Eowyn Chen, CEO of Trust Wallet, who first encountered blockchain concepts in 2014 while working in fintech, has risen to prominence in the crypto industry, joining Binance in 2018 before taking the helm at Trust Wallet in 2022.
In a recent exclusive interview with BeInCryto, Chen shared insights into the challenges facing the crypto wallet industry, noting that most wallets struggle to be profitable. She also revealed her vision for the future of wallets, describing a concept akin to “Amazon Web3,” and predicting that web extension wallets may disappear in favor of dApp-embedded functionality.
For the first time, Chen explained the meaning behind her chosen name, Eowyn, inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings.” She shared that this name serves as a personal reminder to avoid industry temptations and to prioritize the project’s success over personal gain, principles that guide both her leadership and Trust Wallet’s culture.
Q: Why did you choose the name “Eowyn”?
It’s from the Lord of the Rings written by J.R.R. Tolkien. He made up this name which sounds very Irish.
With this name, I remind myself two things. The first is the theme of Lord of the Rings, to carry the most powerful ring to the mission, which is to destroy the ring so that no one has a single point of tyranny. Sometimes crypto industry has lots of temptations, no matter if that’s the fame, the money, or the power. I have seen leaders that got into pride and then just fall. I want to remind myself not to get tempted by the ring. The second is this character in the Lord of the Rings dies. Anyone who wants to do long-lasting things needs to forget about herself or himself in the project. The key goal is not to create for staying in the position forever but to create something that stays beyond you.
Q. How does this philosophy apply to the company?
I’m building my company to survive beyond the founders like me. I tell my team, too, that I don’t expect Truss Walet to be the last employer you’re having. They will go into the industry to do other interesting, cool stuff, but I want you to have integrity and a mission focus, and to learn from the cultural value and bring to the industry. That’s how we can grow more mature and trustworthy because there are enough scams out there.
Eowyn Chen, CEO of Trust Wallet, participated in a panel discussion at Korea Blockchain Week. Source: Korea Blockchain Week
Q: Where are you based, and how is the regulatory environment treating you?
Right now in Dubai, but previously in the U.S. There was a concern. Coinbase Wallet got the SEC case, and so far, luckily, we haven’t got any cases. We tend to be way more conservative than all our peers because we learned the lessons from Binance. I was Binance and saw how things go down. There are certain boundary lines such as how to make money or where to have the business model.
Q: How do you see the future landscape of the crypto wallet industry?
Most of the wallets don’t make money. The potentially profitable ones are Metamask and maybe Coinbase Wallet. All the other wallets are not making money or losing money, because wallet as a business model is not easy to survive. So either they have a sugar daddy that they have to make sure that you give them the money and support them.
Q: But chains and cryptos increase continuously, doesn’t it help the wallet business?
Initially, we were an Ethereum-only wallet, but now we support 105 chains and 65 are non-EVMs. But it was the early days when the multi-chain journey happened. But the chains don’t bring us new users anymore. There haven’t been any new chains that we integrated that were such a great attraction to users and made them start to use our product.
Nowadays, we tend to capture the users already existing in the industry, since the new chains no longer drive anything. So, it’s more of a retention play for us. The users don’t have to have 50 wallets for 50 chains but they can have a one-stop shop with us.
During Korea Blockchain Week, Eowyn Chen, CEO of Trust Wallet, sat with BeInCrypto for an exclusive interview.
Q: Are there any upcoming changes or new features you are planning?
One thing that we have been testing and are trying to make more moves on is the smart contract integration in EIP-7702, which upgrades the EOA(Externally Owned Wallet) with some smart contract features. The fundamental role for a wallet to play is simple, easy-to-use, UX, and we believe that smart contracts can allow a better, smarter user experience and also, that user experiences can retain users better.
Q: What challenges does your business face as a whole?
Scalability is a major challenge, especially being a multi-chain wallet supporting both EVM and non-EVM chains. When you have to provide users with gasless experiences or chain abstractions experiences, you cannot just depend on EVM’s standards. It’s very difficult to design both from the product layer and from the technical layer to give users that simple, consistent experience.
Q: What’s your vision for the future of wallets?
One is to build a B2B service like Wallet-as-a-service. Another is like “Amazon Web3,” offering various utilities with better user experiences. Web extension wallets may disappear in a few years, with wallet functionality becoming embedded in dApps for a seamless experience.