【Chain Article】The role of wallets is quietly undergoing a dramatic transformation. From being a cold key management tool in the Bitcoin era to becoming an essential gateway for on-chain finance today, this transition took over a decade. The DeFi Summer moment was a watershed — wallets suddenly shifted from low-frequency asset storage boxes into mandatory gateways that dApp users had to pass through. Later, the All-In-One wallet route gradually became the market mainstream, and amid successive waves of inscriptions and Meme hype, such wallets completed their capability validation, increasingly controlling transaction pathways and traffic distribution rights.
However, the wind is changing direction. The wealth effect of VC tokens has faded, and new on-chain assets and high-yield opportunities continue to overflow externally, with users no longer willing to remain confined to exchanges long-term. This pressure is forcing exchanges to accelerate their on-chain deployment, moving toward embedded wallets — extending compliance, fiat channels, and their massive user base into the on-chain ecosystem together.