Bitget Wallet Research has released a deep-dive report framing nearly two decades of financial innovation as a 'financial power migration.' It argues that from first-generation Neobanks (Revolut, Nubank, Chime) to native payment networks (Visa, Wise), native stablecoins (USDT, USDC, RedotPay), and now native onchain wallets (Bitget Wallet, Gnosis Pay, Ether.fi Cash), each phase has chipped away at the four core powers that commercial banks once monopolized: account management, payment orchestration, currency circulation, and final settlement.
Phase 1: First-Gen Neobanks Capture the Account Gateway
After the 2008 crisis, two paths emerged: one used mobile technology to redesign banking, producing Revolut, Monzo, Nubank, and Chime; the other reimagined money and settlement from scratch, starting with the Bitcoin whitepaper and evolving into stablecoins and DeFi. The key insight of first-generation Neobanks was that people don't love banks—they need financial services. By repackaging banking as a mobile product, loyalty shifted from bank licenses to products. By end-2025, Revolut had 68.3 million retail users, $67.5 billion in client assets, and $23 billion in pre-tax profit; Nubank surpassed 131 million users with $16.3 billion in revenue; Chime topped 25 million. Yet every transaction still flowed through legacy rails like Visa, Mastercard, SEPA—clearing power remained elsewhere.
Phase 2: Native Payment Networks Seize Clearing Power
Accounts are the gateway, but clearing is the real prize. Visa processed $16.7 trillion in global payments in FY2025, with net margins around 50%; Mastercard similarly handled over $10 trillion. Wise (formerly TransferWise) innovated by using local liquidity pools and algorithmic matching to turn cross-border payments into a series of domestic transactions. As of 2026, Wise had 18.9 million active users, $243.5 billion in annual cross-border volume, and $660 million in pre-tax profit. Power migrated a second time—from account ownership to control over money movement.
Phase 3: Native Stablecoins Free the Dollar from Banks
By early 2026, global stablecoin market cap reached roughly $250–270 billion, with USDT over $160 billion and USDC near $65 billion. Stablecoins proved that the dollar can circulate globally without commercial bank accounts, SWIFT, or national payment systems. RedotPay operates a stablecoin-centric consumer platform across 150+ countries; Kast combines stablecoin accounts with U.S. Treasury yields; Felix Pago uses USDC for cross-border remittances in Latin America. The third generation dismantled the century-old assumption that the dollar must reside within banks.
Phase 4: Onchain Wallets Return Ownership to Users
Non-custodial wallet users now number in the hundreds of millions—MetaMask and Trust Wallet each exceed 100 million; Bitget Wallet is building an integrated financial ecosystem. Gnosis Pay issues a Visa card linked directly to users' onchain accounts, so assets stay in the wallet; Ether.fi Cash unifies stablecoins, ETH yield, and real-world spending; Bitget Wallet aims to become a single financial operating system—accounts, payments, yield, trading, global asset allocation, and consumption—all controlled by the user. The report argues that wallets aren't competing against other wallets; they're competing against bank accounts, Revolut, PayPal, Cash App, and Apple Wallet. When banks, payments, currency, and accounts are unbundled, who will become everyone's single global financial account? The answer may no longer be a bank—but a wallet.
This article is based on viewpoints from Bitget Wallet researchers and is for reference only, not investment advice.