Reasons to Develop Consumer Crypto Applications Today

most consumer fintech apps are built for yesterday’s users. they assume every user starts with a bank account, spends in USD or EUR, and is happy to wait 2-3 days for a transfer to settle (or pay a premium for an instant transfer). that model may have worked a decade ago, but it’s outdated now. there are 560M+ people globally who hold crypto. for context, that’s more than double the combined users of Venmo, Cash App, and Zelle (~270M). with ~6.8% of the population holding crypto, it’s impossible to ignore as an alternative payment method and as a glimpse into what money should look like. and many rely on it every day to receive, send, save, and spend money. in Argentina, people use Buenbit to access U.S. ETFs that protect their wealth against inflation. in Africa, people rely on Yellow Card for dollar-denominated commerce. in Mexico, people use Félix to receive money from their loved ones in the US. and so on. crypto is a functional financial layer for hundreds of millions, but most consumer apps still don’t support it. no on/off-ramps between crypto and fiat. no wallet connectivity. no digital dollar accounts. the gap is even more apparent when you look at what users want: - global and instant transfers - 24/7/365 access to funds - transparency - compatibility with wallets & bank accounts even if your app doesn’t look like a crypto product, users will expect it to behave like one because crypto makes these preferences the standard. users don’t want money stuck on weekends. they don’t want to wait 3 days to access their cash. they don’t want to use apps that don’t support where their funds are stored. and they’ll move on from products that can’t keep up. consumer fintech needs to meet users where they are, and where they’re going. if you’re building for consumer finance, you can’t ignore global, programmable, always-on rails. any wallet. any currency. any time. no borders. no delays. the internet made content instantly accessible around the globe, and now blockchain is doing the same for money. just like dial-up gave way to broadband, crypto will accelerate consumer finance’s evolution

From stablecoin rails for merchants to mainstream retail adoption Over the past few months, we’ve seen a surge in strategic moves in B2B crypto payments - stablecoin settlement, on-chain treasury, and cross-border flows have become real, scalable use cases. 🛒 𝐍𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞: Transforming the retail checkout experience with stablecoins and embedded wallets 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬: • 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 Crypto checkout is becoming embedded and seamless - indistinguishable from traditional methods. No crypto knowledge or wallet setup required. This removes barriers to adoption and connects the flow from customer payments to merchant liquidity. • 𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 Retailers gain control by moving off banking and card rails - cutting costs, improving margins, and managing funds on their own terms. • 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐬 Programmable money enables token rewards, dynamic discounts, instant refunds, and loyalty programs that boost engagement and repeat business. 📌 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐧𝐨𝐰: • Shopify partners with Coinbase and Stripe to launch USDC payments via Coinbase’s Base (L2) in late June - with settlement in USDC or local currency for U.S. merchants. • Stripe acquires Privy (embedded wallet infrastructure provider): Stripe brings seamless crypto wallets to e-commerce. Consumers can pay in crypto without setup; merchants can accept, hold, and reward in crypto. Added benefits include on-chain cashback, token-gated rewards, and programmable refunds. •  Walmart & Amazon explore stablecoins: Aiming to cut payment processing fees and gain full transaction control, both are reportedly exploring issuing their own stablecoins. The move aligns with the proposed GENIUS Act, a U.S. regulatory framework for stablecoins. • Bolt launches a crypto super app: Designed to unify everyday finance and crypto use: > One-click crypto payments (BTC, USDC) > P2P transfers (crypto-enabled) > Cashback card (earn up to 3% in crypto or store credit) > Unified wallet for crypto and loyalty rewards #CryptoPayments #Stablecoins #EmbeddedFinance

As a Co-founder and partner at w3.fund, our venture capital fund focusing on the web3 application layer, I'm closely tracking how blockchain technology is evolving beyond financial primitives. What excites me most is seeing founders build products that transform how people rewrite the narrative of how we interact with each other online. In our opinion, one of the next waves of consumer crypto isn't solely about tokenizing financial assets—it's also about creating markets for previously intangible social capital: attention, time, and trust. This fundamental shift addresses key challenges in today's digital economy: - Quality content rises above algorithmic noise - Creators capture their true market value - Trust becomes visible and tradable - Users directly monetize their digital interactions We're already seeing pioneering projects like Kaito (quality discovery), time.fun (creator access markets), and Ethos (trust markets) demonstrating how tokenized social capital transforms digital experiences. The applications extend far beyond crypto into mainstream industries: - Knowledge economy: Experts price their time based on market demand with reputation as a quantifiable asset - Media: Content discovery driven by stake-based curation rather than engagement algorithms The tokenization of social capital represents a pivotal evolution in how we measure, exchange, and capture value in digital spaces. This insight is part of our new investor briefing newsletter. Comment below if you'd like to be added to the distribution list for future editions. What other industries do you see being transformed by tokenized social capital?

