[TL;DR]

• In 2025, Coinbase rebranded “Coinbase Wallet” to Base App, shifting to a Web3 super app that unifies social, payments, and trading.
• Just as Toss grew from simple money transfers into a platform for all things finance, Base App is evolving beyond a wallet into a daily-life platform via a Farcaster-based social feed and the Base Pay payments rail.
• With the rise of WaaS, social platforms, games, and commerce companies can add crypto features without building wallet tech from scratch—accelerating the Web3 super-app race.
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1. The Birth of the Super App — Toss’s Playbook

1.1 From Easy Transfers to a Finance Platform

Back in 2015, Toss launched as a simple money-transfer app. Korean financial services were mired in cumbersome public certificates and ActiveX; even a single transfer required multiple steps. Toss attacked this problem precisely. It replaced account numbers with phone numbers, removed the need for public certificates, and made transfers possible with just a few taps.

A single killer feature executed flawlessly pulled users in. With only transfers, Toss reached 1 million users by late 2016 and 5 million in 2017. Competitors like Kakao Pay and Naver Pay existed, but Toss obsessed over the transfer experience itself: the fastest, simplest, most intuitive way to send money.

People installed Toss for transfers, but every time they opened the app, they saw a consolidated asset view and could compare card perks. Transfer histories were auto-organized, and linked account balances updated in real time. The “transfer app” steadily morphed into a financial hub. Users came to send money, then found themselves checking their financial status and discovering better products.

Toss then expanded out from transfers. With Toss Bank it added banking; with Toss Securities it added investing; with Toss Payments it built the payments rail. Each service worked independently yet connected seamlessly through one account in one app. Users could buy stocks, enroll in insurance, or take out loans—without installing another app or leaving Toss.

As of 2025, Toss has over 30 million users and is a bona fide super app. Transfers—its starting point—are now just one piece. Toss’s journey from transfer app to a platform for managing all financial life is the super-app playbook: begin with one perfect feature, then integrate everything users need.
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1.2 One App for Your Entire Financial Life

Toss’s growth strategy follows a clear pattern: put the most frequent user task at the center and arrange adjacent services around it. While viewing transfer records, users naturally check card perks; while checking balances, they compare savings products. Moving between features never requires leaving the app, so users start financial activities they hadn’t planned—right inside Toss.

The core was vertical integration. Toss didn’t stop at brokering others’ products; it built a bank, a brokerage, and a payments infrastructure. That let Toss design the entire experience end-to-end and freely connect data across services. Transfer histories auto-populate the household ledger; spending patterns drive personalized product recommendations—thanks to this tight integration.

This integration delivers more than convenience. Toss analyzes users’ financial data holistically to support better decisions—suggesting ways to save and recommending portfolios based on asset composition. Such experiences weren’t possible when services were scattered. The value emerges when all activities converge on one platform.

Toss has also moved beyond finance. Insurance, shopping, community—lifestyle services built on financial data. Toss Mini-apps are the latest step: external partners can offer services inside Toss. Without installing separate apps, users can order delivery, hail taxis, or book hotels—all within Toss. Even services Toss didn’t build now live inside its ecosystem.

The lesson is simple: build a powerful entry point and surround it with everything users need, and they’ll have no reason to leave. Transfers were that entry point, finance the first expansion, lifestyle the next. Users still open one app, but the scope of what they can do inside it keeps growing. That’s how a super app works.
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1.3 In Web3, the Starting Point Is Also Finance

Blockchain and Web3 promise many things, but the clearest use case remains finance. Swapping tokens on DEXs, depositing into DeFi protocols, trading NFTs—at the center is moving and managing assets. Like Toss starting with easy transfers, Web3 apps use finance as the on-ramp.

For most, the first Web3 experience is a token trade: install MetaMask, buy ETH, then swap on Uniswap. It seems complex, but the essence is simple—send, receive, exchange assets. As transfers were Toss’s killer feature, token swaps are Web3’s first killer feature.

