How Wallets Will Reshape Financial Services
The Next Paradigm Shift: From Accounts to Wallets
Today, most of us access financial services through accounts - a bank account, a brokerage account, or a crypto exchange account. These institutions offer convenient, unified interfaces for everything from saving and investing to borrowing and trading.
But convenience comes with a price: control.
When you operate within an account-based system, your financial institution acts as a gatekeeper and intermediary. They custody your funds, decide how your trades are routed, and often determine the venues and partners you interact with. In short, you are captive to their ecosystem.
Wallets represent a fundamental shift away from this model.
In a wallet-based system, you custody your own assets and connect directly to whichever protocol, marketplace, or counterparty you choose. There’s no middleman deciding which exchange executes your order or from where you source a loan.
This architecture removes intermediation, reduces rent-seeking behavior, and - most importantly - empowers users economically.
Just as the internet disintermediated information, wallets are now disintermediating finance.
Moving from accounts to wallets will be one of the most profound shifts in how we interact with money and markets.
Owning the User: The Strategic Role of Wallets
Crypto is inherently mobile-first, and wallets are the native user interface of this world. The wallet is where users first enter crypto, and where they conduct nearly all their activity thereafter. In many ways, the wallet is the browser of the decentralized economy.
Because wallets sit at the center of user interaction, they are strategically positioned to capture value in multiple ways:
Transaction Flow & Take Rates
The Wallets core function is to facilitate swaps, payments, and transfers directly through their interface.
Data and MEV Opportunities
Wallets aggregate transaction flows from millions of users, which is an immensely valuable data layer. This touches the emerging space of MEV (maximal extractable value), where transaction ordering can yield revenue opportunities, which can be detrimental to users. Luckily, players like Blink Labs (Blockwall portfolio company) are protecting users from negative MEV while creating shared upside for both wallets and users.
Distribution Power
Wallets have become powerful distribution channels. Protocols and applications integrate directly to reach users through swap interfaces, staking modules, or yield vaults and new dApps (decentralized applications) can be highlighted to users. This makes wallets a key gateway for new products.
In essence, whoever owns the end user is well positioned to capture significant value.
Wallets as Platforms, Not Just Tools
As the crypto landscape grows more complex with dozens of L1s, hundreds of L2s, and countless dApps - wallets increasingly act as abstraction layers. They hide the technical complexity of multi-chain activity and enable users to move seamlessly across ecosystems.
Meanwhile, wallets have evolved into sticky products. Switching is rare once users are embedded. Metamask is still the leading wallet today, even though many have complained about the user experience for years. This stickiness amplifies the wallet’s strategic leverage.
We’re also seeing wallets expand their value proposition through integrated experiences:
- Direct access to perpetual DEXs (like Hyperliquid)
- Embedded stablecoin yield vaults
- On/off ramps and debit cards
- Premium features and institutional-grade customizations for security and workflow management
Ultimately, the wallet becomes not just a key to crypto, but a full-service financial platform.
The Future of Wallet Monetization
Wallets are uniquely positioned to monetize across several vectors:
- In-wallet swaps and payments
- Selling (or sharing) order flow
- Yield products (staking, stablecoin vaults)
- On/off ramp integrations
- Debit cards and payment rails
- Premium subscriptions or advanced user features
- Acting as a distribution channel for emerging protocols
This diversity of revenue streams will only expand as wallets continue to own the user experience layer.
The Paradox That Isn’t
The thesis may sound contradictory:
Wallets empower users by removing intermediaries, yet they themselves become valuable intermediaries.
In reality, these two dynamics coexist harmoniously. Wallets give users choice and freedom, while still being able to curate experiences for those who value simplicity and convenience.
A wallet can recommend its preferred venues, charge take rates for integrated services, and still cannot prevent advanced users from connecting directly to alternative protocols.
Both user groups win: one gains simplicity, the other flexibility.
Conclusion
The shift from accounts to wallets is more than a UX improvement. It’s a structural reordering of financial power.
Wallets put control back into the hands of users while simultaneously becoming the most valuable access point in crypto. They own the interface, the user, and the flow of capital - making them the natural successors to the banks and brokerages of today’s account-based world.
As the crypto economy matures, the battle for the user will be fought and won at the wallet layer.
Disclaimer
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