Web3 Wallet Decade: As the AI Inflection Point Accelerates, a New Map of Crypto Users Emerges

For a long time in the past, when we talked about wallets, we were mostly talking about assets.

For example, where BTC is stored, how to transfer ETH, how to manage NFTs, and how to access and use DeFi and RWA. For the vast majority of Crypto users, a wallet was, in a sense, synonymous with an asset gateway.

But AI is changing all of that.

When users can describe their needs in natural language, and when AI can help deconstruct operational paths, the role of the wallet begins to change as well. Especially in the last six months, it increasingly resembles a console in the user's digital world. From this perspective, the question wallets truly need to answer in the AI era might not be "can it do more for the user," but rather, **when more and more things can be automated, how can users continue to understand each of their interactions and maintain ultimate control?**

This is also the new question imToken is continuing to answer, a decade in.

1. The New Narrative for Wallets: From Asset Gateway to Personal Digital Hub

If, in 2016, you told an Ethereum user that ten years later, they could type "help me generate a minimalist wallet that only shows NFTs, AI-related tokens, and common operations" into a dialog box and receive a functional app running on a testnet, they would likely have mistaken you for a project team that couldn't write a proper whitepaper.

But by 2026, this no longer feels like a sci-fi scenario.

If you recently attended imToken's 10th-anniversary event, you would have seen that similar scenarios are actually achievable – users can simply state this natural language requirement and generate a preliminary wallet interface, complete with NFTs, AI Tokens, and common operations like Receive, Sign, and Swap.

"Your digital world, under your control." This phrase aptly summarizes the new narrative of imToken's 10th anniversary. It's not about packaging the wallet as a platform that does everything, but rather acknowledging that as the digital world users enter becomes increasingly complex, users require a long-term trustworthy, secure, clear, and self-controlled gateway.

This gateway was once a wallet, and it will continue to grow from the wallet in the future. Because the more complex the digital world, the more it needs a trusted starting point.

In the past, wallets primarily helped users prove, "These assets belong to me." Whether it was ETH, ERC-20, NFTs, or later DeFi positions and RWA assets, the core role of the wallet was as an asset container and signing portal.

But the wallet in the AI era also needs to help users confirm more questions. For instance, does this identity belong to me? Are these authorizations managed by me? Do I understand these operations? Are these automated processes still within my control boundaries?

This is also the key to the "Personal Digital Hub" narrative, meaning the next step for wallets isn't just being a wallet, but becoming the foundational interface for users to enter the digital world.

Again, taking imToken as an example, if we divide its decade into three segments, we see a clear trajectory:

• 2016 - 2023, Wallets as Asset Containers: Starting with the Ethereum ecosystem and expanding to asset forms like ERC-20, DeFi, and NFTs, the core proposition was straightforward: keep private keys as secure as possible within the user's own device, ensuring every new type of Token could be reliably placed into the same container. In this phase, the user's primary concern was, "Can the assets be safely stored and smoothly withdrawn?"
• 2024 - 2025, Wallets at an Inflection Point: Tokens were no longer just assets; they began extending to identity/data/agents/permission relationships. Ethereum's narrative also shifted beyond just scaling towards account abstraction and other user-experience-focused directions. Consequently, rewriting how users interact with chains caused the relatively stable component of the wallet to fundamentally shift for the first time on a large scale.
• Post-2026, Wallets Moving Towards "Personal Digital Hub": As AI begins to participate in application generation, transaction understanding, risk identification, and automated execution, the wallet is no longer just a tool to be used, but more like everyone's digital console, responsible for linking user coordination with AI Agents.

These three phases can be compressed into one sentence: Token evolution changes, control remains constant.

Asset forms will change, interaction methods will change, and AI capabilities will change, but what the wallet truly needs to guard remains unchanged – the user's ultimate control over their digital world.

2. Functionality is Not the Endpoint; Security is the Foundation

Take imToken's 10th-anniversary AI co-creation event as an example. What truly deserves attention is not just "using AI to generate a wallet interface," but placing the question of "how wallets and AI can combine" on a more fundamental level.

It's important to clarify that the AI direction currently shown by imToken is not the aggressive path of "handing over private keys to an AI for automated trading." Instead, it leans towards three more practical directions: First, allowing users to participate in wallet co-creation using natural language; Second, making the wallet's underlying capabilities easier for developers and AI to call upon; Third, embedding security rules into the generation and interaction process beforehand.

We believe this path is more aligned with the logic of the wallet industry.

Because a wallet is not an ordinary app. An error on a button in an ordinary app might just be a bad user experience; an error in a wallet's signing, authorization, or private key handling process can lead to real asset loss. Therefore, wallets in the AI era cannot just emphasize "generated quickly"; they must emphasize "generated securely," "understandable," and "verifiable."

The most specific action is further opening the capabilities related to Token Core into the co-creation scenario. For ordinary users, the name Token Core might sound technical, but it can be understood as the "heart" of the imToken wallet, responsible for the wallet's most core capabilities, such as private key and keystore management, address generation, transaction signing, and multi-chain support.

Simply put, there can be many different wallet interfaces, but what truly determines whether a wallet can securely manage assets, correctly sign transactions, and operate reliably across different chains is this underlying "heart."

As early as 2018, Token Core was already open-sourced. Back then, it mainly served imToken's own mobile wallet, supporting multi-chain asset management and signing capabilities on iOS and Android. Today, Token Core has evolved into a wallet core library covering multiple public chains and cross-platform calls.

Within the 10th-anniversary-related branches, the emergence of the WebAssembly format is particularly noteworthy.

