Open, Check, Repeat: Crypto Super Apps Want Your Daily Banking Habit

Crypto platforms are expanding into “super apps” that place token trading alongside payments and borrowing as they seek a larger role in customers’ everyday financial lives. ChangeNOW’s director of strategic partnerships, Martin Masser, discussed the model at TOKEN2049 in Singapore, while Kaiko’s 2026 research describes exchanges moving toward broader financial platforms that connect trading balances with yield products and spending services.

Masser opens his banking app even when he has nothing to pay, sometimes simply to check his balance. “I check my banking app all the time,” he said during the TOKEN2049 interview. He said broader use cases can give people reasons to return to a crypto app between transactions: some traders transact constantly, while others might make a swap every few days or once a week. Checking earnings and reviewing previous transactions can also prompt users to open an app without making another trade.

“The more use cases that you get, the more you start using,” Masser said. Keeping trading, yield, spending and other activities together gives platforms more opportunities to retain customers and their funds. Masser offered examples of customers returning to ChangeNOW for different services, although the interview included no retention figures showing how widely the behavior has taken hold.

Drawing on his earlier work in banking product development, Masser said, “People use the apps in very different ways,” adding: “We aren’t the user.” A customer checking a balance may have little interest in borrowing, while an active trader may care more about swap fees. Masser also pointed to AML wallet checks for money-laundering exposure among ChangeNOW Pro’s features. His argument leaves room for occasional users, with an app potentially becoming useful across someone’s financial life without demanding the attention of a messaging service.

For some users, the appeal is more immediate: they receive USDT on one blockchain and need it on another. Masser described that as a recurring problem in conversations with customers. A transaction that looks simple to the recipient can require unfamiliar steps between networks. He recalled his own experience of buying crypto on one platform, then moving elsewhere to swap it. Bringing those steps together could help customers discover services as their needs develop and reduce the number of separate processes required to complete one financial task. “It’s much easier to have it in one place,” he said.