Why Wallet Interoperability is the Next Major Infrastructure Battle

Rollups, app-chains, and L2s have fragmented liquidity and state. Users are trapped in silos, forced to manage dozens of wallets and native gas tokens.

• ~$50B+ TVL is now distributed across 50+ major chains.
• The average DeFi user interacts with 3-4 different networks monthly.
• Native bridging UX is a conversion funnel killer with >60% drop-off rates.

Paradigms like UniswapX and CowSwap abstract execution complexity. The next step is abstracting the wallet itself, moving from transaction signing to declarative intent fulfillment.

• Users express what (swap ETH for ARB on Arbitrum), not how (bridge, swap, claim).
• Enables cross-chain atomic composability without user-side orchestration.
• Drives demand for solvers and fillers like Across and LayerZero to compete on execution.

ERC-4337 and account abstraction make wallets programmable. This creates a standardized surface for interoperability protocols to plug into, turning wallets into a network-level primitive.

• Enables sponsored transactions and session keys, removing gas friction.
• Provides a universal entry point for cross-chain intents and verifiable user operators.
• Shifts competition from key management (MetaMask) to network effects of bundled services.

Enterprises and funds require unified treasury management across chains. Current multi-sig and MPC solutions are chain-specific, creating operational overhead and security blind spots.

• $1B+ fund needs to deploy capital on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Solana simultaneously.
• Demand for unified non-custodial control with chain-agnostic policy engines.
• Drives development of MPC networks and threshold signature schemes that are L1-agnostic.

Users are locked into single-chain wallets, forcing them to manage dozens of seed phrases and navigate a fragmented liquidity landscape. This creates massive UX friction and security risks.

• ~$1B+ in assets lost annually to cross-chain bridge hacks.
• >50% of DeFi users cite multi-chain management as a primary pain point.
• Native chain abstraction is impossible without solving this first.

Abstract the Externally Owned Account (EOA) with a programmable smart contract wallet. This enables social recovery, batch transactions, and most critically, sponsored gas paid in any token.

• ZeroDev, Biconomy, and Safe are leading the infrastructure layer.
• Enables true paymaster models where dApps subsidize user onboarding.
• The foundational primitive for intent-based architectures like UniswapX.

Build a unified settlement and data availability layer that makes multiple chains behave as one. Wallets see a single, coherent state.

• Polygon AggLayer provides atomic cross-chain composability with near-instant finality.
• Avail DA allows light clients to verify data across chains, enabling secure bridging.
• This is a top-down approach, requiring chain-level integration versus wallet-level.

Decouple transaction execution from user signature. Users submit a signed intent ("I want X token on Arbitrum"), and a decentralized solver network competes to fulfill it optimally.

• Across uses a unified liquidity pool model, not token bridges.
• Socket aggregates all bridges and DEXs into a single liquidity layer.
• Reduces failed transactions and improves price execution by ~3-5% on average.

Provide developers with a single SDK to handle all cross-chain swaps, messaging, and gas. The wallet complexity is abstracted into the dApp layer.

• Squid (by Axelar) enables cross-chain swaps in a single click with automatic gas handling.
• LI.FI aggregates every major bridge and DEX (>50 integrators).
• Shifts the battle from the wallet to the dApp integration layer.

Merge Multi-Party Computation (MPC) wallet security with smart account programmability. This eliminates seed phrases entirely while enabling advanced features.

• Web3Auth and Privy use MPC-TSS for social login onboarding.
• Safe{Core} is integrating MPC for enhanced key management.
• Targets the next billion users by mirroring Web2 login flows without custodial risk.

Users manage 5-10+ wallets across chains, each a separate identity and seed phrase liability. This fragments liquidity, multiplies security risk, and creates a ~$1B+ annual market for bridging and swapping fees just to move assets between your own accounts.

• Fragmented UX: No unified view of cross-chain portfolio or identity.
• Security Nightmare: Each new wallet is a new attack vector.
• Capital Inefficiency: Idle assets stuck on the 'wrong' chain.

ERC-4337 and native AA on chains like zkSync and Starknet turn wallets into programmable smart contracts. This enables social recovery, batch transactions, and gas sponsorship, but the real prize is seamless chain abstraction.

• Unified Identity: A single smart account address across all EVM and non-EVM chains.
• Session Keys: Enable seamless dApp interactions without constant signing.
• Paymaster Networks: Let apps subsidize gas in any token, abstracting the chain entirely.

The future wallet is an intent-centric orchestrator. Instead of signing a specific transaction on a specific chain, users express a goal ("swap 1 ETH for best priced ARB"). The wallet's solver network (like UniswapX, CowSwap, Across) finds the optimal path across DEXs and bridges.

• Best Execution: Automatically routes across Uniswap, 1inch, layerzero.
• MEV Protection: Solvers compete to fulfill your intent, capturing value for the user.
• True Abstraction: User never sees or chooses an underlying chain or liquidity source.

This is an existential fight between wallet providers (MetaMask, Phantom), infrastructure layers (Polygon AggLayer, NEAR Chain Signatures), and applications (dYdX, Uniswap). The winner controls the primary interface, aggregates transaction flow, and captures the lifetime value of user activity.

• Data Monopoly: The orchestrator sees all cross-chain activity and intent.
• Fee Capture: Routing and bundling fees become a massive revenue stream.
• Platform Risk: Applications become plug-ins to the dominant wallet OS.