What Sippy can and can't do
Sippy is a wallet, not a bank. Here's what that means -- clearly and without fine print.
Why this page exists
People sometimes assume Sippy works like a bank, or like Venmo, or like a crypto exchange. It doesn't work like any of those. That's not a problem -- it's a deliberate choice. But you should know exactly what you're getting.
Sippy is not a bank
- No FDIC insurance or government deposit guarantee
- No interest on your balance
- No loans, credit lines, or overdrafts
- No physical branches or customer support phone lines
Your money is held in a smart contract wallet you control, not in a bank account managed by an institution. This means no one can freeze your account or block withdrawals. It also means the protections that come with traditional banking (like deposit insurance) don't apply.
Sippy is not an exchange
- You can't buy or sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, or any other cryptocurrency through Sippy
- You can't trade between currencies
- Sippy handles USDC only -- a dollar-pegged stablecoin
Sippy is for holding and sending dollars. If you want to trade crypto, use an exchange.
Sippy is not custodial
- Sippy does not hold your funds
- Sippy cannot freeze, seize, or redirect your money
- Sippy cannot reverse a transaction once it's confirmed on-chain
This is a real difference from services like PayPal or Venmo, where the company holds your balance and can intervene. With Sippy, once you send money, it's sent. If you send to the wrong number, Sippy can't get it back for you.
Sippy is not anonymous
- Your phone number is your identity
- Transactions are recorded on a public blockchain
- Anyone with your wallet address can see your balance and transfer history on Arbiscan
Sippy doesn't require a government ID to sign up, but it's not designed to hide who you are.
What Sippy can do
With the disclaimers out of the way, here's what Sippy actually does well:
Send money instantly. WhatsApp message in, transfer confirmed on-chain in seconds. No waiting for business days, no intermediary banks, no clearinghouses.
Hold dollars. Your balance is USDC -- pegged 1:1 to the US dollar. If you're in a country with an unstable local currency, holding dollars is valuable on its own.
Work without a bank account. All you need is a phone number and WhatsApp. No bank required, no credit check, no minimum balance.
Verify everything on-chain. Your wallet address is public. Your balance and every transaction are independently verifiable on Arbitrum. You don't need to trust Sippy's records because the blockchain is the record.
Keep your money under your control. Non-custodial means your keys, your money. Sippy helps you use it, but can't take it.
The trade-off
More control means more responsibility. When a bank reverses a fraudulent charge for you, that's possible because they hold the money and can move it. When Sippy can't reverse a transaction, that's because you hold the money and no one else can move it.
Both models have real advantages. Sippy's model works best for people who want their money to be truly theirs -- and who are willing to double-check a phone number before hitting send.
What's next?
- How your money is stored -- where your funds actually live
- Security model -- how Sippy protects your account
- Get started -- set up your wallet in under a minute