Web3 finance differs from TradFi: assets are managed by wallet addresses, transactions execute via smart contracts without centralized intermediaries, and there are no borders or banking hours. That lets Web3 blend remittance, FX, and investing into one flow. What took Toss years to bundle into one app is, in Web3, the default design.

Where Toss achieved vertical integration by building a bank and brokerage, Web3 starts integrated. One wallet account manages assets across chains and handles trading and investing in the same interface. There’s no journey from “transfer app” to “finance platform”—you can design as a unified finance platform from day one. A single wallet is enough.

This Toss-like journey is now underway in Web3. Wallet apps once meant for storage are evolving into super apps that fuse trading, payments, social, and games. At the forefront is Base App. Coinbase built its own L2, redefined the wallet as a social platform, and is probing the Web3 super-app frontier—starting, like Toss, from finance.
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2. Base App — The Rise of a Web3 Super App

2.1 The Meaning of the Rebrand

In July 2025, Coinbase rebranded “Coinbase Wallet” to Base App—a statement of intent. Dropping “wallet” signaled a strategic shift: from asset storage tool to a platform for living in Web3.

Coinbase announced this at its “A New Day One” event, reorganizing the Base ecosystem around three pillars: the Base Chain (L2 network), Base Build (developer support), and the Base App (consumer entry point). Chain, dev tools, and consumer app operate as one ecosystem—leveraging Ethereum’s infrastructure while forming an independent economic zone.

Since launching in 2023, Base Chain grew quickly—low fees and fast throughput attracted DeFi and NFT projects; by 2024 it ranked among the top five L2s by TVL. But a chain alone wasn’t enough. Most users shouldn’t have to think about chains at all; they need a natural entry to the Base ecosystem. That role fell to Base App.

The rebrand signals Coinbase’s evolution from exchange to platform company. Beyond centralized trading, the goal is to connect users directly to the on-chain economy. Base App becomes the bridge: buy assets on Coinbase, use them in Base App, settle on Base Chain—a unified journey.

If Toss expanded from a transfer app into a finance platform, Coinbase is expanding from an exchange into a Web3 lifestyle platform. Base App is the spearhead. By dropping the word “wallet,” Coinbase reframed itself as a super-app builder, not just a crypto company.
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2.2 Delivering a Unified Experience

Base App integrates social, payments, and trading into one flow. You might browse a friend’s post, mint the NFT, swap a token, and pay at a physical store—without leaving the app.

Social runs on the Farcaster protocol. Users post to a feed, mint posts as NFTs via Zora, and receive tips or sales proceeds. Creators monetize directly and can earn weekly rewards. Social media itself becomes a revenue platform. You can also see friends’ on-chain activity in real time—what tokens they bought or NFTs they minted.

Payments combine NFC one-tap USDC and Base Pay. Base Pay offers fast USDC checkout that merchants can activate on Shopify. Shoppers pay with stablecoins for real-world goods; 1% cashback for U.S. consumers is slated from late 2025. As Toss entered one-tap payments with Toss Pay, Base Pay is laying the Web3 payments rail.

Trading happens in-app. No need to jump to an external DeFi UI; swaps execute within the Base App interface. See a friend buy a token? You can purchase from the same screen. Social and trading aren’t siloed—they’re one continuum, making investment decisions an extension of community engagement.

Base App also embeds hundreds of mini-apps—games, prediction markets, and more. Like Toss’s mini-apps, Base App pulls the dApp ecosystem inside the app. Users chat securely via XMTP, interact with AI agents, and swap tokens they’ve earned in games—all with one app and one account.
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2.3 The Business Model — Sustaining the Super App

Base App’s monetization is multi-layered. The most direct is trading fees from in-app swaps. More users and more transactions mean more revenue—akin to Toss’s transfer and product fees.

Every on-chain action on Base Chain—minting NFTs, buying in-game items, prediction markets—incurs gas fees, which accrue to the chain and ultimately to Coinbase. Owning an L2 is a structural strength: by operating the infrastructure, Coinbase captures value from economic activity across the ecosystem.