WebAssembly sounds technical, but in simple terms, it allows wallet core capabilities, which originally ran more in apps or local environments, to operate more conveniently in a browser environment. This makes web-based wallet demos, AI-generated wallet applications, and developer-built wallet prototypes potentially more direct in calling upon underlying wallet capabilities.

The significance here is that the wallet is no longer just a collection of functions within a closed app; it can become a set of more open and composable foundational capabilities. Consequently, several more accessible tools have also appeared alongside it:

• Token Core CLI demo can be understood as a "command-line demonstration platform," which breaks down core wallet actions, such as creating wallets, deriving addresses, managing keystores, and signing transactions, allowing developers and AI to more intuitively understand what the wallet's underlying system is doing.
• Token UI can be understood as a "wallet interface template library": Based on imToken's design system, it helps participants build wallet-like interfaces faster. Users can have AI generate a wallet interface prototype without having to design every button, list, and asset card from scratch.
• security/SKILL.md is more like a "wallet security manual" written specifically for AI coding assistants. When an AI needs to generate code involving mnemonics/private keys or signing/authorization, it cannot just focus on making the function work; it must first understand which areas are red lines, ensuring that operations involving assets require user confirmation.

This set of open-source actions might differ from how many people previously understood wallet competition.

In the past, it was easy to view wallets as apps – the one supporting more chains, having a better-looking UI, or offering more comprehensive DApp gateways had the advantage. However, after the AI era, wallet competition may transform into a different form: Who can provide more trustworthy underlying capabilities? Who can allow users and developers to combine wallet functions more safely? Who can maintain security boundaries even when AI is generating the user experience? Whoever achieves these is more likely to become the foundation of the user's digital world.

This is why imToken's AI capabilities should not be simply understood as "running an AI wallet generation event." It actually answers a more fundamental question – when AI can generate an increasing number of wallet interfaces, interactions, and applications, what must remain stable? What can be opened for users and the community to reassemble? And what must be constrained by security rules?

imToken's answer is: trust remains in the core, controllability remains with the user, and innovation remains with the community.

3. The New Map for Crypto Users: From Natural Language Interface to Agent Boundary Management

So what can we expect the future of Web3 wallets to look like in the next decade?

Putting the two threads above together – on one side, imToken placing the wallet kernel, UI templates, and security rules into the hands of users and developers; on the other side, AI gaining stronger capabilities to understand and orchestrate between users and chains – the position of an ordinary Crypto user is undergoing an interesting shift.

In the past, users mostly had to adapt to the wallet.

Users used the wallet as its homepage was designed; they clicked on the functions the wallet supported; they followed the steps in the transaction flow. Even power users often had to switch between various fixed functions.

But with AI's involvement, wallets may increasingly adapt to the user. This means the Web3 wallet of the next decade may not just be about having more features, but potentially becoming more personalized in its form:

• You might no longer have to tolerate a one-size-fits-all wallet homepage. For instance, if you are a heavy DeFi user, you could have AI generate a minimalist interface focused only on yields, risks, and position changes, aggregating major positions, yields, redemption times, and risk status across different chains.
• If you only care about stablecoin income and expenses, you could have the wallet homepage display only USDC/USDT balances, recent transactions, and frequently used receiving addresses, undisturbed by irrelevant assets and gateways.
• If you are deeply involved in LST / LRT, the wallet could consolidate the real ETH positions, yields, exit windows, and potential risks behind different staking derivatives into an easier-to-understand panel.
• If you just want to prepare a small wallet for a family member, it could retain only receive, send, and balance display, with complex DApps, authorizations, and cross-chain functions completely hidden.

The underlying logic of signing, addresses, and transfers hasn't changed; what changes is the upper-layer experience. In short, the wallet is no longer just a standard component, but rather a digital tool assembled from a wallet kernel, UI Kit, and individual needs.

Looking further ahead, the next generation of Crypto users might face an on-chain world filled with numerous AI Agents.

Your AI assistant scans stablecoin pools for arbitrage opportunities daily. Your research Agent performs small-scale tests on new protocols when they launch. Your payment Agent handles subscriptions, refunds, and settlements. Your asset management Agent reminds you to rebalance based on your preset rules.

These scenarios might sound radical, but they don't mean users should hand their private keys over to AI. On the contrary, the more powerful these Agents become, the more critical the wallet becomes. After all, a healthy AI-wallet relationship is not about an Agent completely taking over user assets, but about the Agent making requests, the wallet translating those requests into transaction details the user can understand, and handing it over for user confirmation at the final step.

In other words, AI Agents can be responsible for discovering opportunities, making suggestions, and generating pathways. The wallet must be responsible for risk warnings, permission constraints, and final signing.

Overall, AI will make wallets smarter and on-chain operations smoother. This is a grand development, and it is just getting started.

Final Thoughts

The underlying logic of the Crypto world has always been built upon user control. The private key issue will not disappear with the advent of AI; it will become even more important.

This is the core of imToken's new narrative and what is truly noteworthy in the wallet sector.

Especially as the digital world expands from assets to identities and AI agents, users will still need a trusted gateway to help them understand, confirm, and control every digital action. Therefore, transitioning from a trusted main wallet to a personal digital hub is not just a conceptual repackaging, but a natural extension of the wallet's role in a new technological environment.

Perhaps, looking back from 2036 to 2026, we will see a somewhat counterintuitive truth: the next decade for wallets is not just about them becoming more functionally powerful, but about users shifting from being recipients of services to being those who define the service.

Your digital world, under your control.