Bitget Wallet Chief Operating Officer Alvin Kan discusses the demand for stablecoins in emerging markets, the difficulties in accessing local payment networks, and how wallets can accommodate users' daily expenses and investments.

Interview: Anderson Sima, Foresight News

Organized by: Chandler Z, Foresight News

In Brazil, without a local bank account, Alvin Kan can still pull out Bitget Wallet and use the local Pix QR code payment system. This was a personal experience during his recent visit to the Latin American market. For Brazilian residents who are accustomed to using Pix, making QR code payments is quite ordinary; however, for cross-border travelers, remote workers, and those holding stablecoins but lacking local bank accounts, how to use the funds in their wallets for daily expenses remains a pressing issue.

In July 2026, Bitget Wallet announced that its global user base exceeded 100 million, revealing that the daily number of users utilizing payment features had surpassed those conducting transactions for the first time. For this self-custodial wallet that started with crypto asset trading and management, payment is becoming an increasingly important use case.

Bitget Wallet aims to continue expanding along this trajectory. From payment cards, QR code consumption to cross-border receipts and stablecoin investment, it attempts to build a comprehensive financial gateway that meets users' daily spending and investment needs. If we reference the development experience of China's internet finance, it resembles a "global Alipay" to some degree: establishing daily usage habits through payments, and then gradually extending to more financial services.

However, the market environment faced by this goal is far more complex than that of a single country. Significant differences exist in banking systems, payment networks, regulatory requirements, and user habits across different regions, and that on-chain assets can flow across borders does not mean they can be directly used for local payments. For Bitget Wallet, entering a new market requires repeatedly finding payment partners and resolving issues such as currency conversion, channel stability, and localized services. Meanwhile, as the wallet carries more financial functions, how to handle security and responsibility under a self-custody model also becomes an unavoidable issue.

During TOKEN2049, Foresight News interviewed Bitget Wallet Chief Operating Officer Alvin Kan. In emerging markets such as Brazil and Argentina, he found that users' interest in stablecoin payments, wealth management, and U.S. stock-related investments has gone beyond traditional crypto asset trading. Can payments encourage users to open their wallets daily, and can they further accommodate investment needs? On this topic, we discussed with Alvin Kan the construction of global payment networks, business models, tokenized assets, and the real challenges facing crypto wallets as they transition into comprehensive financial service platforms.

The following is a整理 of the Foresight News interview, with questions and answers merged, abridged, and edited.

When local payments are already convenient, who needs crypto wallets?

Foresight News: In regions where electronic payments are mature, what practical demands remain for on-chain payments?

Alvin Kan: If you already have a local bank account and only need to make local payments, many countries' infrastructures can meet the demand. We cannot solve a problem that doesn’t exist just to launch a product.

But in a different scenario, such as when you don't have a local bank account and need to make cross-border transfers or are traveling abroad, existing services may not be affordable or convenient enough. How does a digital nomad living in Southeast Asia use their crypto assets or stablecoins to cover daily expenses? This is a demand we focus on.

Recently, during my trip to Brazil, I used Bitget Wallet to make local Pix payments. Pix is Brazil's instant payment system, and after integrating local payment service providers, users can use these payment channels through the wallet. I was able to complete payments without having a local bank account.

Foresight News: Beyond consumption, cross-border receipts are also a daily demand for these users. What capabilities do you hope to further improve?

Alvin Kan: We are particularly focused on the receipt needs of digital nomads, overseas remote workers, and cross-border freelancers. For instance, if someone is working remotely in Asia and their employer is in the U.S., both parties might want to settle funds using stablecoins, but the employer is not necessarily familiar with blockchain wallets and may not wish to pay directly with crypto assets. This actually reflects the existing usage barriers between the traditional banking payment system and on-chain finance.

Therefore, we aim to further bridge the connection between fiat receipts and on-chain assets, allowing payers to continue using familiar bank transfer methods, while receivers can exchange received fiat for USDC or other stablecoins with the support of third-party service providers, using those funds for payments, transfers, or wealth management after they enter the wallet. This not only reduces the entry barriers for ordinary users to crypto assets but also allows stablecoins to integrate more naturally into actual cross-border payment scenarios. We will prioritize the needs of major currencies such as the U.S. dollar and the euro, and gradually expand related capabilities based on market feedback.

Foresight News: You also visited Argentina. What user needs left a strong impression on you during this Latin America trip?

Alvin Kan: This was my first visit to Latin America. I communicated with quite a few users in Brazil and Argentina, including our users and others at the venue. There was little conversation about trading cryptocurrencies, meme coins, or contracts; rather, there was much more discussion about how to use stablecoins for payments and wealth management.

Another demand that impressed me was for tokenized stocks. They want an application that can provide payment, wealth management, and investment in one. When it comes to investments, U.S. stocks are familiar assets for them.

So, while they may not be particularly interested in certain crypto trading activities, they are intrigued by tokenized stocks. This contrasts with the needs I've encountered in other markets.

Connecting country by country, how is the global payment network built?

Foresight News: After surpassing 100 million users, how do you measure growth this year? Have you set a new total user target?

