Bitget Wallet CEO: We're More Than Just a "Web3 Gateway"

Earlier this year, Bitget, a renowned trading platform, invested and acquired a controlling stake in multi-chain Web3 wallet BitKeep this year, leading to the latter's rebranding in August to Bitget Wallet. The brand upgrade also led to the introduction of Bitget Wallet's new brand vision of "Faster Trading, Better Assets", with the goal of serving as the most user-friendly and comprehensive Web3 trading wallet.

In this article, the CEO of Bitget Wallet (formerly BitKeep Wallet), Karry, shared his insights as the head of the multi-chain non-custodial wallet platform. Heelucidated the current structure and positioning of the company, showcasing the achievements made on the path of innovation, and discussed the competitive challenges faced by wallet solutions and the future prospects of the wallet industry.

A Web3 wallet can be likened to a ship embarking on a voyage across the digital sea. The vessel in question, Bitget Wallet, finds itself in a vast ocean filled with a myraid of possibilities. Will the future promise calm waves or unforgiving maelstroms? What formidable challenges lie in wait? Where do we see this journey taking us, and what kind of propulsion system is required to ensure a smooth and swift voyage?

Current Positioning: Web3 Trading Wallet with 12 million Users Worldwide

Following our comprehensive brand upgrade from BitKeep to Bitget Wallet, as we are known as today, our business operations have significantly diversified into four primary segments: mobile application, browser extension, webpage, and the development of integrating the Web3 services of Bitget exchange. These four entry points allow users to easily access Web3 services across various scenarios.

According to the "10 Most Popular" crypto wallet list released by CoinGecko last month, Bitget Wallet has achieved over 1.1 million downloads on Google Play and Chrome extensions, ranking seventh on the list. Our total global user count exceeds 12 million across multiple platforms including iOS, Android APK, and more.

Core Positioning: Trading Wallet

We have positioned trading as our core business, with the goal of becoming the most user-friendly trading wallet in the Web3 space, and a decentralized trading platform. Why did we choose this position?

Within an era of mobile accessibility, we strongly believe that every DApp will become an independent mobile application in the future, and will likely include integrated wallet functionality as opposed to having to leverage on external access points. Against such a competitive backdrop, we have decided to consolidate our efforts on asset trading and decentralized trading, aiming for excellence in this domain. When it comes to trading, Bitget Wallet offers the most user-friendly and comprehensive solution in the market. In the future, we believe that we will serve as the go-to platform of choice for users to realise their earnings and sell their tokens from the profits they have made from GameFi and SocialFi. Wallets in the future will also no longer be independent products, but rather will increasingly resemble infrastructure, serving as fundamental tools or account systems to help users manage and appreciate their assets.

Our trading penetration rate has always been high. According to DappRadar data, Bitget Swap trading volume often ranks in the top ten among all DeFi projects, nearly on par with MetaMask and frequently surpassing it. This is the result of our continuous and persistent efforts in building a trading wallet. Feedback from the community has also indicated that Swap trading is their preferred function of choice within our product ecosystem, and our seamless trading experience has often been the subject of praise from our userbase.

Time dimension in the picture: 7 days

Based on recent industry observations, a noticeable shift has been recorded within the blockchain sector where what was previously an ardent focus on capital has now transitioned to building up communities instead. This can be exemplified by the rise of meme coins. In fact, many of the design improvements in our wallets' trading experiences are oriented toward meme coins and community-based tokens. Our strategic emphasis on optimizing these areas has provided us with a distinct advantage in the field.

Innovative Swap: A Powerful Engine for Growth in the Past Two Years

The Bitget Swap has engaged in a lot of innovation over the past two years.

We were the pioneers of comprehensive candlestick chart displays in the wallet industry for an unparalleled selection of DEXs, providing users with access to accurate multi-chain asset market data, popular rankings, and an array of other useful features. These innovations have earned us widespread acclaim and recognition as a major player in user growth.

Simultaneously, we also aggregate liquidity from hundreds of DEXs and cross-chain bridges, achieving the goal of seamless cross-chain trading. Our product philosophy is that users should be able to freely trade between two tokens of value, regardless of their chain origin.

