ChangeNOW helped the wallet add exchange features directly to the wallet, so the team did not have to build liquidity access, routing, or exchange operations themselves. This integration sped up D’CENT’s growth, bringing in over cumulative 1 million users, more than 40,000 daily active users, and over $8.5 million in annual revenue in 2025.
D’CENT Built Trust Before It Built Engagement
The project started in 2017 in a product category where mistakes are not easily forgiven. The main job of a hardware wallet is to convince users their private keys are safest inside the device.
The company released its first hardware wallet in 2018, during Crypto Winter. Demand was low, the market was quiet, and new crypto products no longer felt urgent. This was a tough time for a young hardware company, but it also encouraged discipline.
D’CENT could not focus on engagement first. The team had to prioritize the features that earn user trust, like Secure Element chips, a custom operating system, secure firmware, reliable mass production, multi-chain support, and stable signing processes.
This is a different challenge than building a software wallet. Software wallets can launch, test, and update quickly. Hardware wallets deal with physical parts, supply chains, security needs, device experience, and firmware risks. Every new feature must go through these steps and keep the trust that makes the product valuable.
The Business Challenge: Self-Custody Was No Longer Just Storage
As self-custody became more important to users, a new product question came up quickly. After moving assets into a wallet, users still needed a place to take action. For D’CENT, this changed the product roadmap. The wallet now needed to support swaps, rewards, campaign access, and project discovery when users wanted to act.
This might seem like just adding features, but in reality, it was a management challenge.
D’CENT could have focused only on storage and let users do other activities elsewhere. This would keep the original focus but would mean missing out on engagement and transaction revenue inside the wallet.
On the other hand, building exchange infrastructure would need resources for liquidity, routing, rate management, asset coverage, transaction handling, partner support, and compliance. This would move the company away from its main business.
The Strategic Shift: From Passive Storage to Action Wallet
D’CENT had a unique advantage. Its users were the type of audience that Web3 projects often find hard to reach through normal marketing channels. These users cared about security and understood the value of custody, signing, and project quality. For them, the wallet could be a safer way to find Web3 opportunities. For projects, it offered access to a high-intent audience, different from regular campaign traffic.
Tap That Drop, D’CENT’s in-wallet seasonal quest campaign with Web3 partners, made this new direction clear. It showed how the product could link its users with Web3 projects using campaigns built on trusted wallet access. The key was its role as a trusted access point between projects seeking real participation and users already active in crypto.
This is where the Action Wallet idea becomes valuable for business. Engagement leads to intent. The next step was to close the loop between user engagement and transaction. By linking “Tap That Drop” with ChangeNOW, D’CENT created a frictionless, closed-loop experience: users could discover a project, earn Web3 rewards, and instantly swap them into stablecoins or core assets under one secure roof. ChangeNOW solved this exact missing link.
ChangeNOW’s Role: The Swap Layer Without the Infrastructure Burden
ChangeNOW solved that specific part of the product challenge. It gave D’CENT work stayed outside the wallet team’s operations.
For D’CENT, that mattered beyond product convenience. As D’CENT expanded its global footprint, ChangeNOW gave the wallet an immediate way to capture international exchange demand at scale. This integration instantly turned cross-chain swaps into a highly lucrative revenue stream, allowing D’CENT to capture a broader global audience without the massive time and capital required to build exchange infrastructure in-house.
This is also where the partner’s perspective matters. D’CENT linked ChangeNOW directly to its shift toward an Action Wallet. The integration did not drive every growth result or replace the hardware wallet’s main promise, but it did support the transaction side of the change.
Results: D’CENT Became More Than a Regional Hardware Wallet
As the product evolved, D’CENT showed enough progress to be seen as more than just a regional hardware wallet.
By 2025, the company had passed 1 million cumulative registered wallet users and reached more than 40,000 daily active users. Annual revenue exceeded $8.5 million. Hardware sales revenue in 2025 almost tripled compared with 2024.
The numbers tell two stories. Device demand kept rising, which matters in a hardware category where trust builds slowly. Daily activity showed that users stayed engaged after setup.
The reputation shift was visible as well. The product became one of the top five hardware wallet brands globally and earned unusual trust among XRP holders, a community that values secure self-custody and has used D’CENT as one of its trusted hardware wallet options since the early years of the product. The XRP Army response was stronger than expected.
What Wallet Teams Can Learn from D’CENT
D’CENT’s case does not say that every wallet has to become an exchange. The more useful lesson is narrower.
When a wallet has already earned user trust, the next question is where transactions should take place. If users must leave the wallet to swap assets, the wallet keeps the custody role, but another service handles the action.
This creates a tough decision for wallet teams. Building exchange features in-house can distract from the work that made the wallet trustworthy. For security-focused wallets, the transaction layer must respect that foundation. New features should not make self-custody less clear or less secure. D’CENT proves a wallet can add utility without changing its core promise.
Build the Next Action Layer Inside Your Wallet
ChangeNOW lets wallet teams add in-wallet swaps without having to build exchange infrastructure from the ground up. If your wallet already helps users store assets, the next step is to consider what actions they can take within the product.
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