Alvin Kan: Currently, we still use the data of exceeding 100 million users for external communication. As users continue to grow, we have invested considerable resources into product development and promotion in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

We haven't set a clear total user number as the main goal here. We are more focused on growth in each country and whether users' assets and transactions within the wallet are increasing. We hope it becomes a financial application that users will use daily.

On the product side, we will continue to expand our national coverage and increase payment scenarios. Payment cards are just one among many. We are also continuously improving QR code payments, bank transfers, and the connection ability between fiat receipts and stablecoins, hoping to cover more daily expenses and cross-border payment scenarios.

Foresight News: While on-chain products can extend their functions through integrated protocols, payments require connections to local networks on a case-by-case basis. How do you adapt to different countries' infrastructures and usage habits?

Alvin Kan: We have integrated QR code payments in some countries in Southeast Asia and Latin America. In Africa, where some markets are more accustomed to card or bank transfers, we also partner with local payment service providers to access the corresponding services.

Payment service providers, commonly referred to as PSPs, help us connect to local payment channels. When making on-chain transactions, integrating a protocol allows eligible users in different regions to use it; however, payment requires understanding each market's channels and habits before making connections.

We have configured local personnel in Brazil, Argentina, and some African markets and established seed user groups to continuously collect feedback. The team actively tests new channels. I hope that whenever I travel to different countries, I can complete payments using this application, which requires us to continually build out local networks.

Foresight News: Does this also change the team's composition? How can traditional payment experience help you solve issues?

Alvin Kan: Business, product, and tech teams all need to understand payments. When users make payments, the completion time, costs, and reliability of each transaction are important; we can't ignore the user experience just because a small number of orders had issues.

When selecting partners, we look at rates and service performance, and we also need to understand what licenses they hold. This knowledge needs to be accumulated. Over the past year and a half, we have been learning and hiring individuals with relevant experience.

Many people in our team previously came from the crypto industry and exchanges, but now we also have team members from Visa, Mastercard, and other traditional payment institutions. Our full-time teams around the world and seed users help us understand actual usage conditions locally. It is challenging to grasp what issues users are facing when discussing Latin American payments from a single location.

Foresight News: What is the most challenging issue to resolve when implementing this in practice?

Alvin Kan: The performance of different channels varies greatly. Some are not stable enough, some have high rates, or the costs themselves may fluctuate. We need to test each one to find suitable partners.

At the same time, we need to prepare backup channels. If there is a problem with a channel or it temporarily goes offline, there needs to be other channels to take up the slack. Thus, we are adopting the idea of a blockchain payment aggregator to connect multiple channels and create redundancy for services.

Payment opens wallet access for users; how can you keep them engaged?

Foresight News: You wish to integrate payments, wealth management, and trading into a single application, but how do you prevent the features from becoming too numerous and each one being poorly implemented?

Alvin Kan: First, there needs to be sufficient coverage. If we only serve one country, users will find it useless when they go to another place; it is hard to meet the needs of cross-border living. We have spent about a year and a half building our payment network, and this requires ongoing investment.

Moving funds back and forth between different applications also decreases efficiency. For example, if one application is responsible for wealth management and another for trading, each time a trade is to be made, money must be transferred over, and afterwards, it must be transferred back. Putting these functions together makes it more convenient for users to manage their funds.

However, each feature requires accumulation. We have been trading for eight years, and to support more chains and reduce the slippage relative to anticipated execution prices while ensuring the entire process remains smooth requires continuous investment. Adding a feature entry creates a lot of subsequent product and technical work.

Foresight News: Payments are a high-frequency scenario, but will users start utilizing investment functions within the wallet because of payments? Have you observed such conversions?

Alvin Kan: We observed that some users initially came for payment cards or QR code payments, and after using them for a while, they began to explore tokenized stocks. Some users try out these features about four to six months later.

Once their funds are already in the wallet, they gradually build trust and consider using more services. Payments serve as a high-frequency touchpoint; if users use it daily, they will slowly learn about the application.

Personally, I differentiate between trading platforms and everyday financial applications. Users are unlikely to use a payment card if a platform focused on trading releases one; however, if users are already accustomed to managing daily expenses in a financial application, it feels more natural to engage with investment functions in the same app. Of course, this is based on our observations of user habits.

Foresight News: The topics within the crypto industry change rapidly; why do you see tokenized stocks as a long-term business?

Alvin Kan: We discuss different trends internally every day, and some fads may last only two weeks. But we have long-term confidence in tokenized stocks.

On one hand, traditional financial institutions have begun to invest in related technologies and companies. On the other hand, our own business data shows that the transaction volume of tokenized stocks has been steadily increasing over the past period, not just rising with short-term fads.

If we aim to serve more ordinary users, when they think of investments, stocks may be the first thing that comes to mind. Some users want to access U.S. or dollar-denominated assets but find it hard to obtain services locally or face high costs when trading through local brokers. Tokenized stocks in their wallets can serve as an entry point for these needs.

Foresight News: Payments and investments are fundamentally different financial behaviors; how do you connect tokenized assets with daily consumption?

