Author: Bill Gates

What exactly is a WEB3.0 Bank? Today, I will provide a definition.

This is not a simple popular science article, nor is it an overview to hype the industry. You may have already come across: the United States has passed the GENIUS Act, Hong Kong has issued stablecoin licenses, and the LEAP Policy 2.0 has been released, with the entire RWA rapidly moving on-chain. But these are not the main points; the key is — these actions signify that a brand new financial infrastructure is taking shape, and its core role is the WEB3.0 Bank.

Many people are still stuck on the concept of "digital banks," thinking that a user-friendly app and smooth experience equate to evolution. In fact, that is just the Web2.0 version of traditional banks; the essence has not changed — it is still fiat currency-centered, account-based, and control is in the hands of the bank. It addresses the "service experience issue" but cannot solve the "structural trust issue."

We no longer need to discuss the problems with banks; every user has already voted with their feet: slow, expensive, closed, and uncontrollable. Traditional banks are like large shopping malls, with complex processes and fees everywhere, while today's users want a 7-11: open anytime, immediately usable, accessible to anyone. This is not just a slogan; it is a turning point in product thinking.

However, what truly breaks this old framework is not user complaints but the rise of on-chain assets. When stablecoins become the default currency for transactions, when RWA moves traditional bonds on-chain, and when exchanges, Web3 communities, and DeFi protocols begin to manage user assets, the bank's most critical moat — asset custody rights — is rapidly becoming ineffective.

The transformation that follows is irreversible. More and more Web3 institutions are holding assets, but their users still need to use fiat currency for consumption: buying groceries, paying rent, swiping cards, withdrawing cash. This creates a new problem: how to safely, compliantly, and conveniently convert on-chain money into the fiat world?

The answer is not to go back to traditional banks, nor to rely on exchanges to go it alone, but to give birth to a new infrastructure: the WEB3.0 Bank.
I now provide a clear definition:

WEB3.0 Bank is a protocol platform that empowers Web3 institutions with banking capabilities, allowing any project with assets, users, or tokens to serve users like a bank without having to become a bank itself.

It is not a banking license, not a financial company, and certainly not a card-issuing app. It is a pluggable banking capability system that modularly provides capabilities such as card issuance, VA account opening, currency exchange, global settlement, fiat withdrawals, KYC, and AML. It is not a C-end product but a B-end infrastructure; it does not issue accounts but empowers accounts; it does not hold funds but builds bridges.

You can understand it as "Bank-as-a-Protocol." Just as blockchain has turned value into programmable assets, the WEB3.0 Bank transforms financial services into composable and integrable capability modules. It allows RWA platforms to receive and pay fiat, enables exchanges to send money to users, allows Web3 communities to pay creators, and lets gaming projects issue payroll cards — things that only banks could do before can now be done by any project.

For example, a user of a DeFi protocol, although their assets are locked in the protocol earning yields, still needs to keep some fiat currency in a bank account for expenses like rent, utilities, and tuition. This asset fragmentation is a common pain point for all DeFi users today. But when this DeFi protocol integrates with the WEB3.0 Bank system, the situation changes. Users can directly use the consumption card issued by the protocol to spend on-chain assets, with the system automatically handling exchange and settlement in the background, while the VA account supports fiat transactions anytime, and global transfers no longer rely on traditional bank limits and procedures. This means users no longer need to "withdraw and hold" in advance; on-chain funds are always available, significantly enhancing user experience. More importantly, once these functions are smooth enough, users will be more willing to invest more fiat assets into DeFi because they know they can access their money anytime, rather than having to keep it in a bank account.

Another example is a Web3 application with its own token. In the era without a WEB3.0 Bank, users wanting to spend or transfer usually had to withdraw tokens in bulk to an exchange, sell them for USDT or fiat, and then transfer them out for consumption. This operation is not only cumbersome but can also trigger concentrated selling pressure, causing systemic downward pressure on token prices. However, if this application integrates with the WEB3.0 Bank system, users can directly use their tokens when they need to spend or transfer, automatically converting to the required fiat at real-time exchange rates and completing the payment seamlessly, without the need for concentrated selling. This not only significantly lowers the operational threshold for users but also extends the period tokens remain in the system, greatly reducing market liquidity shocks and fundamentally changing the project team's understanding of "selling pressure" risk.

More importantly, once the capabilities of the WEB3.0 Bank are fully opened, the biggest beneficiaries will be every Web3 merchant. They will no longer rely on the banking system to hold customer funds but will completely manage on-chain assets independently and complete consumption, settlement, withdrawals, and transfers through the WEB3.0 Bank — tasks that only traditional banks could perform. This means merchants will no longer just be payment tools but "micro-banks." Settlement efficiency will increase exponentially, service scope will globalize, fiat currency types will switch freely, and user experience will be extremely smooth. Financial services will transform from "centralized bank counters" to "modular service capabilities," accelerating the infrastructure upgrade of the entire crypto industry.

Conversely, the real vulnerabilities of traditional banks will be fully exposed — as the WEB3.0 Bank encourages more users to hold and spend crypto assets, merchants will naturally begin to accept crypto payments proactively. At that time, the on-chain "receiving + spending" closed loop will gradually replace fiat currency transfers, and traditional banks will lose the cash circulation scenarios they rely on for survival. This is not replacement but eradication.

What the WEB3.0 Bank aims to achieve is not to become a super bank itself but to empower countless Web3 merchants with banking capabilities. Its goal is to deconstruct banking from an institution into a protocol. It is not about building a new bank but redefining what a bank is.
Thus, this revolution will empower every Web3 merchant and dismantle the traditional banking system.

This is the era that the WEB3.0 Bank is about to bring forth, and it is also the fate it is about to change.

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