Self-Custody Has Won the Argument, Now It Has to Work: Trust Wallet CEO (Interview)

Crypto has spent many years asking users to accept complexity in exchange for ownership. But as self-custody moves closer and closer to the mainstream audience, Trust Wallet’s new CEO, Felix Fan, argues that the real challenge is no longer proving why people should control their assets – it’s making that control feel effortless. In the following interview, we discuss the product lessons shaping Fan’s leadership, why wallets must take more responsibility for user protection, how payments, trading, stablecoins, AI agents, and clear regulation are pushing crypto into a more mature phase.

His message, however, is clear: self-custody may have won the philosophical argument, but the user experience has some catching up to do. You’ve stepped into a new role at Trust Wallet at a moment when self-custody is becoming both more mainstream and more complex. What parts of your own journey prepared you most for leading a product used by hundreds of millions of people?

My expertise lies in product, complemented by my experience as a serial entrepreneur. Before Trust Wallet, I spent years thinking about how to make complex financial tools feel simple to people who don’t have time or patience to become experts. Leading at this scale is different.

Trust Wallet already has millions of users. The job isn’t only to convince people that self-custody is the future. It’s to make that future feel obvious in the product experience every day.

That means listening, moving fast, and being ruthlessly honest about where we fall short so we can fix it quickly. The part of my journey that prepared me most? Learning that the best products don’t have to explain themselves.

If a user has to read a guide to understand what just happened, we haven’t finished building yet. Before joining Trust Wallet, you were known as a product leader. How does that background shape the way you think about leadership, especially in a sector where user trust, security, and speed of execution all matter at once?

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