Furthermore, we were also the first movers in introducing a Gas-free trading experience for nearly 10 chains, including BNB Chain, Polygon, TRON, and more. This feature allows users to execute their trades without first needing to hold on to tokens on the transacting chain. Recently, we also expanded this feature to the Ethereum chain, enabling users to quickly acquire gas fees during their transactions. We were also pioneers of the GASU subsidy token, which serves as a gas-free token that is automatically consumed to pay for in-app gas fees.

Additionally, we also introduced the automatic slippage function, where slippage levels are automatically set and optimized for users to ensure a smooth trading experience, especially when they trade tokens with high-slippage tendencies such as meme coins. This reduces overall trading friction and improves the overall user experience.

Recently, we noticed the launch of the UniswapX beta version, which emphasized several features, including aggregated DEX liquidity, gas-free trading, and prevention of MEV, all of which we had implemented half a year to a year ago. This demonstrates that Bitget's innovations on the Swap side have successfully positioned us far ahead in the industry.

Unifying the Web3 Ecosystem: A Unified and Powerful Wallet

In addition to our multi-chain swap feature, we also offer a comprehensive range of on-chain services and DeFi solutions for our users. This includes non-custodial wallet management, an NFT marketplace, an integrated DApp browser, launchpad, staking services, and more.
We support over 90 different mainstream public chains as well as numerous emerging chains, including EVM-compatible chains and heterogeneous blockchains. Our platform automatically aggregates and consolidates assets and transaction records across multiple chains, eliminating the need for users to enter into custom network environments to access this data. We also support hardware wallet integration and are currently developing support for MPC and AA wallets, with AA smart contract wallet functionality already implemented for Starknet.

In terms of Bitget Swap, in addition to the robust liquidity aggregation and smooth trading experience mentioned earlier, we are developing intelligent market analysis tools. Through smart money strategies and an enhanced on-chain ranking system, we assist users in discovering more promising investment opportunities. Furthermore, we offer access to Bitget futures contracts as a complementary trading system. For our global user base, we provide a "Quick Buy" on-ramp service that integrates six third-party channels, including MoonPay and Alchemy Pay, allowing users to purchase cryptocurrencies using fiat via a wide selection of accessible payment methods. We also connect to Bitget P2P to serve users in emerging markets with low credit card adoption rates, particularly in Southeast Asia, by offering a convenient and secure way to purchase cryptocurrencies.

At the application level, our NFT marketplace is the first to support the purchase of NFTs using any cryptocurrency. It ranks among the top two per trading volume across multiple major blockchains, second only to OpenSea. Our DApp browser includes a vast array of DApps, making it the preferred choice for project interactions. In the future, we will also be introducing tools to assist our users in interacting with project airdrops. Our launchpad also supports the launch of emerging projects and provides them with opportunities for visibility and marketing, promoting industry-wide growth in the sector.

In terms of network accessibility, we cover a comprehensive spread of essential functions such as testnet airdrop claims, candlestick chart displays, Swap trading, DApp interaction and browsing, and NFT and Token display dashboards. This multi-faceted approach allows our users to easily connect to every corner of Web3 via a single wallet platform.

Assessment of the Wallet Sector

Distinct Market Positioning: A Fundamental Aspect of Wallet Growth

Wallets should not confine themselves to a vague positioning as merely being a "Web3 Gateway". To truly serve as a genuine Web3 gateway, wallets must wait for the opportune time at peak industry growth to effectively attract the attention of a large user base. The most likely candidates to serve as Web3 gateways would emerge from the mobile interface level, such as wallets on iOS and Android systems. If Apple Pay were to directly integrate public and private keys, it could establish a close connection with crypto wallets. It is unlikely that independent wallet products will serve as the primary gateway.

Therefore, it is essential to identify a more specific and focused positioning, such as wallets centered around trading, as mentioned earlier. This approach allows for a better emphasis on the uniqueness of the product and distinction.

Currently, exchanges continue to serve as the primary gateway for users due to their relatively low barriers of entry. Exchanges that offer integrated Web3 services can introduce Web3 usability and access points for their users, which aligns with our ongoing efforts, as mentioned earlier.

Trading: An Optimal Gateway for Building Value

The core value proposition of this industry primarily revolves around asset management and trading. We position ourselves as a trading wallet because offering asset trading services and serving as the connecting vector for asset circulation creates value by providing liquidity, facilitating price discovery, and enhancing asset availability. This stands as the most promising gateway for building and capturing value.

