Cenoa, pronounced “gen-oh-a” from its Turkish roots, is not a bank or a licensed financial institution. Cenoa Super Wallet is a consumer financial technology “fintech” product whose creators are truly aligned with its users. Financial infrastructure and business models haven’t changed meaningfully since the 1970s — but it’s time to start.

We have a new model — one where we don’t skim from you. One where we’re on the same team as you. And our vision is so much bigger than even that. The DeFi protocols and partners manage the backend yields and investments so you can focus on saving, and our fintech online savings wallet app is based on blockchain technology.

Using the blockchain and decentralized finance technologies Cenoa puts your funds to work for you rather than for a bank. Your funds together with all Cenoa users’ assets become part of the investment and yield protocols on the blockchain. The profit from this investment goes directly into your pocket, since there are no intermediary institutions like banks between your investment and your Cenoa Super Wallet.

1. First, you deposit your funds into our app, or buy USD directly from our financial partners.
2. Our partner financial bridges (e.g. Transak, Moonpay, Bilira, etc.) convert those dollars into digital dollars (stablecoins) like $USDC. It is backed by the U.S. Dollar - so 1 $USDC = 1 $USD. Always.
3. We lend the digital dollars to a diversified pool of vetted and audited Decentralized Finance “DeFi” protocols (borrowers).
4. Those borrowers pay an interest which goes back to your pocket. And, because of DeFi’s design, you earn higher interest and can take your investments out anytime.

Since Cenoa is not a bank or a licensed financial institution, your balance is not covered by any government or central bank—and that’s the point! Millions of people in emerging countries want to buy U.S. dollars to protect themselves from inflation and devaluation. And buying USD is not always easy, or intermediaries charge high taxes or commissions. When holding funds in PayPal or Venmo, most users give up insurance for convenience. When you hold funds in some money market funds, you give up FDIC coverage for increased interest return. With Cenoa, the tradeoff brings you both: the easiest way to buy USD dollars and earn yield, with no fees, and securely. Cenoa provides complete transparency into your funds.

We want to help you build long-term wealth on your own terms, and we’re proud to help so you can get there faster. At Cenoa, our mission is to build a system that prioritizes people, not institutions. Because of this, we pass along (and will continue to pass along) a high percentage of the earnings of your funds to you because we believe it’s the right thing to do.

You might be thinking, “If Cenoa is not a bank, how can I put my funds to generate yield?”. That’s a great question.

Cenoa helps you get yield on your funds partnering with platforms and softwares that are called “peer-to-peer or bankless lending platforms” or “decentralized platforms”, or buy USD and start growing it immediately. These platforms use a new technology which is much more efficient and effective than traditional lending methods banks use.

Here’s how peer-to-peer, or bankless lending platforms work.

1. First, they lend your funds 100% automatically/digitally without any human intervention. This means operating costs are minimal.

2. Second, all of the loans they generate are collateralized with cash-like assets. This means their credit losses are zero. As a result, they keep only 0.1% of the earnings generated with your funds and pass almost all of the earnings to us. And we share 8% of those earnings with you. We keep only the amount above 8%. And through Cenoa, you can get 8% of those earnings.

In summary, Cenoa is not a bank. Cenoa is not lending your funds to other consumers. Cenoa does not even take control or custody of your funds. Where applicable, we just help you directly invest your funds to “peer-to-peer or bankless lending platforms” and guarantee yield return.

Cenoa is not a bank, but it’s better, and a more modern way to manage your funds, than a bank. There are real people behind our product, so each and every transaction that occurs in Cenoa comes from interactions with us — the owners. We mean you and us — we partner with our users so that we can all benefit.

Interested in learning more about us and our investors? We aren’t anonymous. You can find out more about us on our about page.

Even though every transaction and DeFi use includes a loss risk, Cenoa tries to minimize the technical risks but also provides a guaranteed yield on your deposit. So, if you deposit $1,000, the worst case scenario is that you will get back 100% of what you invested.

We all know that when it comes to earning yield on your funds, more is better. But not all financial institutions pay the same rate — not even close. Since we launched Cenoa, many clients have asked, “How can we be offered a yield rate that’s higher than other interest rates of financial institutions?”. The answer is simple: those institutions may be able to pay a high rate like you will see on Cenoa platform. They just don’t.

Let’s break down what Cenoa platform does to enable protocols to offer a high yield (which is currently 8.00%) and explain what most banks and financial institutions don’t do.

To understand why many banks could pay you more interest, you need to understand how they make money. Traditional consumer-focused banks use your deposits to make loans — meaning that their profits are largely determined by the interest earned on the loans they offer to consumers. Commonly, these loans are credit card loans or personal loans. A bank’s profit is the interest it earns on those loans minus the interest it pays on deposit accounts.

Based on data from the Federal Reserve (the “Fed”), in May 2022, U.S. banks charged consumers an average annual interest rate of 16.85% on credit card loans and 8.73% on personal loans. On the other hand, U.S. banks paid an average annual interest rate of only 0.13% to the depositors, i.e. savings account holders. In summary, banks earned >10% by lending your deposits, but shared only 0.13% of those earnings with their users. In other words, banks refuse to pay a high interest for your deposits.

Why do banks offer such low interests on savings? We believe many banks pay you a low rate on your deposits because they’ve learned they can generally get away with it. Back around the start of the 2008 financial crisis, banks lowered interest rates to nearly zero and learned that they didn’t lose depositors. As a result, many banks tend not to pay a high interest for your deposits.

At the end of the day, we know you have a lot of options when it comes to deciding where to keep your funds. If you are looking to understand the DeFi, Web3 and blockchain environment, we believe Cenoa is an ideal place for savings whether you’re building an emergency fund, saving up for a home down payment, or just want to help with short-term growth of your funds.