Secuwa

Secuwa is a self-custody personal finance application that aims to bring the usability of a modern neobank to decentralized finance. Rather than requiring users to manage seed phrases or private keys, the platform uses Account Abstraction and passkey authentication — the same biometric or device-based credentials used to unlock a smartphone — to let users control their own funds without the friction that has historically made self-custody wallets inaccessible to mainstream consumers.

What Secuwa Does

At its core, Secuwa functions as a blockchain-native alternative to a retail savings and payments account. Users open a self-custody wallet that also comes with a dedicated IBAN account, enabling direct bank transfers and making it possible to move money between fiat rails and on-chain assets without relying on a centralized exchange as an intermediary. The app targets everyday financial needs: saving, spending, and sending money across borders.

The savings layer is one of the more prominent features. By routing user deposits into yield-bearing DeFi protocols — primarily Aave on Arbitrum, Polygon, and Base — Secuwa advertises savings rates significantly above what most retail banks offer. The application also integrates USDC and USYC (Circle's yield-bearing stablecoin) through Circle's infrastructure, giving users options for both dollar-pegged savings and interest-accruing stablecoin positions. A "Spendable Savings" feature announced in early 2025 allows users to spend directly from their flexible savings balance without first withdrawing — collapsing the distinction between a yield account and a spending account.

Core Technology

Secuwa's use of Account Abstraction (ERC-4337) is central to the product philosophy. Rather than externally-owned accounts secured by a seed phrase, user wallets are smart contract accounts that can define their own authorization logic. In Secuwa's implementation, passkeys serve as the signing mechanism, meaning the private key material never needs to leave the user's device and there is nothing for the user to write down or store securely. Gas sponsorship, enabled through Alchemy's infrastructure, further removes friction by abstracting transaction costs away from users.

Cross-chain functionality is handled through integration with Across.to's intent bridge, which allows users to move assets between Arbitrum, Base, and Polygon without manually bridging or worrying about which network holds their funds. Uniswap integration enables in-app token swaps.

Target Markets and Use Cases

Secuwa's go-to-market focus is on underserved markets in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa — with Nigeria and the United Kingdom highlighted as primary geographies. The platform addresses a specific need in these regions: access to US dollar-denominated savings and cross-border remittances that are cheap, fast, and don't require a bank account in the destination country. P2P remittances are listed as a core use case alongside retail savings and multi-currency wallet management.

The application is available on Android, iOS, and web, which reflects the mobile-first nature of its target user base.

DeFi Integrations and Circle Partnership

Secuwa holds a position in Circle's Alliance Directory, indicating a formal partnership around USDC and Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP). CCTP enables native USDC transfers across blockchains without wrapping, which matters for users moving funds between Arbitrum, Base, and Polygon without incurring slippage from bridging liquidity pools.

The Aave integration allows user deposits to earn variable yields through Aave's lending markets. As a borrowing/lending protocol with deep liquidity across multiple chains, Aave provides the yield mechanism that makes Secuwa's savings rates competitive with — and in favorable rate environments, significantly above — traditional bank accounts.

Background and Funding

Secuwa was founded in 2024 and is headquartered in London. The company is led by CEO Afolabi Sunday and remains unfunded by traditional venture capital as of its last public profile. The project received an early-stage grant through Arbitrum's Questbook Season 2 program, which funded the development of the initial application version and its core DeFi integrations. The Questbook completion report documents the delivery of Aave support on Arbitrum, Polygon, and Base; cross-chain transaction capability; Uniswap integration; and the Across.to bridge — essentially the entire foundational feature set described above.

The project describes itself as a "self-custody neobank," positioning it between full DeFi protocols (which assume users have crypto fluency) and custodial fintech apps (which hold user funds). The neobank framing is deliberate: the app aims for the design and UX simplicity of Revolut or Monzo while keeping the user as the actual owner of their assets on-chain.

Security and Audits

No formal third-party security audits have been publicly disclosed as of the available information. The use of established audited protocols — Aave, Uniswap, and Across.to — for the yield and swap layers reduces the smart contract surface area that Secuwa itself must secure, but the account abstraction wallet contracts themselves are a critical dependency. Users considering the platform should note this gap in public audit documentation.

Positioning

Secuwa enters a crowded but growing segment: self-custody wallets with a savings and payments layer aimed at retail consumers. The platform's differentiation is the combined focus on passkey-based self-custody, competitive savings yields via DeFi, and fiat on/off-ramp access — a combination that targets users who want the security of crypto self-custody without the learning curve it has traditionally required.

The platform's inclusion of tokenized stocks and ETFs alongside standard crypto assets signals ambition beyond a simple yield wallet, pointing toward a longer-term product vision that encompasses a broader set of investable assets directly accessible from a self-custody account.