Sam Kazemian: Frax turns FraxNet into finance's first neobank app store

FraxNet becomes a neobank app store for stablecoin businesses

Sam Kazemian, founder and CEO of Frax, says Frax is a consortium member of the newly launched OpenUSD network with the ability to mint and redeem at zero bips, but argues the bigger opportunity is turning FraxNet into an app store. He says no one has built a one-size-fits-all neobank because retail users, businesses and asset holders all need different flows: equity minting and redemption, compliance, invoicing, accounting and balances.

He contrasts this with consumer cards like EtherFi's and Ethena's Plasma, which he calls "retail consumer-oriented products" optimized so merchants don't even know they're accepting stablecoins. Kazemian says large businesses Frax has been working with want something different: direct custody of regulated stablecoins and even the ability to extend credit or handle receivables with them, rather than routing everything through Visa or Mastercard rails.

FraxNet's answer is a set of downloadable apps, including an invoicing app and a receivables app, so a business could upload receivables and receive credit paid directly to a KYC'd entity.

"These kinds of things that no one else is doing... that that businesses actually want to be able to do with stable coins, with low-risk digital assets"

— Sam Kazemian.

One KYC across Aave, EtherFi and other venues

Discussing EtherFi's new stablecoin launch with Ethena, Kazemian says he likes a "positive sum" model where protocols grow together, which he says Frax pioneered last cycle with joint Curve pool yields, contrasting it with Terra's more combative approach. He says he isn't sure yet how the economics between EtherFi and Ethena's respective card and stablecoin offerings will work, calling the announcement "early."

He says the key architectural difference for FraxNet is that identity and KYC are shared across apps on what he calls the "runtime layer," not just the blockchain. A user with a FraxNet account can deposit directly into Aave, withdraw, and sign up for a card through providers like Rain or Persona without repeating KYC each time.

"You have to be able to pipe the KYC and reuse it without actually doing it every single time. Then you're just actually just signing up for multiple cards."

— Sam Kazemian.

Kazemian confirms a Frax DeFi card is coming, built into FraxNet as an independent downloadable app, but says it "will not work the same way as other DeFi cards have worked," citing a different mechanic rather than subsidies, and the ability to spend FraxUSD directly with pre-swipe credit features tied to Curve pools and other DeFi primitives he says Frax is known for.

FraxUSD issuer ties and a bullish Q4 call

Kazemian links this to a regulatory concept the host raises from former SEC commissioner Hester Peirce, around a potential ZK KYC passport letting users verify once and trade across tokenized securities venues. He says FraxNet is "even more better positioned" to do this because FraxUSD gives Frax direct relationships with issuers including Superstate, WisdomTree, Securitize and Midas, which just added FraxUSD as a subscription asset, so those issuers already have FraxNet accounts.

He says full ZK-based sharing depends on each RWA issuer agreeing to accept a ZK proof rather than full KYC details, which hasn't happened yet, but that Frax could already offer a passport-like identity layer across its own ecosystem of apps.

Asked for a Q4 market outlook, Kazemian says he thinks the host will "win" a running bet about when the bull run starts, expecting "a few more months" and a "nice Q4 rally," though he says all-time highs would be "a stretch," even accounting for one or possibly two rate cuts he jokingly calls "a bullish hike."