Fintech
Wirex Launches world’s first ‘Mass-Market’ Non-Custodial DeFi Wallet
Wirex, a crypto-friendly digital payments company, today unveiled its mass-market non-custodial Wirex Wallet, solidifying the company’s leading position in the crypto and DeFi spheres. With the mass adoption of DeFi on the horizon, Wirex believes their cross-chain, keyless, highly secure Wallet will finally break down the barriers to mainstream adoption.
The Wirex Wallet, available to download from app stores, allows users to manage more than 100 different cryptocurrencies from their mobile device securely and efficiently. Co-Founder and CEO, Pavel Matveev, believes the Wirex Wallet will give a new generation of users access to DeFi by including unique features that make it easier and more secure than ever to use.
Uniquely, the app will not require a private key, and instead will rely on biometrics for access. Combining an exceptional user experience with multi-party computation technology ensures resilient security and compliance, rendering complex seed phrases and private keys unnecessary.
Matveev believes the Wirex Wallet will give a new generation of users’ access to DeFi, “Wirex is always looking for ways to make digital currencies more accessible and we believe this Wallet is a world-first in making that a mainstream reality. We want to give crypto users access, flexibility and control over their holdings without worrying if their funds are safe, losing their private key, high gas fees or the need to spread their tokens across different apps and platforms.”
He suggests that high fees on the Ethereum blockchain and fragmented liquidity across different blockchains is a turnoff to potential DeFi users, where the very people that could gain most from DeFi are simply priced out of the opportunity. Taking the best of Wirex’s existing infrastructure, the Wallet offers cross-chain compatibility across the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains, with expansion to faster, cheaper Layer 2 networks in the pipeline. This interoperability allows users to swap DeFi tokens across blockchains with unparalleled ease, offering access to a wider pool of tokens, technologies and use cases within a single wallet.
The Wallet cements Wirex’s mission to make the benefits of digital currency and DeFi available to the widest global audience, with Matveev citing it as the ‘next piece of the puzzle’ in offering a full fintech-to-DeFi ecosystem to Wirex users. “We’ve made a series of major announcements in 2021 that creates a full ecosystem for every kind of cryptocurrency user. Our crypto-enabled Wirex app and card is available in three regions across the world, our CeFi offering – X-Accounts – was recently expanded to an additional 81 countries, and the Wirex Wallet will be available globally, putting a Wirex product in reach of everyone on the planet. That level of accessibility is what really excites us about this launch.”
The launch follows a series of DeFi-oriented product announcements from Wirex that are thought will position the company for exponential growth. In December 2021, the company announced a new whitepaper, widening the use cases of Wirex’s WXT, as well as announcing a 5 billion WXT investment in new DeFi protocol, Nereus. Earlier this year, the company launched a hugely popular DeFi savings product, X-Accounts, which enables users to earn up to 16% APR interest on both fiat and crypto funds, without the associated complexity and cost. Thanks to a direct connection with AAVE and Compound, the Wirex Wallet will empower users to access even higher rates of APR interest – up to 25%.
For the Wallet, Wirex has an ambitious roadmap to develop its functionality, enabling the ability to send and receive NFTs, as well as expanding compatibility with the Solana blockchain. By expanding the product, they aim to give more choice, lower fees and greater simplicity for people globally.
Wirex Wallet Features
- Ability to manage over 100 cryptocurrencies
- Easy access to DeFi and NFTs
- No need for a private key, seed phrases or prior Wirex membership
- Simple purchases of WXT and other crypto using debit and credit card
- Cross-chain swaps across Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains, with expansion to Solana and other blockchains on the roadmap
- Resilient security measures including sophisticated SMPC encryption and privacy-first anonymous biometric backups
- Low blockchain fees
- Available to download from the Google Play and App Store