As the crypto landscape evolves at breakneck speed, wallets have matured from basic asset holders into dynamic platforms driving onboarding, DeFi, NFTs, gaming, and more. The ‘Crypto Wallets 2025’ report by Dune offers a panoramic view of where the industry stands today and where it’s headed.
Key Highlights at a Glance
1.6B+ Wallets created across chains, showing explosive growth (driven largely by airdrops and gas subsidies).
8 out of 10 wallets ever created were minted since 2022.
Thematic shift from generic to specialized wallets: Smart contract wallets, gaming wallets, social wallets, and L2-native wallets are on the rise.
Solana leads in active users and retention, with 54% of daily active wallets in 2024.
Account Abstraction (AA) is finally becoming real, with ERC-4337 wallets now outpacing EOAs monthly on Ethereum.
Airdrops remain a primary growth lever, but retention post-airdrop is still a major challenge.
Mobile-first UX and embedded wallets in apps (e.g., Farcaster, gaming) are dominating onboarding flows.
Growth by the Numbers
Total Wallets: 1.68 billion (EOAs + contract wallets). However, this number is not the same as active users.
EOAs still dominate in terms of creation, but contract wallets are seeing stronger recent momentum.
Smart Contract Wallet Growth:
ERC-4337 wallets surpassed EOAs monthly in Q1 2024.
Notable players: Safe, Biconomy, Alchemy, and Stacks.
Nigeria’s Prominent Share: 12.7%
Nigeria’s commanding 12.7% share of MetaMask users places it as the most significant national market among all listed countries. This dominance can be attributed to:
A thriving crypto economy: Nigeria continues to lead Africa in crypto adoption, driven by inflation concerns, currency devaluation, and limited access to traditional banking.
Youth-driven innovation: A digitally savvy and entrepreneurial youth population is increasingly turning to decentralized tools for income, savings, and investment.
Policy pressures and alternatives: Regulatory crackdowns on centralized exchanges may have nudged users toward self-custodial wallets like MetaMask.
2025 |
The @MetaMask wallet leads in #Nigeria with 71% of users and 75% of wallet funds
In emerging markets, Nigeria leads in user share. However, Nigeria’s balance contribution is minimal at 0.1%, reinforcing its role as an onboarding tool rather than capital store. pic.twitter.com/G8BNjdqxB4
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) May 18, 2025
Implications for Africa
Africa is not monolithic, but Nigeria’s leadership suggests the region is ripe for deeper Web3 engagement.
The absence of other African nations in the top ten could be a reflection of either data aggregation under “Other” or comparatively lower wallet usage in those countries.
Given the continent’s demographic trends, Africa may represent the next major growth wave for wallet providers—especially non-custodial solutions.
Strategic Takeaways
Emerging Markets Drive Wallet GrowthCountries like Nigeria, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam – many of which face economic instability or limited financial infrastructure—are outpacing developed nations in wallet adoption.
Fragmented Global LandscapeWith nearly half of all users grouped under “Other,” MetaMask’s reach is vast but dispersed. This fragmentation opens up opportunities for regional strategies and local ecosystem building.
Africa Needs Dedicated InfrastructureNigeria’s dominance points to a demand for tailored solutions in Africa—local language support, fiat on-ramps, and better mobile integrations.
Ecosystem Deep Dives
Solana
Dominates active wallets, with over half of daily active wallets in 2024.
Solana’s mobile-first ecosystem (via Backpack, Phantom, Dialect) contributes to stronger user engagement.
Better retention than EVM chains post-airdrop.
Ethereum & L2s
Home to the most contract wallet innovation, especially on Base and Optimism.
Base in particular shows fast user acquisition driven by friend.tech, Farcaster, and embedded AA wallets.
Polygon sees a high number of wallets but lower retention.
Bitcoin
Wallet count is large, but lacks interactivity and user stickiness.
Ordinal wallet growth (via UniSat, OKX, and Xverse) surging but still nascent.
Smart Contract Wallets & AA: Breaking the UX Barrier
Account Abstraction (AA) is moving from concept to reality.
ERC-4337 adoption is growing rapidly, enabled by gasless transactions and social recovery.
Benefits of AA:
Better UX: no seed phrases, gasless transactions, programmable permissions.
Onboarding: embedded wallets make app-specific access seamless.
Expect wallets to disappear into the background as onboarding becomes app-native.
Airdrops: Growth Hack or Pitfall?
Airdrop incentives remain a major growth strategy for wallet and chain launches.
But most users churn quickly after claiming.
Solana-based airdrops have better retention than EVM-based ones.
Future of airdrops may rely on reputation systems or in-app engagement (e.g., Farcaster badges).
UX Is King: Mobile & Embedded Wallets Win
The era of seed phrases is ending.
Users are onboarding through:
Embedded wallets in apps like friend.tech, fantasy.top, Farcaster.
Mobile-native wallets with passkey or social login (e.g., Backpack, Phantom, OKX).
“Invisible wallets” are a hot trend – users don’t even know they’re creating one.
Security & Compliance Trends
As wallets become programmable, security risks grow.
New wallet tech needs auditing, monitoring, and threat detection tools.
Compliance features like KYT and KYC integrations are expanding in institutional wallets.
The Future of Wallets
Dune’s report outlines a few clear directions:
Embedded & Invisible Wallets: App-native onboarding flows.
Wallet-as-Platform: Smart wallets powering identity, messaging, commerce, and gaming.
Social & Onchain Reputation: Wallets tied to behavior, badges, and network trust.
Programmable Finance: Wallets with built-in automation for DeFi, DAOs, and beyond.
Multi-chain, Modular UX: Wallets abstracting chains, letting users focus on experiences.
TL;DR Takeaways for Builders and Investors
User acquisition ≠ retention – airdrops can only take you so far.
Mobile and embedded wallets offer the best UX; invest here.
ERC-4337 and AA wallets are not hype – they are scaling quickly.
Design for context: gaming wallets differ from DeFi wallets.
App-native onboarding is the next growth frontier.
The Dune “Crypto Wallets 2025” report isn’t just about numbers – it’s a window into the future of user experience in crypto. As onboarding moves toward invisibility and apps take control of wallet UX, the industry is poised for mainstream adoption – if it can crack the code on retention, security, and cross-app utility.
Wallets aren’t just keys anymore. They’re the OS of web3.
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