What are the challenges, solutions, and Anodos' outlook on this?
So, where do we stand at the start of 2026? Previously, traditional neobanks successfully challenged legacy institutions by prioritizing user experience over marble lobbies and eliminating unnecessary overhead. Yet despite their digital-native appearance, most neobanks remain fundamentally tethered to the same infrastructure they claim to have disrupted previously. They function primarily as technology wrappers for partner banks, meaning they're still bound by fractional reserve requirements, legacy payment networks, and regulatory frameworks designed for a pre-Internet era.
And back to another chapter now: today's centralized crypto exchanges have become the de facto crypto neobanks as they serve as primary gateways to the crypto ecosystems, operating the most popular fiat onramps and off-ramps while holding the majority of circulating stablecoins. However, these CEX platforms face the same fundamental constraint: their custodial nature keeps them dependent on traditional financial rails. This dependence prevents them from offering the transparency, composability, and autonomy that define decentralized finance.
The question then becomes: what would a truly crypto-native banking experience look like? One that operates end-to-end outside traditional rails while still delivering the complete suite of services users expect from their financial institution? Or, perhaps, something that delivers on promises of the true borderless finance with features that seem unimaginable and looked like sci-fi just a decade ago.
The answer lies in what we might call a DeFi Bank, a comprehensive model that reconstructs banking services using decentralized infrastructure to offer a purely onchain financial lifecycle. This approach isn't simply about adding crypto features to existing banking apps, as the developers are now rethinking how financial services can be delivered when freed from the constraints of legacy systems.
To understand the transformative potential of such platforms, we need to examine how they reimagine each core banking function. Let’s get a closer look.
As the saying goes, the devil is in the details, so let’s get straight to them. Traditional banks operate on a fractional reserve model where your deposits are technically liabilities, such as IOUs, rather than assets you truly own. Banks lend out these funds to generate revenue, keeping the majority of the yield for themselves while paying depositors minimal interest. In that equation, your money becomes fuel for their profit engine.
Neobanks haven't fundamentally changed this model, since they still partner with traditional banks and remain bound by fractional reserve requirements. When neobanks offer attractive yields, these are often marketing subsidies designed to acquire customers rather than sustainable structural improvements. And the underlying economics remain the same!
DeFi, or onchain finance, used by Anodos, flips this model entirely with a self-custodial architecture where users hold bearer assets, typically stablecoins backed 1:1 by real-world assets. Your deposits aren't IOUs, but assets you genuinely control. In this model, "Save" becomes a strategic loss leader, and treasury yields are passed through directly to users, eventually creating an attractive value proposition loop that draws in the liquidity needed to power profitable trading operations. The economics are transparent and sustainable because they're not based on extracting value from users' deposits. The age of financial deception is over.
Traditional banks process payments through a Byzantine chain of intermediaries: issuing banks, card networks like Visa and Mastercard, payment processors, and acquiring banks. Each extracts fees, resulting in merchants paying roughly 2-3% on every transaction, and these costs get passed to consumers through higher prices, creating an invisible tax on every purchase.
Neobanks typically issue prepaid debit cards because they lack the balance sheet required for credit products. They collect interchange fees and split them with partner banks, but the fundamental infrastructure remains unchanged, so the same intermediaries still extract the same fees.
At the same time, the DeFi banks like Anodos enable wallet-to-wallet payments that bypass card networks entirely. Transactions occur onchain, with fees reduced to just the cost of gas, often mere cents or even fractions of a penny. This allows the DeFi model to capture an entire payments stack rather than sharing it with multiple intermediaries. Moreover, they can potentially offer reward-bearing stablecoins to merchants, creating new incentive structures. Imagine receiving yield on your working capital while simultaneously benefiting from lower payment processing costs. Sounds like a miracle to you? Not anymore.
Traditional banks historically siloed savings and investment products, profiting from the net interest margin, where the spread lies between what they pay depositors and what they earn on loans and investments. Meanwhile, investment options were limited and often came with high fees and minimum balances.
Neobanks disrupted this silo by integrating trading directly alongside savings accounts, democratizing access to investment markets. However, "free" trading often isn't truly free while it's monetized through Payment for Order Flow (PFOF), where brokers receive compensation for routing trades to specific market makers, or through hidden spreads that slightly disadvantage retail traders.
The onchain banks generate revenue through transparent trading fees while simultaneously protecting users from a hidden cost: the Maximal Extractable Value (MEV). The MEV event occurs when validators or bots reorder, insert, or censor transactions to extract volume, essentially front-running users or manipulating transaction order for profit. This functions as an invisible tax on DeFi users.
So, DeFi banks act as neutral routers, intelligently finding the best prices across decentralized exchanges while implementing MEV protection strategies. They don't hide their revenue model behind PFOF or spreads, charging transparent fees while ensuring users receive optimal execution instead. The value proposition is unmistakably clear here: better prices, protection from exploitation, and honest fee structures.
Traditional banks rely heavily on credit scores and underwriting models to assess risk. It works as follows: if a borrower defaults, the bank absorbs the loss. This system works reasonably well for people with established credit histories in developed financial systems, but it excludes billions of people worldwide who lack formal credit profiles.
Neobanks generally can’t originate unsecured loans or issue credit cards because they lack banking charters. Their lending capabilities remain limited, if they exist at all, and they're constrained by the same regulatory frameworks that limit their traditional competitors.
DeFi banks like Anodos pioneer a "whole-portfolio" approach that combines onchain collateral enforcement with off-chain data verification through cryptographic proofs. This hybrid model allows them to serve "credit-invisible" users, such as immigrants without domestic credit history, freelancers with inconsistent income patterns, or businesses in developing markets with strong cash flow but no formal credit records.
By evaluating the transaction history, stablecoin holdings, and cryptographically verified offchain credentials, onchain banks can assess creditworthiness through alternative means, while smart contracts automatically enforce collateral requirements, reducing default risk while expanding access to credit for underserved populations.
The Anodos model goes beyond incremental upgrades as it redefines how financial services are constructed. Built on decentralized infrastructure, DeFi banks introduce a fundamentally different architecture in which users retain custody of their assets rather than relying on institutional IOUs.
Economic models become transparent, with revenues derived from explicit service fees instead of value extraction from deposits. And by removing intermediaries, transaction and operational costs are significantly reduced, while global accessibility expands to credit-invisible populations long excluded by legacy systems. Native composability further allows these banks to integrate seamlessly with the broader DeFi ecosystem by design.
We are entering a structural inflection point here, where stablecoin adoption is accelerating, regulatory frameworks are gradually becoming clearer, and the underlying infrastructure is reaching maturity. Our team believes that together, these forces position DeFi banks to emerge not just as marginal disruptors within the existing system, but as the foundation of a new generation of financial institutions.
The first financial super app powered by XRPL is coming soon. We’ve been long building this global DeFi platform, so consumers and SMEs could leverage the full potential of onchain banking. To learn more about the anatomy of a crypto neobank and its blueprint for financial inclusion at a global scale, visit anodos.finance. And don’t forget to join our waitlist.
The future of banking will not be defined by adding crypto features to traditional models. It’s time for you to become your own bank, as we are rebuilding financial services from the ground up on decentralized infrastructure.
Experience XRPL-powered DeFi ANODEX | Learn more at docs.anodos.finance | Follow @AnodosFinance on X!
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