Toss Insight, the financial management research unit of Viva Republica, operator of Toss, analysed the role of digital wallets as on-chain finance spreads.

Toss Insight said on June 18 it published a business insight report titled "Digital Wallet: The Starting Point of On-Chain Finance".

The report was prepared to analyse how digital wallets, a key interface for on-chain finance, should be designed and developed as interest in blockchain-based finance rises.

It defines digital wallets as new financial infrastructure that manages asset rights and responsibilities, and transaction authority, rather than a simple means of storing virtual assets. It says finance is shifting from a traditional account-based structure to an authority-based structure, and that digital wallets are at the center of the change.

Digital wallets are expanding beyond early virtual asset storage functions to payments and transfers, enterprise wallet services, tokenised assets, decentralised services, AI agent-based automation, and identity and credential verification. It explains that rather than one wallet structure covering all services, different structures are needed depending on business objectives.

Toss Insight analysed digital wallets by dividing them into four design axes: technical structure, control structure, responsibility structure and usability structure. Based on that, it presented six basic types and one combined operating model.

It also analysed cases from major global companies including Coinbase, Stripe, PayPal, Revolut, BlackRock and JPMorgan, and organised suitable wallet structures and operating methods by business area.

Toss Insight said it does not see future competitiveness as integrating all functions into one system. It forecast that businesses that can stably connect different responsibility structures, such as payments, tokenised assets, decentralised services and identity and credential verification, while providing users with a single experience, will secure a competitive edge.

Hyun-man Kim (김현만), a strategy consulting team leader at Toss Insight, said, "The more on-chain finance spreads, the more digital wallets will become core infrastructure connecting financial services overall, rather than a simple service function." He added, "I hope it will serve as practical reference material for companies thinking about financial service design and business strategy using digital wallets."