Base Pay adds payments revenue. With Shopify integration, Coinbase can collect per-transaction fees while offering merchants lower costs than cards—compounding into economies of scale as volume grows. The 1% cashback is a user-acquisition investment, but the long-term play is building a durable payments ecosystem.

There’s also potential in ads and promotions. A social feed with millions of users becomes valuable real estate for token projects and NFT collections. As Toss diversified revenue via product recommendations and affiliate channels, Base App can serve as a marketing conduit for its ecosystem—carefully, so as not to harm UX.

Most importantly, success creates ecosystem value uplift. A thriving Base App drives more activity on Base Chain, which in turn feeds Base App growth. In this flywheel, Coinbase captures platform-level value beyond exchange fees. With on-chain activity data, Base can unlock new services—diversifying revenue is crucial to super-app durability.
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3. The Technology Layers Powering a Super App

3.1 What Toss Built

Toss’s super-app status rests on invisible infrastructure. Even simple transfers required integrating multiple bank APIs, building real-time rails, supporting identity without public certificates, running 24/7 server infrastructure, and deploying fraud prevention at scale. Users saw a few taps; behind that were complex stacks.

As Toss expanded, the infrastructure multiplied. Toss Bank meant building an entire banking system; Toss Securities required a securities trading stack. Each vertical had distinct regulations and security standards. Toss spent years building and integrating it all.

A unified data layer was the heart of Toss’s super app—transfer histories, card spend, account balances, and portfolios handled in one system to deliver an integrated experience. Real-time sync and analytics powered personalized recommendations; behind a clean UI, dozens of systems intercommunicated.

Toss Payments posed further challenges—processing online/offline payments in real time, settling, and interfacing with card networks and PGs, all reliably and fast. Internalizing this capability laid the groundwork for a finance super app.

Finally, the Toss mini-app platform exposed secure interfaces to partners—identity, payments, and user reach—while Toss took platform fees. Designing a secure yet developer-friendly platform required significant engineering. Becoming a super app meant building these layers one by one.
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3.2 Base Account — The Core Super-App Infrastructure

Everything in Base App revolves around the Base Account, a smart wallet. When a user signs up, a Base Account is created automatically. With this one account, users do social, payments, trading, games—just as a single Toss account spans all financial services.

Base Account isn’t just an address—it leverages account abstraction (AA). Instead of managing private keys directly, users can access with social login or biometrics, recover accounts, sponsor gas, or pay fees in alternative tokens. It’s Web2-grade UX in Web3.

The account works across chains, not just on Base. Users manage Ethereum mainnet assets and interact with dApps on other L2s—all from Base App. Cross-chain infra and Base Account integration abstract chain complexity away from users.

Base Account also functions as an identity layer. Social activity, transaction history, and NFT holdings link to the account. Others can verify someone’s on-chain footprint to gauge trust. Like financial data piling up in Toss, Web3 activity data accumulates in Base Accounts—fueling personalization, credit signals, and communities.

Without Base Account, Base App’s unified experience wouldn’t be possible. Binding social and trading into a single flow, one-tap payments, and secure data sharing across mini-apps all depend on it. Where Toss unified finance via a single account, Base binds Web3 via a smart wallet—the unseen core of the super app.
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3.3 An Alternate Path in Web3: WaaS

Where Toss spent years building core finance infra, Web3 companies have another option: Wallet-as-a-Service (WaaS). Instead of building wallet tech, teams can use specialized providers. Base App itself leverages such infra for parts of its wallet stack, and many Web3 projects ship faster using WaaS.

WaaS addresses hard, risky problems: key management, multisig, AA, multichain support. Small mistakes can cost users’ assets. Providers expose these capabilities via APIs so teams can focus on their core—social, games, commerce—while WaaS handles the wallet.

A social platform adding post monetization, for example, can integrate in days with WaaS: auto-create wallets on social login, settle earnings automatically, and avoid exposing users to key management complexity.

Game studios can link game accounts to wallets, mint items as NFTs, run on-chain marketplaces, and automate token rewards—without building wallet tech. That accelerates timelines and reduces risk.

