Explaining The Concept of Buy Now Pay Never in PayFi
In the world of DeFi and TradFi, the concept of buying now and paying later has seen quite a bit of success. Following this concept, comes a new one in PayFi, which allows users to buy a product and allows them to never pay with real cash or crypto.
Check this ever growing list of countries that have established Bitcoin Reserves.
Buy Now and Pay Never is a new concept in PayFi (which itself a new concept in the world of DeFi), where a user pays for his purchases with pooled rewards from various PayFi platforms. This concept is much similar to the cashback you receive after spending on your credit card, however, in this case, the rewards are in cryptocurrencies.
In this article, we will go into the depth of this concept and understand its use cases, potentials, drawbacks and also answer a few miscellaneous questions.
What is Buy Now Pay Never?
Buy Now and Pay Never has emerged as a new concept in financing your daily necessities from the rewards earned via PayFi platforms like DeFi protocols, crypto payment gateways, liquidity pools, peer to peer dApps and many others.
Here the idea is to generate enough rewards that will help you buy goods with no extra money. All the finances will be paid with your passive income from PayFi.
The concept took a concrete shape last year when Solana Foundation President Lily Liu had discussed the potential of PayFi in helping you make fast, cheap and rewarding payments with blockchain technology. Liu had a strong opinion that PayFi as a whole would soon overtake DeFi, a multi-billion industry in itself.
The growth in the DeFi markets bring high hope for the success of PayFi. In May 2025, DeFi TVL grew by 13%, highest in the 2024-25 bull cycle.
— OAK Research (@OAK_Res_EN) June 5, 2025
TVL growth by blockchain in May 2025
Total DeFi TVL rose by 13% in May 2025, driven by the growth of major assets (ETH, SOL, BNB, etc.).
Top 5 blockchains:Ethereum: $62B (+17%)
However, experts still doubt the degree of success this concept might see. Rewards might not finance one’s financial needs, not even a small fraction, unless the person has millions of dollars worth of DeFi portfolio.
Potential Applications
Should PayFi see decent success in the future, the best application for Buy Now and Pay Never seems to arise from the retail shopping industry where loyalty benefits (as cashback or coupons) could be rewarded via crypto. This would not only help them make their finances more efficient but also save them a lot in transaction costs.
Are you wondering about the best way to buy and sell crypto in bulk? Try OnRamps and OffRamps.
Benefits
The concept could improve the adoption of crypto in the traditional retail markets where TradFi has been the most dominant player.
Further, as the ability to self-custody of rewards rises, people would be incentivised to shop more, increasing footfalls in stores.
Drawbacks
However, there are a few drawbacks as well.
Buy Now and Pay Never might make the customers more reward-hungry and drive user traffic towards discount heavy or reward heavy brands. This could lead to another deep-discount battle where only large corporations would win, eliminating smaller competition. Such a scenario has already happened during the onset of the window-shopping era.
What is PayFi?
PayFi is an acronym for Payment Finance, a new form of blockchain-based finance system that leverages the power of blockchain technology to bridge the gap between traditional payment platforms (like PayPal) and crypto payments.
PayFi is expected to ensure a better integration of blockchain technology in our daily lives resulting in faster payments, transparent transactions and resilient payment infrastructure.
Did you know that Shardeum was one of the pioneers of PayFi?
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Buy Now, Pay Never affect your credit score?
No, since in Buy Now and Pay Never, you are simply pooling your rewards to pay for you needs, there is no involvement of any lending or borrowing and hence it would not impact your credit score.
Explaining The Concept of Buy Now Pay Never in PayFi
In the world of DeFi and TradFi, the concept of buying now and paying later has seen quite a bit of success. Following this concept, comes a new one in PayFi, which allows users to buy a product and allows them to never pay with real cash or crypto.
Check this ever growing list of countries that have established Bitcoin Reserves.
Buy Now and Pay Never is a new concept in PayFi (which itself a new concept in the world of DeFi), where a user pays for his purchases with pooled rewards from various PayFi platforms. This concept is much similar to the cashback you receive after spending on your credit card, however, in this case, the rewards are in cryptocurrencies.
In this article, we will go into the depth of this concept and understand its use cases, potentials, drawbacks and also answer a few miscellaneous questions.
What is Buy Now Pay Never?
Buy Now and Pay Never has emerged as a new concept in financing your daily necessities from the rewards earned via PayFi platforms like DeFi protocols, crypto payment gateways, liquidity pools, peer to peer dApps and many others.
Here the idea is to generate enough rewards that will help you buy goods with no extra money. All the finances will be paid with your passive income from PayFi.
The concept took a concrete shape last year when Solana Foundation President Lily Liu had discussed the potential of PayFi in helping you make fast, cheap and rewarding payments with blockchain technology. Liu had a strong opinion that PayFi as a whole would soon overtake DeFi, a multi-billion industry in itself.
The growth in the DeFi markets bring high hope for the success of PayFi. In May 2025, DeFi TVL grew by 13%, highest in the 2024-25 bull cycle.
— OAK Research (@OAK_Res_EN) June 5, 2025
Total DeFi TVL rose by 13% in May 2025, driven by the growth of major assets (ETH, SOL, BNB, etc.).
Top 5 blockchains:
However, experts still doubt the degree of success this concept might see. Rewards might not finance one’s financial needs, not even a small fraction, unless the person has millions of dollars worth of DeFi portfolio.
Potential Applications
Should PayFi see decent success in the future, the best application for Buy Now and Pay Never seems to arise from the retail shopping industry where loyalty benefits (as cashback or coupons) could be rewarded via crypto. This would not only help them make their finances more efficient but also save them a lot in transaction costs.
Are you wondering about the best way to buy and sell crypto in bulk? Try OnRamps and OffRamps.
Benefits
The concept could improve the adoption of crypto in the traditional retail markets where TradFi has been the most dominant player.
Further, as the ability to self-custody of rewards rises, people would be incentivised to shop more, increasing footfalls in stores.
Drawbacks
However, there are a few drawbacks as well.
Buy Now and Pay Never might make the customers more reward-hungry and drive user traffic towards discount heavy or reward heavy brands. This could lead to another deep-discount battle where only large corporations would win, eliminating smaller competition. Such a scenario has already happened during the onset of the window-shopping era.
What is PayFi?
PayFi is an acronym for Payment Finance, a new form of blockchain-based finance system that leverages the power of blockchain technology to bridge the gap between traditional payment platforms (like PayPal) and crypto payments.
PayFi is expected to ensure a better integration of blockchain technology in our daily lives resulting in faster payments, transparent transactions and resilient payment infrastructure.
Did you know that Shardeum was one of the pioneers of PayFi?
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Buy Now, Pay Never affect your credit score?
No, since in Buy Now and Pay Never, you are simply pooling your rewards to pay for you needs, there is no involvement of any lending or borrowing and hence it would not impact your credit score.