Project Crypto has fired the starting gun, marking the arrival of the crypto super app era.

On July 31, the new Chair of the US SEC, Paul Atkins, delivered a speech entitled America’s Leadership in the Digital Finance Revolution, unveiling a bold new initiative called “Project Crypto.”

Though this announcement has yet to break into mainstream media headlines, it may ultimately prove to be one of 2025’s most transformative events for the crypto industry.

In January, upon returning to the White House, Trump famously pledged to make the United States the “world’s crypto capital.” At the time, many dismissed this as campaign rhetoric, and the broader industry remained skeptical, waiting to see whether Trump’s promises would amount to more than empty words.

Yesterday brought the answer.

Project Crypto now stands as the first major pillar of Trump’s pro-crypto policy agenda.

There’s already plenty of detailed analysis of this plan circulating on social media, so we’ll avoid repetition. What’s most noteworthy, in my view, is the unprecedented regulatory green light for financial institutions to build “super apps” that deliver equities trading, crypto, DeFi services, and more—all within a single platform.

If JPMorgan’s app enabled users to buy stocks, trade Bitcoin, and participate in DeFi yield farming within one interface, it would significantly impact the industry.

This shift—from campaign pledge to regulatory action, from “regulation by enforcement” to embracing on-chain finance—has taken only six months. When the world’s largest capital market undergoes a major shift, the competitive landscape for the entire industry could change overnight.

The All-in-One Super App

Atkins’s “super app” concept closely mirrors WeChat: messaging, payments, investments, insurance, even loans—all bundled into a single app to cover everything users need.

While this is commonplace in China, it’s been impossible in the US, despite its free-market reputation.

The reason is clear: regulatory fragmentation.

In the US, you need a money transmitter license to process payments, a broker-dealer license to handle securities, a bank charter to make loans, and every state has its own unique requirements.

Project Crypto is breaking through this impasse for the first time in the US.

Under the new framework, a platform that holds a broker-dealer license can simultaneously offer equities trading, crypto trading, DeFi lending, NFT marketplace access, and stablecoin payment functionality—all under a unified licensing structure.

This unified model gives crypto markets the added benefit of product composability.

You can auto-invest equity gains into Bitcoin, use NFTs as collateral for stablecoin loans, then deploy those stablecoins into DeFi for yields—all through a single dashboard, with assets moving freely and transparently on-chain.

When users can move effortlessly between services on a single platform, the vision of a Web3 super financial platform suddenly feels much closer to reality.

In effect, the SEC’s decision has initiated a new phase of industry competition.

Three Types of Players, Divergent Outcomes

With Project Crypto’s starting signal, market participants now face radically different prospects.

For crypto giants, it’s time to move from “easy win” mode to open competition.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is likely feeling mixed emotions: on the one hand, being free from SEC lawsuits is a major relief; on the other, Coinbase’s dominating run could be ending.

Gensler’s stringent regulatory environment helped make Coinbase the default choice for US users thanks to its compliance advantage.

Now, with the regulatory floodgates open, Coinbase’s regulatory advantage is eroding. More importantly, Coinbase must rapidly pivot—from a pure exchange to a comprehensive financial super app. That requires launching equities trading (to compete with Robinhood), banking services (to rival legacy banks), and DeFi integrations (to compete with decentralized protocols)—each a sector with entrenched leaders.

Kraken and Gemini face similar challenges, but without Coinbase’s scale or resources. Their options? Likely acquisition or doubling down on narrow market niches.

For crypto-native firms, defense is the new imperative. But traditional financial titans are lining up for a full-scale offensive.

JPMorgan is no longer a crypto skeptic. Its JPM Coin handles billions in transactions daily, with the Onyx blockchain platform operating for years. Now it can formally roll out crypto products to retail consumers.

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America—they all boast what crypto startups covet: vast customer bases, deep capital reserves, established risk management, and—crucially—customer trust.

When a retiree wants to put a portion of their pension into Bitcoin, are they more likely to trust the app from their 30-year bank, or an unknown crypto exchange?

Yet, agility isn’t guaranteed for big banks. Bureaucratic inertia, outdated tech stacks, and risk-averse cultures all present real challenges. Regulation offers opportunity, but also substantial hurdles.

The fate of DeFi protocols like Uniswap, Aave, and Compound is the most complex.

Project Crypto explicitly protects “pure code publishers,” providing theoretical support for DeFi.

But if Coinbase can directly integrate Uniswap, and JPMorgan launches its own on-chain lending, what remains unique about decentralized protocols?

One likely result is a sharper distinction between the protocol and application layers. Uniswap continues as a core liquidity protocol, while an array of super apps deliver user interfaces and value-added services—akin to the invisible yet crucial TCP/IP layer of the Internet.

Some DeFi protocols may take a more drastic path by centralizing, incorporating as companies, seeking licenses, and accepting oversight in exchange for mainstream market access.

Aave is already piloting institutional versions, and Uniswap Labs operates as a legal entity. Decentralization is an inspiring ideal, but when regulated competitors can reach hundreds of millions of users, ideals could be relegated to slogans.

