In the midst of a riveting NBA and NHL playoff season, we’re hearing about unsung heroes—a term to describe players who are not flashy, but who make quiet contributions essential to a team’s success. If there’s such a thing as unsung heroes in the crypto world, it would be the wallet builders. These are the people and companies that have toiled in the background since the early days of Bitcoin, making software that makes crypto accessible in the first place. So imagine my surprise when I checked in on two of the leading wallet brands, and learned they are no longer positioning themselves as a humble service to hold your crypto, but as next-generation banks.
An executive close to MetaMask, which first made its name as an Ethereum wallet, recently described the brand to me as a neobank—a term popularized by fintech players like Revolut and Chime. Soon after, I put this notion to JP Richardson, a Bitcoin OG who founded the elegant Exodus wallet. He just nodded, and recounted how his own company has added a card service that lets users pay anywhere using the Visa network.
This all represents a major evolution from the first decade of wallet development. Back then, devs built their products for specific tokens, and it was big news if they added other ones. Today, features like fiat off-ramps, physical debit cards, and access to networks like Visa are table stakes for any wallet to be competitive. According to Nitya Subramanian, the founder of wallet infrastructure startup Para, the wallet makers are competing to own both distribution and the consumer relationship—right alongside exchanges, fintechs, and banks.
“Non-custodial wallets, given the relative ease of expanding access to onchain instruments across ecosystems, are uncommonly well-positioned to do this quickly,” said Subramanian, who expressed optimism that the likes of MetaMask and Exodus will become the primary gateway to the financial system for a growing number of people.
This feels like a bold claim, though as Richardson told me, recent developments are making it more viable than ever for wallet makers to compete with banks and neobanks. The most important of these is the ability to build a proper identity layer into decentralized wallets using technology like zero-knowledge proofs. Being able to verify ID and carry out KYC, while still preserving user privacy, is a compelling pitch for wallet makers.
Still, it’s an open question whether MetaMask and Exodus will emerge as serious players in the brutally competitive banking space—or, at a time when Wall Street is muscling in on all aspects of crypto, these iconic wallets end up as acquisition targets for the likes of JPMorgan or Robinhood.
Finally, on the topic of blockchain’s broader tent, crypto’s most famous convert, President Donald Trump, sat down last week with Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell. The conversation is the subject of a just-published feature, “An hour in the Oval with America’s CEO-in-Chief,” which you can READ HERE.
Jeff John Roberts
jeff.roberts@fortune.com
@jeffjohnroberts
