The piece is built around a conversation with Bitget Wallet’s CMO, Jamie Elkaleh, and its main point is simple. A crypto wallet is no longer just a place where people park assets and forget about them. According to Elkaleh, that idea is outdated. Today’s wallet is turning into something people actually use, day to day, as part of how they manage money in a Web3 environment.
That change did not happen because of buzzwords. It happened because users needed more from their wallets. Elkaleh explains that modern wallets now handle cross-chain trading, let users earn yield on assets that would otherwise sit idle, sometimes reaching around 10 percent APY, and most importantly, make it possible to send and spend money in practical ways. Payments and remittances are no longer side features. They are becoming core use cases.
He points out that this matters most in places where the traditional system does not work well. High fees, long delays, and weak local currencies all create problems that wallets can help solve. Elkaleh uses countries like Turkey as an example, where people look for ways to protect their money from inflation and move funds across borders without losing a large portion to intermediaries.
Security remains a major concern, and Elkaleh does not downplay it. He highlights the existence of a $700 million protection fund as part of building trust with users who are being asked to rely on wallets for more than simple storage. For him, this focus is personal. His views are shaped by firsthand exposure to financial inequality, which explains why he keeps returning to the idea of open and fair access rather than speculation.
