When you open a crypto app today, you might not think twice about how your wallet connects, how permissions are granted, or how your session remains alive across networks. Yet behind that seamless experience sits a protocol that quietly became one of the most universal layers of Web3 — WalletConnect. In 2025, it is no longer just a bridge between wallets and dApps; it has evolved into an entire network economy, a governance-driven infrastructure, and a payments rail that redefines how digital value moves across blockchains.
WalletConnect began with one simple mission: to make connections between wallets and decentralized applications universal, secure, and open. It was a technical fix for what felt like a UX nightmare in early DeFi — QR codes, deep links, disconnections, multiple network errors. But that early infrastructure has now scaled into something far larger. The network has surpassed 352 million cumulative connections, more than 51 million unique wallets, and over 74 thousand applications integrated. These are not just numbers; they’re proof of how deeply WalletConnect has embedded itself into the architecture of the decentralized web.
The transition from protocol to network is the most fascinating chapter in the project’s evolution. The WalletConnect Network introduced the $WCT token, a multi-chain governance asset representing ownership and participation in the protocol’s future. More than 49 thousand + stakers have already locked 121 million WCT, anchoring the system’s governance, staking incentives, and decision-making processes. The goal isn’t just decentralization for its own sake — it’s about establishing an autonomous infrastructure that scales across chains and ecosystems without dependence on any single authority or company.
2025 has marked a pivotal shift toward payments and usability. The partnership with DTCPay, one of Asia’s emerging crypto-friendly payment providers, signals WalletConnect’s entry into real-world merchant adoption. It’s a simple but powerful message: crypto payments shouldn’t feel experimental anymore. The integration brings stablecoin payments to retail and hospitality — payroll, vendor transactions, B2B settlements — transforming what was once a developer-centric protocol into a bridge between on-chain liquidity and real-world commerce. The expansion is not limited to any one blockchain either; the entire premise remains chain-agnostic. Whether you’re using a Solana wallet, an EVM-based app, or even a Bitcoin-layer integration, the same WalletConnect infrastructure ensures that your on-chain identity and transactional permissions stay portable.
The broader narrative here ties directly into the product vision known as Smart Sessions. This feature represents a leap from simple connectivity to programmable authorization. Instead of repeatedly approving every single transaction, users can define boundaries and rules — giving apps or even AI agents the ability to act on their behalf within predefined limits. Imagine delegating your DeFi yield strategy to an autonomous script that can rebalance portfolios, claim rewards, or stake tokens under precise constraints, all without needing constant wallet pop-ups. This is the kind of UX evolution that pushes crypto toward mainstream utility: reducing friction while preserving self-custody and security.
Another major step this year has been WalletConnect Certified, a quality-assurance initiative that recognizes wallets meeting top standards in security, user experience, and protocol integration. The crypto space has long struggled with fragmentation — hundreds of wallets, inconsistent flows, varying encryption practices. The Certified program establishes a kind of “Visa-like” trust mark in Web3: if your wallet carries the WalletConnect Certified label, it signals to users that this product is audited, optimized, and compliant with network-wide best practices. Round 2 of certifications included players like Fireblocks, BitPay, xPortal, Bitcoin.com, and others — reflecting how seriously institutions and developers now take WalletConnect’s role as the backbone of multi-chain connectivity.
If we step back and look at the 2025 metrics, WalletConnect has reached the scale of a global network operator. In May 2025 it recorded 309 million + connections, and by September that figure had already climbed beyond 352 million. The growth isn’t just horizontal — it’s vertical integration. Through SDKs, APIs, and permission standards, WalletConnect has become a default layer for Web3 apps on mobile, desktop, and browser. Its presence stretches across DeFi protocols, NFT marketplaces, Layer 2 rollups, gaming environments, and even emerging AI-driven dApps that use on-chain credentials for identity and execution.
A central pillar of the ecosystem’s momentum comes from its governance design. The WalletConnect Foundation has consistently emphasized the shift toward on-chain decision-making. In 2025, that means DAO proposals, validator systems, and transparent fee structures are now part of the live roadmap. The grants program funds community builders and third-party infrastructure projects that expand WalletConnect beyond its original codebase. This combination of top-down reliability and bottom-up participation makes it one of the few crypto infrastructures that successfully balance corporate-grade professionalism with decentralized autonomy.
The WCT token’s expansion to Solana has been another signal moment. By forming partnerships with Phantom, Jupiter, Solflare, Backpack, and Solana Mobile, WalletConnect effectively unified user experience across two of the world’s biggest blockchain ecosystems — EVM and Solana. In practice, this means users can access the same dApp using a Solana wallet as easily as an Ethereum wallet, with no re-integration required from developers. That single design choice has ripple effects across liquidity, cross-chain composability, and wallet UX. The protocol quietly erases tribal boundaries between blockchains, enabling a universal “connect once, use anywhere” flow that feels almost web-native.