Commerce platforms can accept crypto by integrating WaaS-based checkout (think Shopify). Buyers pay via an interface like Base Pay; merchants receive stablecoins or fiat. In Web3, WaaS plays the Toss Payments role.
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3.4 Preconditions for the Super-App Era

Super apps require mature infrastructure. Toss benefited from improved Korean finance APIs and Open Banking—enabling aggregation and integration in one app. Without infra, Toss couldn’t have happened.

So too for Web3. With stable L2s like Base, standardized account abstraction, and mature WaaS, plus safe bridges, low fees, and fast finality, Base App is possible because the infra layer has advanced.

Web3 teams can now move faster. Rather than building wallets or their own chains, they can compose services. Infra has been modularized and productized, lowering barriers to building super apps and letting teams focus on UX. But infra alone isn’t enough: as with Toss, strategy and execution determine how social, payments, and trading are integrated into a single experience.

Two essentials define this era: (1) a mature infra layer; (2) the capability to design integrated experiences atop it. Toss built on finance infra; Base App builds on Web3 infra. Infra maturity sets the starting line for the super-app race—and that starting line now exists in Web3.
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4. Analysis: What It Takes for a Web3 Super App to Win

4.1 Shared Strategies Between Toss and Base App

Despite different domains, Toss and Base App share a playbook. Both began with one clear entry point. Toss led with transfers; Base App attracts users through a social feed with direct content monetization. Rather than dumping complexity on users, each perfected a single, essential feature first.

Then they mapped natural expansion paths. Toss grew from transfers to account views, card management, investing, and lending—each independent yet connected. Base App is expanding from social to trading, payments, and games. See a friend’s post, buy the NFT, swap the token, pay at a store.

Both pursued ecosystem building. Toss invited partners via mini-apps; Base App integrates hundreds of dApps. Not everything is built in-house—platforms are opened so developers and businesses can participate, expanding what users can do inside one app.

Monetization is multi-sourced. Toss mixes transfer fees, product distribution, payments, and ads; Base App leverages trading fees, chain gas, payments, and ecosystem value capture. As usage scales, revenue scales.

Critically, both hinge on a unified account system. One account connects all services, reduces switching costs, enables data accumulation and personalization, and smooths service transitions. The core of any super app is integrated accounts and data.
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4.2 The Key Difference: Who Owns the Infrastructure

The biggest difference is infrastructure ownership. Toss operates atop existing finance—banks, brokerages, card networks—connecting APIs or creating regulated entities and integrating them.

Coinbase, by contrast, operates its own L2 with Base Chain—owning and controlling the financial infrastructure. Activity in Base App executes on Base Chain, and gas flows to Coinbase. Instead of paying fees to others, Base monetizes its own infra—platform and infrastructure vertically integrated.

This affects scalability. Toss moves within regulatory and legacy constraints; new products require approvals and partnerships. Base App can move faster—deploy a smart contract to launch a product, upgrade a protocol to improve the system.

Risks differ too. Toss benefits from the relative stability of traditional rails. Base App’s dependency on Base Chain means chain-level security or reliability issues could impact the app. Owning infra raises control—and responsibility.

User onboarding friction also differs. Toss extends an existing world—users already have bank accounts. Base App asks users to enter a new economic system. Account abstraction and social login lower friction, but it remains higher than Toss.
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4.3 What Determines Success

First, early user acquisition. Toss’s clear value proposition (easy transfers) drove rapid growth and network effects. Base App draws creators and communities with social monetization. The initial wedge shapes later expansion.

Second, cross-service synergies. Each Toss service is valuable alone but stronger together—transfers feed the ledger, spending analytics drive investing, credit data improves lending. Base ties social to trading and to payments—community-driven investing meets real-world commerce.

Third, ecosystem incentives. Toss partners reach 30M users; Base dApp builders benefit from low fees and fast throughput. Growth benefits participants, and more participants boost platform value—a positive-sum loop.

