'Your bank won’t do this': How UglyCash is redesigning remittances for the people

I grew up hearing it constantly. My parents — Mexican and Guatemalan — talking about Western Union. The fees, the waiting, the dependency. I’d go with them to La Azteca bakery and watch families line up to send money across borders — paying what felt like a hidden tax on survival.

That’s the world Josh Furnas, cofounder of UglyCash, wants to dismantle.

From credit to crypto

Furnas isn’t some wide-eyed founder chasing disruption for disruption’s sake. He’s a fintech operator who spent years inside the machine, watching it grind people down.

“I started with credit in Latin America,” he tells me. “We had to sell a lot of credit cards, but people couldn’t use them effectively. We were actually hurting people’s credit.”

By 2019, he was experimenting with stablecoins at Reserve Protocol. The tech worked. The rails didn’t (foreshadowing what the world would later see in the post-FTX collapse.)

Furnas teamed up with CEO Gabriel Jimenez — a Venezuelan exile — to rebuild the entire concept: remittances without friction, finance without exploitation.

The UglyCash model

At its core, UglyCash is brutally simple.

The app gives users a virtual U.S. account to receive money. Those dollars are instantly converted into stablecoins and made available for local cash-out in seconds — not days — without fees.

On top of that, users get up to 8% APY on deposits, 1% cashback on a global Visa card, and the ability to buy Bitcoin or Ethereum directly in the app.

For Latin America, remittances aren’t extra cash — they’re lifelines. In Honduras and Nicaragua, remittances account for over 25% of GDP. In El Salvador, nearly 24%. In Guatemala, almost 20%.

UglyCash flips the script. A cousin in L.A. can send money to Guatemala via WhatsApp — funded with Apple Pay or a debit card. The recipient sees dollars in their UglyCash wallet immediately. No middleman. No delay.

Why “Ugly”?

Because people remember it. That’s the point. When you’re trying to make a connective brand, it starts with something no one forgets,” Furnas says. “Money hasn’t traditionally been for the people. It has scars. We’re turning those scars into something real, something useful. That’s this beautiful thing called UglyCash.”

And maybe that’s the trick — you don’t forget it. You carry it with you. Like the receipts my dad used to keep folded in his wallet. Just like the scars.

Your bank won’t do this

UglyCash doesn’t pretend to be a bank — and that’s intentional. Its slogan, “Your bank won’t do this,” lands like a dare.

Banks take their time, charge their fees, and hide behind red tape. UglyCash moves fast, pays you yield, and gives you a Visa card that actually gives something back.

Story Continues

The message is clear: banks won’t do it. UglyCash already is.

This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Aug 27, 2025, where it first appeared in the Innovation section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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