Marketing and community alignment have kept pace with the technology. On X (formerly Twitter), WalletConnect’s posts frame the brand not as a B2B SDK provider but as a symbol of trust — “as recognizable as Visa at checkout.” That line has resonated widely because it captures what WalletConnect has become: a connective icon, not a background service. When over 275 million + connections and 45 million + users interact through your protocol, you start to embody the infrastructure status of a Visa or Mastercard for decentralized networks. Yet, unlike those legacy systems, WalletConnect does it without custody, without data collection, and without centralized control.
The deeper innovation lies in the data architecture. Every connection in WalletConnect v2.0 is encrypted end-to-end using symmetric session keys, not server-stored credentials. This ensures that user data never leaves their control, and sessions can move across devices seamlessly without relying on a single backend. This architectural choice is crucial for the Web3 era, where privacy and decentralization must coexist with scalability. As AI agents begin to interact with blockchain systems — executing trades, handling digital identities, or automating creative royalties — protocols like WalletConnect form the trust fabric that enables such interactions securely.
The economic layer of the network continues to mature as well. With 121 million WCT staked, participants earn yield, gain voting power, and secure the network’s reliability through decentralized relayers. Fee-structure updates planned for late 2025 will direct more of the network’s value accrual to stakers and active nodes, strengthening the token’s role as a functional utility asset rather than a passive speculative one. Analysts do note that over 90 percent of total supply remains locked, which could create volatility when future unlocks occur, but the governance structure seems designed to manage these transitions with community oversight and transparent distribution schedules.
Where things get particularly interesting is WalletConnect’s growing intersection with AI and mobile adoption. The Smart Sessions design perfectly complements the emerging wave of AI assistants and agents that can interact with on-chain systems. Imagine granting an AI model permission to perform micro-transactions, pay for cloud compute, or manage digital subscriptions — all via WalletConnect’s permission framework. This is where Web3 meets AI in a practical, scalable way. Instead of speculative “AI coins,” this is functional integration: WalletConnect provides the rails for autonomous systems to participate in crypto ecosystems responsibly.
From a macro perspective, WalletConnect is positioning itself as a neutral layer of connectivity, not a competitor to wallets or dApps. It’s the protocol that everyone builds upon — from giants like MetaMask and Trust Wallet to new entrants experimenting with account abstraction or zk-based authentication. The phrase “connect with WalletConnect” has become almost a UX standard, a default expectation of interoperability. This ubiquity is both a technical achievement and a strategic moat. The more chains, wallets, and apps integrate it, the harder it becomes for any alternative standard to displace it.
Culturally, the brand has evolved too. WalletConnect no longer speaks only to developers; it communicates directly with the community through initiatives like Ecosystem Edit, Certified campaigns, and educational series about secure connection practices. These aren’t marketing gimmicks — they’re ecosystem-shaping narratives. Each “Edit” showcases metrics, integrations, and success stories, turning technical progress into shared milestones. It’s a subtle but effective form of network branding: every new connection, wallet, or certified app becomes part of a collective story of on-chain growth.
What makes this period so critical is that the entire Web3 industry is shifting focus. The 2020–2023 cycle was about speculation and liquidity. The 2024–2026 cycle is about infrastructure maturity — payments, identity, governance, and agent-based automation. WalletConnect sits at the intersection of all these verticals. It powers payments through DTCPay, identity through persistent sessions, governance through $WCT staking, and automation through Smart Sessions. It’s not loud, but it’s everywhere — the silent layer holding Web3’s connective tissue together.
As more regulators clarify rules for stablecoins and on-chain payments, the timing of WalletConnect’s payments pivot couldn’t be better. Stablecoin payrolls, vendor settlements, and retail acceptance are the logical next steps for digital assets. By embedding stablecoin logic directly into the same session layer users already trust for connecting wallets, WalletConnect bypasses the friction that often kills adoption. You don’t need a new app, a new wallet, or a centralized processor. You just need the same connect flow — and suddenly you can pay, get paid, and transact globally with finality and transparency.
Looking forward, the governance model will determine how sustainable this growth remains. The DAO transition, ongoing grants, and modular fee structures give WCT holders genuine influence. Instead of treating governance as a checkbox, the Foundation is structuring it as a living network economy where every connection generates value feedback into the system. The endgame is clear: to evolve WalletConnect from protocol to public utility — an open-source, self-sustaining network owned by its participants.
In a crypto landscape crowded with hype cycles, WalletConnect represents a refreshing constant: substance over speculation. Its value is measurable not in price charts but in connections each representing a user, a wallet, a transaction, a moment of trust between decentralized systems. That’s why it continues to attract both enterprise partners and grassroots developers. It’s infrastructure that doesn’t ask for attention, but earns it through reliability.
By late 2025, as on-chain adoption accelerates and AI agents begin transacting autonomously, the world will quietly depend on protocols like WalletConnect. It will be the invisible infrastructure ensuring that every transaction — human or machine is authorized, encrypted, and interoperable. In that sense, WalletConnect isn’t just the past and present of Web3 connectivity. It’s the protocol writing the future of how everything connects.