Alvin Kan: We have launched a cashback asset feature. After users make purchases with their cards, they can choose to receive rewards in assets like Bitcoin or tokenized stocks, such as those associated with NVIDIA or Tesla.

This merges consumption with investment. Users receive asset rewards upon payment, and if they later wish to exchange these assets, they will use the trading feature. We need to ensure that these steps connect smoothly.

Once assets are on-chain, there are also more combinations possible. For instance, tokenized stocks can be transferred between wallets, and applications can design different functionalities around these assets. My confidence in tokenization also comes from this programmability.

How does a global financial gateway profit, transitioning from payments to trading?

Foresight News: Building a global payment network requires ongoing investment and may involve user subsidies. If you want to become a daily financial gateway, how will you maintain commercial returns? Are you currently profitable?

Alvin Kan: We are currently profitable. We charge fees for both payments and transactions because we provide corresponding conveniences. When it comes to payments, we also need to ensure that costs remain competitive.

At this point, we are more focused on how to scale up. Once the scale expands, there will be more room for negotiation with partners to obtain better terms. Our current business situation gives us the confidence to continue investing in product development.

We are also working on enterprise-focused services, turning our accumulated transaction aggregation capability into an API, which serves as an interface for other products to call upon, to be offered to different merchants or developers for a fee.

Foresight News: The activity level of traditional crypto wallets is often closely related to market movements. Can payments reduce your dependence on market trends?

Alvin Kan: During the observed downturns, user growth has still been continuing. Cross-chain exchanges are one reason; even if users aren't trading frequently, they may need to convert assets between different chains.

Payments are another reason. Many user demands in emerging markets arise from daily life, and regardless of market conditions, they need to receive payments, transfer money, and make payments. These needs enable us to continue developing products without solely aligning our business around market trends.

Foresight News: Besides directly serving wallet users, why do you want to open trading capabilities to other products? Will the development of AI bring new business opportunities?

Alvin Kan: In the future, it is likely that more and more trades will be initiated by AI entities. If we only rely on users operating within their own applications, we won't cover all needs. Having already built the trading infrastructure, we hope more front-end applications will be able to call on it.

Currently, we are starting with trading services. Whether payments can also be aggregated into an interface provided for these applications is still a work in progress.

I believe that enterprise and developer-focused business will become increasingly important. Users may not need to directly open Bitget Wallet to use our services; other products might also integrate our trading capabilities.

As you aim to create a super financial application, who bears the risk?

Foresight News: If more transactions are initiated by AI entities in the future, will you allow AI to decide and execute trades directly on behalf of users?

Alvin Kan: We are currently being cautious in this regard. At this stage, related transactions still require user confirmation. If we want AI to decide and execute independently, we need to set different levels of permissions, such as how much capital can be used per transaction.

AI can also produce hallucinations, so these limitations must be considered. The payment field has issues that traditional finance has dealt with for a long time, yet there is still a lack of sufficiently mature standards on-chain. We will continue to observe and advance but will not overlook these conditions.

Foresight News: As more assets and financial services are connected through the wallet, and users complete payments, wealth management, and trades within one application, how do you ensure asset security?

Alvin Kan: We are a self-custodial wallet and will continue updating the security technology within the wallet. Meanwhile, user education is crucial.

Some users are aware they are using a self-custodial wallet but do not fully realize that they also need to take on the responsibility of safeguarding it. For example, storing sensitive key information in the cloud can pose risks. We must continually remind users.

While users can control their assets themselves, they also need to diligently protect their wallets. Both the security capacity of the product and the users' security awareness need to be continuously raised.

Foresight News: If a user loses funds after connecting to a third-party protocol via the wallet, how do you address such risks? With increasing services connected, what responsibilities should the wallet bear?

Alvin Kan: We will clearly inform users what they are doing and the associated risks during transactions. For example, when transferring money, using investment products, or purchasing meme coins, there will be corresponding prompts and safety labels.

The wallet needs to help users understand where the risks lie and to what extent, after which users can decide whether to proceed. Self-custody offers users more autonomy but also demands they take on more responsibility for their actions, and we need to ensure prompts are clear and comprehensive.

Foresight News: Transitioning from a trading-focused crypto wallet to a financial application covering daily expenses and investments, what user experience improvements do you consider most necessary for the next stage?

Alvin Kan: The payment network needs to continue expanding, covering more countries and channels while enhancing stability and reducing fees to make each usage experience more consistent.

Trading and wallets also need to be easier to use. Ordinary users entering this application may not understand different blockchains or Gas, that is, the network fees required for on-chain operations. We are already working on reducing the burden related to these operations but still have room for improvement.

Moreover, the connections between payments, wealth management, and trading should be seamless. For instance, when users receive tokenized stock rewards after consumption and then want to redeem these rewards, the entire process should be smooth.

We hope users can utilize these functions naturally according to their funding needs. For everyday users, they just want to receive money, make a payment, or purchase an asset, without needing to understand the complex technologies and procedures behind it.

This is also the direction in which we continuously seek to improve the wallet experience.