Fourth, regulatory posture. Toss operates within finance regulation, which both constrains and underpins trust. Base App runs in a less-defined environment; eventual frameworks will shape its model.

Fifth, continuous improvement. Toss ships fast, iterates often. Base App launched in beta with the same intent. Super apps aren’t one-and-done; they evolve with users and markets.
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4.4 The Hurdles for Web3 Super Apps

First, mass adoption. Toss is accessible to anyone; Base App still skews crypto-native. Users must be able to use it without understanding keys, gas, or chains. AA and social login help, but there’s more to do.

Second, real-world integration. Toss covers offline payments, insurance, loans. Base App’s Base Pay moves toward real-world checkout, but merchant acceptance remains limited. To be a true lifestyle platform, on-chain actions must connect smoothly to offline life.

Third, stability and security. Toss rests on mature rails; Base App depends on blockchain infra. Contract bugs, hacks, or congestion can degrade UX or cause losses. Robust engineering and asset protection are essential.

Fourth, sustainable economics. Toss proved profitability; Base App is early. Rewards, cashback, and low fees attract users but can burn cash. The ecosystem must naturally generate revenue as it scales—finding that balance is hard.

Fifth, competition. Toss faced Kakao Pay and Naver Pay but won via differentiated UX. In Web3, Base App faces evolving wallets and new entrants. Maintaining clear differentiation and a first-mover edge is critical.
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4.5 The Essence of a Super-App Strategy

Beyond stacks and models, super apps compete for user time and attention: keep users in one app longer, handle more of their tasks, eliminate reasons to switch.

That requires meaningful integration, not just feature piling. Transfers and investing in one app don’t make a super app unless transfer data informs investment, returns flow into spending, and so on. Base App similarly fuses social and trading so that community drives investment.

Ultimately, a super app creates platform gravity. Toss uses financial data gravity; Base builds gravity from social graphs and asset data. The more a user accrues data in-platform, the harder it is to leave—personalization improves, network effects strengthen, and switching costs rise.

For Web3 super apps, two conditions sum it up: deliver Web2-grade UX while preserving Web3 advantages, and secure a path to expand beyond finance into daily life. If Base App achieves both, it can become the “Toss of Web3.”
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5. Conclusion: The End of the Wallet App, the Start of the Super App

5.1 From Wallet to Platform

After 2025, users won’t say “I use a wallet app.” They’ll say “I use Base” or “I use Phantom.” Losing the “wallet” label isn’t semantics; it marks a shift from custody tool to lifestyle platform. As Toss evolved from transfers to finance, Web3 wallets are evolving into platforms.

A wallet becomes a precondition, not the product. As a bank account underpins Toss, a Base Account underpins Base App. Users don’t think about the wallet; they browse social, message friends, trade tokens, and pay in stores. Keys, gas, and chain choices are abstracted away.

This shift accelerates with WaaS. As every app can embed wallet capability, wallets themselves commoditize. The differentiation moves up the stack—what experiences are built on top. Base App chose social and payments; others may choose games or content. Wallet tech commoditizes; services differentiate.

And as Toss proved, with a strong entry point and integrated experience, users don’t leave. In Web3, the same pattern is emerging. Base App pulls users in via a social feed, then handles finance within that flow. Users come for community—and along the way, they trade, pay, and invest.

The questions now are: who will build the defining Web3 super app, and which killer feature will be the wedge? The wallet-only era is ending; the platform era is beginning. The form factor is still being written.
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5.2 Hunting for the Web3 Super App’s Killer Feature

Toss’s killer feature was easy transfers. What is Web3’s? Base App bets on social + content monetization: creators earn directly from posts, communities see verifiable on-chain activity, Farcaster’s social graph merges with Zora minting so social becomes a revenue platform. Will that be mainstream enough?

There are other candidates. Games could be the wedge: if items and tokens earned in Web3 games are real assets usable across titles and platforms, gamers will enter Web3 organically—accumulating assets that power other services. Phantom is already growing around Solana’s gaming community.

