Metal Pay

Metal Pay is the consumer-facing gateway of Metallicus, Inc., a U.S.-based fintech founded in 2016 by Marshall Hayner with a mission to build a Digital Asset Banking Network — one that bridges regulated traditional finance and blockchain infrastructure. The app is available on iOS and Android as well as the web, serving customers in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand.

What Metal Pay Does

At its core, Metal Pay is a licensed money-services business (NMLS IDs 2057807 and 2731963) that lets individuals buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrency using debit or credit cards. The platform emphasises transparency: it advertises no hidden price spreads, no opaque markups, and what it describes as the lowest card fees in the industry. Customer service is offered around the clock through live human representatives — a deliberate differentiator from purely automated competitors.

Supported assets include Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), XRP, Litecoin (LTC), Dogecoin (DOGE), Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), USD Coin (USDC), and the ecosystem's own stablecoin XMD, among others. Solana was added to the platform in December 2024, giving Metal Pay users direct access to one of the crypto industry's highest-throughput networks.

Peer-to-Peer Transfers and the XPR Network

Metal Pay's transfer layer runs on XPR Network, a delegated proof-of-stake blockchain (rebranded from Proton in 2024) that processes over 4,000 transactions per second and charges no gas fees to end users. Bitcoin transferred peer-to-peer inside the app moves as XBTC — a smart-contract-wrapped version — and remains withdrawable to the Bitcoin mainnet at any time. XPR Network also provides built-in KYC and on-chain identity verification, and uses human-readable @names in place of cryptographic addresses, making transfers as simple as entering a username or phone number.

The MTL Token and Proof of Processed Payments

MTL is an ERC-20 token with a fixed total supply of 66.6 million tokens. It functions as a utility and rewards token within the Metal Pay app:

• Fee discounts: Holding MTL reduces transaction fees, with discounts beginning at 50 MTL and reaching 100% for holders of 10,000 MTL or more.
• PoPP rewards: Metal Pay's proprietary Proof of Processed Payments (PoPP) mechanism returns up to 5% of each transaction's value in MTL tokens to the user, up to $1,000 per month for individuals and $5,000 per month for merchants. Anti-fraud controls prevent gaming through repeated low-value transactions. Identity verification is required to qualify.

Self-Custody and DeFi Access

Users who want to move beyond the custodial Metal Pay app can transfer holdings to WebAuth.com, a non-custodial wallet developed by Metallicus. WebAuth replaces traditional seed phrases with biometric authentication — Face ID, fingerprint, or hardware security keys such as YubiKey — and supports multiple networks including XPR Network, Ethereum, Metal Blockchain, and Optimism. A single WebAuth account provides access to Metal X, Metallicus's decentralised exchange featuring an on-chain order book with gas-free trading.

The Broader Metallicus Stack

Metal Pay sits at the entry point of a multi-layer infrastructure:

• Metal Blockchain (Layer 0): Forked from Avalanche and launched in 2022, Metal Blockchain is a subnet-based chain designed for banks and regulated financial institutions, each subnet processing roughly 4,500 TPS. The native METAL token powers staking and validator rewards; validators must stake 2,000 METAL.
• XPR Network (Layer 1): The settlement layer for retail payments and DeFi.
• Metal L2 (Layer 2): Built on Optimism's OP Stack, targeting institutional DeFi, identity, and digital-asset use cases.
• Metal Dollar (XMD): A reserve-backed digital-dollar framework for on-chain settlement and programmable payments by financial institutions.
• Metal Pay Enterprise: A white-label API that allows banks and fintechs to offer digital-asset services under their own brand.

Compliance and Banking Connections

Compliance is a defining characteristic across the entire Metallicus stack, and Metal Pay reflects that positioning. In 2024, Metallicus became one of the first cryptocurrency firms to be certified as a FedNow Service Provider, connecting its blockchain infrastructure directly to the Federal Reserve's instant-payment rail. The company has established partnerships with core banking vendors including Fiserv, Jack Henry, and Temenos, enabling banks on those platforms to integrate Metallicus's digital-asset capabilities. Full KYC verification is required for Metal Pay users.

Ecosystem Fit

Metal Pay functions as the regulated fiat on-ramp and off-ramp for the Metallicus ecosystem: users enter through Metal Pay with a debit card, can self-custody via WebAuth, trade on Metal X, and settle on either XPR Network or Metal Blockchain. The December 2024 addition of Solana illustrates the platform's intent to expand its supported assets as it works toward broader banking-grade adoption.