In the evolving landscape of digital finance, Big Four consulting firm EY has focused on wallets, which it considers to be the next frontier.
Wallets are becoming more than just a tool for holding cryptocurrencies, they are becoming a key interface for the next era of financial services, according to EY principal Mark Nichols.
“The wallet is a strategy,” Nichols, co-head of the firm’s digital asset consulting business, told CoinDesk in an interview. “Who owns the wallet and who provisions the wallet will win the relationship with the customer.”
Nichols and Rebecca Karvat of the West Coast see wallets as more than just infrastructure. In a world where financial products, from payments to private credit, are increasingly on-chain, they are the gateway to store, move and manage tokenized value, he said.
More than just custody: Wallets as hubs for tokenized finance
Your field of vision will expand. Far from being a niche utility for cryptocurrency enthusiasts, wallets are becoming the connective tissue of the broader tokenized financial system. Wallets will soon become essential for retail investors, asset managers, treasurers and even commercial banks, said Karbutt, co-leader of EY’s digital asset consulting practice.
“It’s going to be an access point to everything from payments to tokenized assets to stablecoins,” she said.
From EY’s perspective, wallets are the new bank accounts of the future, with services tailored not only for individuals but also for businesses and institutional investors who require advanced integration with risk systems, compliance tools, and real-time capital flows.
The implication is clear. Whoever controls the wallet controls the relationship. For financial institutions that have already lost ground to crypto-native platforms, this change is an existential one.
Beyond liquidity: the real promise of tokenization
While the widespread move to tokenization is often seen as an attempt at liquidity, EY believes this narrative does not fully understand the true impact. “Liquidity is not the only issue,” Nichols said. “Liquidity is not everything, but the utility that on-chain finance enables.”
What EY instead sees is the emergence of blockchain as a real-time infrastructure for financial markets, enabling programmable transaction chains and fundamentally reshaping how capital is managed. Tokenization certainly enables atomic payments, but its real power lies in margin optimization and operational efficiency.
Nichols points to scenarios where companies can use stablecoins or tokenized assets to meet margin calls more frequently and accurately. This reduces initial margin requirements and frees up capital for investment. “The key is better risk adjustment and real-time capital management,” he says. “And wallets are the gateway to making that possible.”
A Decade in Space: EY’s Deep Crypto Bench
While some companies are racing to catch up, EY has been building in the digital assets space for more than 12 years. Our initial investment in crypto-native audit and compliance practices now spans thousands of professionals, supporting everything from hedge fund tax returns to tokenized M&A advisory.
“We have worked with all customer profiles including large banks, asset managers, exchanges, digital natives and infrastructure providers,” Nichols says. “And we have been working on the digital asset ecosystem for over 10 years.”
EY’s Hedge Fund Audit business was one of the earliest to support cryptocurrencies, and its advisory team has helped companies prepare for public listings and complex regulatory environments. The company has developed bespoke services for wallet monitoring, on-chain compliance, and token-native tax reporting. We also continue to advise traditional financial institutions on how to design secure and compliant digital asset strategies, particularly as they begin to develop or integrate wallet infrastructure.
A wallet for everyone: a view by segment
EY is clear that wallet needs are not monolithic. Consumers want a seamless UX and secure access to payments and cryptocurrencies. Businesses need integration with finance functions and regulatory compliance across jurisdictions. Institutional clients want secure storage, connectivity to decentralized finance (DeFi) and staking products, and built-in risk tools.
EY argues that self-custody will never become mainstream. The average user or institution does not want to manage their own private keys. Instead, trusted wallet providers will emerge, such as banks, fintechs, or specialized custodians. Each customizes its services based on the segments it serves.
Therefore, wallet provisioning becomes strategically essential. Whether companies build their own, acquire a provider, or form a partnership, wallets are the new gateway to financial services. Companies that take action now will reduce future customer acquisition costs and gain a more defensible position in the digital asset ecosystem.
Regulation: Facilitator, not Barrier
One of the most persistent beliefs about tokenization is that regulation is an obstacle. But EY management disagrees. “We already have a regulatory framework in our core markets and, in parallel with the broader industry, passing the Market Structure Act will allow us to resolve any remaining issues,” Nichols said. “A security is a security, a commodity is a commodity. Blockchain is a technology.”
In the United States, the GENIUS Act and existing Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) exemptions provide a path to compliant tokenized products. Around the world, jurisdictions are competing to evolve their licensing regimes to attract innovation in digital assets. Hamori is still in its infancy, but its momentum is undeniable.
EY sees this moment as a call to maturity, a tipping point for infrastructure to catch up with vision. “We’re past the experimental stage,” Karbutt said. “Secure and scalable implementations are now important.”
Fundamental review of asset management
Perhaps nowhere is the impact of tokenization and wallet infrastructure more profound than in asset management. A typical fund now requires a distribution network, investment team, custodian, fund administrator, and regulatory reporting channels. Tokenization and smart contracts will make much of that stack programmable and potentially obsolete.
“Asset managers just want to build good portfolios,” Nichols says. “Blockchain allows us to do that without the traditional friction.”
By tokenizing a fund’s underlying assets and incorporating logic into smart contracts, asset managers can automate functions such as distribution, compliance, and reporting. This will lower fees, increase investor access and open the door to new types of products, particularly in the private credit and alternatives space where cost has traditionally been a barrier.
“More people, from the unbanked to the disintermediaries, are getting access to assets that were previously out of reach,” Karvat said. “That’s powerful.”
The future of finance is on-chain
Whether it’s cryptocurrencies, payments, or tokenized assets, wallets are your gateway to a new financial reality. Companies that ignore this risk becoming irrelevant. Companies that adopt this will own the infrastructure and customer relationships that are at the heart of digital finance.
“The future of finance is on-chain,” says Nichols. “And the wallet is at the center of that.”
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