Focusing on trading also allows us to reach a broader user base and capture various forms of value generated within trading activities. Decentralized trading holds tremendous potential. Looking into the future, as technology advances and user experiences continually improve, alongside the growing maturity of the industry as a whole, decentralized trading will emerge as the mainstream option, with payments being a critical application scenario for wallets.

Technology Should Cater to Real Use Cases

Simply designing and launching products based solely on technical concepts may not necessarily attract users effectively. The positioning of a wallet should be user-centric, and it is thus necessary to discern what concepts users primarily need to be aware of. For instance, while MPC and AA technologies are important in addressing specific pain points in the industry, branding a wallet solely as an MPC or AA wallet may not achieve much success in the market. This is because users are not necessarily concerned with the underlying technology behind such a wallet, but rather care more about what problems these technologies can actually solve.

There is a common belief that MPC or AA wallets can lower the user entry barrier. but I think they are at most just a facility for entry barriers. To truly attract users, additional elements are required, such as GameFi or the rise of Bitcoin to $100,000. A technological breakthrough alone can not bring in a large user base.

Nevertheless, AA wallets open up new possibilities, such as Gas abstraction, which can completely isolate the trader from the transaction process. Our ambitions with Gas abstraction include offering Gas fee subscriptions of 20U or 50U, as well as the introduction of varying authorization levels based on transacting quantum, such as single or no signature requirements for small transactions; and multi-signature requirements for larger transactions. All of these features can be integrated into smart contract wallets, which can be challenging to achieve with conventional EOA accounts.

The Entry of Exchanges into the Wallet Sector: Competitiveness, Challenges, and Opportunities

Aside from Bitget, numerous exchanges within the industry are also recognizing the potential dominance of decentralized asset management and trading in the future. As a result, many players are proactively positioning themselves by launching their own wallets, which has escalated the overall competitiveness in the environment and fueled innovation both in terms of product functionality and user interaction. To maintain a leading position, it is no longer sufficient to rely on incremental innovations; but rather a more long-term strategic perspective is required to achieve systemic and sustainable growth.

The Ethereum Cancun upgrade in the future may lead to a furthe reduction of fees on Layer 2s, resulting in lower Gas fees and increased TPS. Additionally, OPStack has also drastically reduced the costs of building Layer 2s, leading to a wave of new entrants into the Layer 2 scene. This rise of new blockchains can be promising for users, as they bring about new and more innovative opportunities for airdrop interaction, as well as further growth momentum for wallets.

The release of Uniswap V4 and UniswapX further unleashes the power of aggregated liquidity, enhancing the overall decentralized trading experience. This development is expected to foster greater integration with DEXs, presenting us with new opportunities. Our focus on intelligent routing and pursuit of optimal pricing strategies will further enable us to leverage this evolving landscape effectively.

Future Direction: Dare to Innovate, or Fall into Mediocrity

In the blockchain industry, it is crucial to strike a balance between product innovation and infrastructure development. Recently, I have come to believe that Twitter's product iteration speed has been drastically ramped up ever since Musk took over. In the latest quarter, more new features were launched than in the past three years, including paid subscriptions and the "blue V" verification, among others. While some of these features have issues or lack widespread adoption, I firmly believe that for a product to succeed, it requires extensive experimentation and output. Otherwise, it becomes worryingly easy to lose sight of the drive for innovation and ultimately fall into mediocrity.

It is very important to maintain an entrepreneurial mentality. Focusing solely on infrastructure can lead to complacency while neglecting the basics makes it difficult to support the pace of rapid innovation. It is essential to foster the team's potential for innovation while ensuring quality on the fundamental level. This involves continuous experimentation to identify avenues for product breakthroughs, and demands consistent investment and perseverance to place products that deliver value and serve real use cases for our users at the forefront.

Keep investing, embrace innovation, and do not be afraid to experiment. Time is your ally.
Thank you.

Contact Bitget Wallet

Official website: https://web3.bitget.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BitgetWallet
Telegram: https://t.me/Bitget_Wallet/
Discord: https://discord.gg/bitget-wallet