Payments are another. If crypto checkout with cashback is slick enough, users may replace cards—especially across borders, where Web3’s strengths are clear. Traveling without FX hassles, shopping abroad without fees—payments could be the entry point.

Don’t overlook community and identity. With on-chain history as reputation and credit, users will want to manage their Web3 identities. Which NFTs they hold, which projects they support, what trades they’ve made—public and verifiable. Base Account can be that identity layer, and identity can become the platform’s gravity.

There won’t be a single answer. Multiple wedges will coexist—social for some, games for others, payments for yet others—all converging in the same platform. The wedge gets users in; the integrated experience keeps them.
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5.3 How WaaS Reshapes Competition

WaaS is democratizing the super-app race. Social, gaming, and commerce platforms can now add wallet capabilities in days, pay users in tokens, and accept crypto without deep crypto engineering. What took Toss years in TradFi, Web3 apps can assemble in weeks via WaaS.

That means many verticals can spawn super apps: a social platform using WaaS becomes a social super app; a game studio using WaaS becomes a game super app. Each leverages its native strengths, adds finance, expands an ecosystem, and retains users. Base App is an early example; more will follow.

Take commerce: a Shopify store integrating WaaS checkout can accept crypto, reward buyers with tokens, add NFT memberships, token-based discounts, and community governance—evolving into Web3 commerce. Base Pay + Shopify already points this way.

Content platforms could do the same. If YouTube integrated WaaS, creators would get direct token rewards; viewers could tip, buy NFT exclusives, and join governance. Where Base fuses social with finance, legacy platforms can add finance to become Web3 super apps. WaaS lowers the barrier.

WaaS provides infra—but what it unlocks is strategic freedom. Teams skip wallet R&D and build Web3 experiences on their core value. More competition, more variety in super-app forms. Base is just the first signal.
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5.4 Outstanding Questions

Who wins? A centralized exchange like Coinbase with Base App? An independent wallet? A new entrant? Are chain-native apps advantaged, or will multichain prevail? The market hasn’t decided.

Regulation remains uncertain. Toss grew under clear rules that also fostered trust. What frameworks will govern Web3 super apps? Stricter rules could constrain growth—but also enable mainstream acceptance.

User behavior must evolve. Web3 asks users to self-custody, accept transparency, and participate in community governance—new habits vs. Toss’s optimization of existing ones. AA and social login narrow the gap, but mass adoption takes time.

Technical limits still exist. Can blockchains serve hundreds of millions seamlessly? Will fees stay low? Will cross-chain feel truly invisible? L2s like Base help, but Toss-level reliability and speed require further advances.

Finally, profitability. Toss proved it over time. Can Web3 super apps transition from incentives to sustainable unit economics? Ecosystem value capture helps, but it can’t be the only leg to stand on.
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5.5 A New Journey Begins

Base App’s launch is the starting gun for the Web3 super-app race. Coinbase aims to be a platform company, forging a new economy via Base Chain and Base App. As Toss reshaped financial life starting from transfers, Base App aims to reshape Web3 life starting from social.

Wallets are no longer mere vaults; they’re morphing into lifestyle platforms fusing social, payments, games, and communities. WaaS accelerates the shift and widens participation. As infra matures, UX improves, and regulation clarifies, the Web3 super-app era will fully arrive. Base App is the opening salvo.

As Toss demonstrated, super apps aren’t built overnight. They start with one killer feature, earn trust, expand services, and cultivate ecosystems. Base App has taken the first step—attracting users via a social feed, delivering unified experiences via Base Account, and anchoring on Base Chain. Coinbase’s decade of execution and the Base ecosystem’s momentum support this journey.

2025 may be remembered as year one of the Web3 super app. The wallet-only era is ending; the platform era has begun. Whether Base becomes “the Toss of Web3,” or a challenger rises, one thing is clear: users won’t look for “wallet apps.” They’ll look for platforms where they connect with friends, enjoy content, manage assets, and pay in the real world. The super-app era has begun—Web3 is now walking the path Toss paved.