Stablecoin payments can be a killer app for crypto and catalyze mainstream adoption. There’s a foundational shift happening in crypto, quietly, steadily, and globally. According to Financial Technology Partners / FT Partners’ latest deep-dive, stablecoin payments are becoming the most credible onramp to broad enterprise and consumer use cases in crypto. Here’s why this matters for founders: 1. Scale is real: $10 trillion in stablecoin transaction volume in 2023, up from $6.87T in 2022. Stablecoins bring new use cases and new users into the digital assets ecosystem. 2. Product-market fit is emerging: Use cases are moving beyond trading into B2B cross-border, consumer remittances, and even creator payouts. Digital money, without intermediaries, is powerful. 3. Cost and speed advantages: Up to 90% cheaper and significantly faster than traditional rails, especially across high-friction corridors like the Global South. 4. Major financial players are entering: PayPal’s PYUSD, Stripe’s on/off ramps, and Visa’s pilot with USDC signal growing institutional alignment. Money transfer is changing and the incumbents are incorporating this technology. The takeaway? Founders who design for stablecoin interoperability today will shape the future of programmable money tomorrow. This is the infrastructure of scale.

From “on-ramp” to “everyday money layer” In my latest case study, I examine how MoonPay can evolve from a best-in-class crypto on/off-ramp into a high-utility consumer product. One that empowers users to save, spend, and grow with crypto and fiat in a seamless way. Why this matters - Most crypto products cater to trading and speculation. I explored how usage could shift toward sustained money-habits. - Everyday financial habits (automation, salary splits, bills, cross-border transfers) remain underserved in crypto-native experiences. - MoonPay’s strengths (trusted rails, global footprint, brand credibility) present a rare opportunity to shift from occasional to recurring engagement. What I did Defined a clear North Star metric: Everyday Active Accounts (EAAs) — users holding an active balance, running automation rules, and completing recurring transactions. Mapped user-personas and Jobs-To-Be-Done: from “automate savings without thinking” to “spend globally via crypto/fiat.” Designed feature clusters: - Money Hub for combined fiat/crypto balances and salary split flows - Spend Everywhere smart engine and card experience - Everyday Automation for set-and-forget investing and savings rules - Everyday Yield to align user value with time held - Everyday Pay for P2P, gifting, bill pay, and cross-border transfers - Positioned a monetisation model linking transaction fees, spreads, interchange, yield share and FX margins, aligning business value with user value. Key takeaway The shift from “buy crypto once” to “live within crypto + fiat every day” is less about trading and more about building financial infrastructure. If you anchor on habitual flows; pay, save, send, spend, you increase retention, depth of engagement, and lifetime value. If you’re involved in product strategy for fintech, crypto/fiat rails, or everyday automation, I’d welcome your perspective: How are you thinking about the bridge between speculation and utility in your product? Full case study linked in the comments. #ProductManagement #Fintech #Crypto #ConsumerFinance #ProductStrategy #CaseStudy

𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐜𝐫𝐲𝐩𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 — 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥 Stablecoin adoption isn’t a slogan anymore—it’s a roadmap. The reason consumer payments haven’t fully crossed the chasm comes down to three solvable frictions: 𝟏) 𝐒𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐡𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐬 & 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐤𝐞𝐲𝐬 Mass audiences don’t want key-management homework. The fix is modern authentication—passkeys + MPC and sensible recovery—so access feels like a banking app while users keep control. 𝟐) 𝐆𝐚𝐬 & 𝐨𝐧-𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐔𝐗 “Bring your own gas” will never be mainstream. Account abstraction and gas sponsorship let apps handle the plumbing so checkout feels like a normal card payment, even when settlement is on-chain. 𝟑) 𝐋𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐧𝐬/𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬 Value stranded on different networks breaks everyday spend. Balance abstraction and intent/route execution unify the experience: users see one spendable balance; the app auto-routes, bridges, or swaps in the background. 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐰 Rails, rules, and readiness finally align. Payment networks are integrating stablecoin settlement, regulatory frameworks are maturing, and consumers already move value at internet scale. The UX can be Web2-simple while the money is truly on-chain and user-controlled. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 A new category is taking shape: stablecoin-native challenger banks—consumer apps that bundle earn / save / spend, card ubiquity, instant rewards, and liquid yield on modern rails. This is not “a wallet with a card”; it’s everyday banking redesigned around stablecoins. Think the new generation of stablecoin banks like COCA and others building toward primary-account behavior, not trading tools. Open question for operators, investors, and builders: Which unlock matters most for mass adoption—control (self-custody), rewards, yield, or ubiquity at checkout—and why? #stablecoin #fintech #cocaxyz