Ultimately, DeFi may split in two: protocol purists who uphold decentralization, versus pragmatists embracing regulation for growth. Both models have a future, but they’ll be serving different user bases.

There are three types of players, each facing a different destiny. The only constant is that previous comfort zones have disappeared.

Under the new regime, everyone must reimagine their role in the new ecosystem.

Four Competitive Dimensions

With everyone crowding into the same lane, what determines who wins?

First: Licensing.

Compliance used to be an endless sinkhole for costs; now, it could become the crucial competitive moat.

While Project Crypto appears to lower entry barriers, in reality, it dramatically raises the standards. A “super app” license requires compliance across securities, banking, payments, crypto—and more. This is not a game for the small or under-resourced.

The real value of licenses is their network effect. When users can handle all financial needs within a single platform, switching costs skyrocket. Like old-school bank licenses—technically open to all, but in practice, only a few became true empires.

Second: Technical architecture.

For on-chain finance, user experience must combine Web2 seamlessness with Web3 sovereignty—a daunting technical bar.

Traditional financial institutions must build crypto infrastructure from scratch, while crypto companies must achieve bank-grade reliability.

Cross-chain interoperability adds further complexity: Can your system move assets from Ethereum to Solana for DeFi in three seconds? Can your risk engine react instantly to market shocks?

Technical debt could be the fatal flaw.

Coinbase optimized its stack for a single function over a decade; morphing into a super app is no small feat. Bank back-ends are even trickier—legacy codebases like COBOL don’t pair easily with blockchain.

Third: Liquidity.

In finance, liquidity is everything—and in a super app world, even more so.

Users demand instant execution, any asset, any size, any time. That means connecting to every major venue, aggregating global liquidity, delivering the best price, and maximizing capital efficiency—can a single pool of capital move fluidly between equities, crypto, and DeFi?

Fourth: User experience.

This may be the most underrated competitive dimension. When features and fees converge, UX makes or breaks a product.

The core challenge: your audience is split. Crypto natives want self-custody and on-chain analytics. Traditional users may not even know what a seed phrase is. One app, two universes—product managers must bridge the gap.

In sum, Project Crypto sets out a new multi-front competitive landscape: Licensing defines your playing field, tech determines execution, liquidity decides your scale, and user experience drives your reach. Every strategic move could tilt the entire contest.

Potential Winners and Losers

With Project Crypto, which companies and assets are the most likely winners?

No one can forecast the future with certainty, but some trends are emerging. The age of crypto super apps will likely crown three distinct winning models.

The “alliance” model comes first.

The savviest players already realize that partnerships outperform solo efforts.

Fidelity, with $11 trillion in assets under management, launched a digital asset division in 2018 but never cracked mainstream retail crypto.

Imagine Fidelity tightly integrating with a tech-forward crypto firm like Fireblocks. Suddenly, Fidelity’s 200 million clients get seamless crypto access, and Fireblocks gains credibility and distribution. Whether or not a full merger happens, “1+1>2” partnerships are certain to proliferate.

Next is the “arms dealer” model.

During any gold rush, the safest bet is selling shovels.

In the super app era, “shovels” are mission-critical infrastructure. Chainalysis, for example, supplies compliance tools that everyone—from disruptors to incumbents—needs. The more diversified their client base, the more unassailable their position. They stay essential, regardless of who wins the super app war.

The third is the “specialist” model.

Not everyone needs a Swiss Army knife. Platforms specializing in DAO services, or vertical apps geared to NFT finance, are poised to serve niche but valuable segments—even as the giants vie for broad dominance.

These are the primary paths to victory. As for likely losers, look at institutions stuck in the middle, and at regulatory arbitrageurs.

Consider regional US banks—lacking JPMorgan’s resources for large-scale tech investment and without the nimbleness of fintech startups. Once big banks offer one-stop crypto service, the niche for mid-sized players could evaporate quickly.

As for the speculators: In recent years, many projects used complex legal shields to dodge oversight—Cayman registration, DAO governance, “fully decentralized” claims.

With Project Crypto’s clear-cut rules, those gray zones disappear. You either go all-in on decentralization (accepting liquidity and UX limits) or go fully compliant (accepting regulatory costs). There’s no longer a safe middle lane.

From a business perspective, the window for building a dominant position is closing fast.

In platform-based winner-take-all economies, first-mover advantage is crucial. Whoever can assemble a comprehensive ecosystem in the coming months could be the next crypto finance titan.

The iPhone Moment?

In 2007, when Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone, Nokia’s executives laughed—how could a phone with no keyboard ever succeed? Eighteen months later, the structure of the entire mobile industry had been rewritten.

Project Crypto may turn out to be the “iPhone keynote” for crypto finance.

Not because it’s flawless, but because it’s the first to show traditional finance what’s possible: real integration of crypto and traditional assets, new models for compliant innovation, new forms of financial delivery.

But remember, it wasn’t the original iPhone that changed the world—it was the App Store. Project Crypto is just the starting point; the true transformation will come when a new ecosystem takes hold.

When millions of developers start building, when billions of users get comfortable with on-chain finance—that’s when the wave crests.

Any judgment now is premature. The story is just beginning.

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