12 Real-World Stories of How Millions of People Are Using #Crypto Services Today. These use cases illustrate how #blockchain and #cryptocurrency are being applied across different sectors to solve specific problems and create new opportunities, leveraging the inherent benefits of the technology such as decentralization, #security, and #transparency 🪬XP Inc. A blockchain-based ticketing marketplace that reduces fees and improves transparency by using NFTs for ticket representation. Cost savings on ticket purchases compared to traditional platforms like Ticketmaster . 🪬Coinbase Wallet: Allows sending money globally via text message without fees using stablecoins. Simplifies and reduces the cost of #international #moneytransfers . 🪬Attestiv, Inc. Uses blockchain and #AI to fight deepfakes by authenticating digital media. Reduces #fraud in industries like #insurance by ensuring the authenticity of #digital documents and media . 🪬Farcaster A #decentralized #socialmedia platform that allows users to maintain control over their content and social connections. Enhances freedom and #innovation by preventing corporate control and censorship . 🪬Render A decentralized network for sharing GPU processing power. Provides cost-effective and scalable access to graphics processing, facilitating tasks like large-scale rendering . 🪬Gridless Utilizes #bitcoin #mining to subsidize electricity costs in Africa. Makes it economically viable to operate energy plants in regions with excess capacity, reducing electricity costs for local communities . 🪬Nouns DAO: An #online community with a bank account that funds collective projects. Empowers online communities to fund real-world projects and initiatives through collective financial contributions . 🪬Ondo Finance and Superstate Facilitates the #tokenization of real-world assets. Increases the liquidity and efficiency of trading in assets like #realestate and bonds, reducing transaction times and costs . 🪬Helium Mobile Network: Offers decentralized #wireless plans at a lower cost. Users can earn tokens by participating in the network, and it allows affordable access to wireless services . 🪬Stablecoins: Provide a digital equivalent of stable currencies like the US dollar. Protects users in high-inflation countries from currency #devaluation and facilitates cheaper and faster international transactions . 🪬Polymarket A blockchain-based prediction market that addresses the trust problem in betting and forecasting markets. Provides a transparent and tamper-proof #platform for market predictions . 🪬Bitcoin: The OG cryptocurrency use case. Acts as a digital store of value, an alternative asset, and a means for secure and rapid cross-border transactions . Bitwise Investment Pty Ltd Couchonomics with Arjun Mr. Couchonomics #digitalassets #defi #fintech

This is a use case we have anticipated long time ago: Lemon in Argentina increased by 200x its active users and 3X the USDC (Circle Stablecoins) holders by allowing conversion of Argentine pesos into USDC and allowing its clients to spend it with their Visa debit card. This allows users to store their money in a dollar-equivalent asset until the moment they’re ready to spend it, minimizing the time the money sits in pesos losing value. To further build trust, Lemon provides users real-time proof of reserves and solvency so they can verify the amount and location of their assets under custody. This is applied to Argentine workers receiving their salary in pesos and converting in USD. The same could happen soon to a considerable portion of expats remitting their salaries to their home countries in Stablecoins to protect the purchase value from the devaluation of their local currencies in their home country: this is a shift of paradigm from remittance through solely fiat currencies: Al Ansari Exchange, TerraPay, Mastercard, WhatIf, Al Fardan Exchange L.L.C. , LuLu Financial Holdings, Western Union

Global crypto adoption is still just under 7%. If we want this to push this number up, we need to prioritize five key areas around UX: - Abstraction: Moving technical complexities out of view of the average user is the industry’s biggest task. 46% of non-users cite not understanding web3 tech as a barrier to adoption. Ethereum account abstraction is already ushering in a new wave of solutions that simplify crypto. IMO it’s initiatives like these that will do the most to boost user engagement. - Self-custody: When it comes to owning crypto, new users feel caught between a rock and a hard place. Trust in CEXs remains shaken post-FTX yet 75% of users still find wallet setup too complicated. New wallet tech like zkLogin, MPC wallets, and smart contract wallets are already giving crypto a more familiar feel by doing away with complex private key management. The more this space develops, the more self-custody will become an attractive option for the average user. - Regulatory clarity: Having clear rules is a UX issue too. People need to feel secure to engage confidently with any product or service. We’ve seen this play out with data privacy: nearly 90% of consumers say they won’t engage with companies they don’t trust with their data. If nothing else, regulatory clarity will remove a lot of ambiguity and FUD that currently keeps people wary and unengaged. It will also bring some of the crypto curious in from the sidelines. - Gas fees: They’re essential as a network incentive, but they’re also one of the biggest barriers to adoption. While we can point to how scaling solutions are helping to mitigate gas, L2s still have a long way to go and most new users see them as an extra step. We need more ambitious solutions for gas, which is arguably crypto’s thorniest problem. - Backwards compatibility: Skype integrated with legacy telecoms to reach 300 million monthly users. 90% of the Fortune 500 uses IBM mainframes because they work with decades-old software. Backwards compatibility = meeting users where they are. We need to build, but we also need to scaffold. Simplify, secure, integrate–that should be our motto going forward. #CryptoAdoption #CryptoInnovation #blockchainux

Right now, many believe that the most compelling crypto consumer apps are those tied to speculation. But I think there's a huge untapped potential for apps that look more like what we're used to in Web2, yet are powered by the unique capabilities of crypto. Crypto's cross-border payment capabilities open the door for consumer experiences that traditional payment rails simply can’t support. Imagine seamless, global transactions integrated into everyday apps, enabling new forms of engagement and commerce that transcend geographical barriers. The real breakthrough will come when we start seeing viral consumer apps that feel familiar but are supercharged by the advantages of crypto payments. Many of these will be centered around stablecoins. This is where I believe the next wave of innovation lies.