Xverse

Xverse is a self-custodial Bitcoin wallet and financial platform developed by Secret Key Labs Limited, a Hong Kong-based company founded in 2021. What began as a Bitcoin Web3 wallet focused on Ordinals and the Stacks network has expanded into what its team calls the "Sovereign Onchain Bank" — a non-custodial financial operating system spanning Bitcoin Layer 1, the Lightning Network, Stacks, Starknet, and Spark.

Origins and Development

Secret Key Labs was founded in 2021 by Ken Liao, who serves as CEO. The company first attracted attention in the early Ordinals boom, shipping one of the earliest wallets to support Bitcoin NFTs and BRC-20 inscriptions. Xverse won first prize at the Paris Blockchain Week startup competition and became the first Bitcoin project to graduate from the Alliance accelerator. Qiao Wang of Alliance called it "simply the best consumer product in the Bitcoin ecosystem."

The company has raised $9 million across two funding rounds. An initial round closed in October 2022, followed by a $5 million seed round in August 2023 led by Jump Crypto, with participation from Franklin Templeton, RockawayX, NGC Ventures, Alliance, Sfermion, Bitcoin Frontier Fund, 2140 Bitcoin Ecosystem Fund, Sora Ventures, and roughly a dozen additional institutional backers. Funding has been directed toward DeFi feature development, Lightning integration, and Bitcoin Layer 2 infrastructure.

How It Works

Xverse is a non-custodial wallet: private keys never leave the user device, and Secret Key Labs has no ability to freeze accounts or access funds. The wallet is available as an iOS app, an Android app, and a Chrome browser extension.

The core product has three layers. The consumer wallet lets users hold, send, receive, and swap BTC and supported assets, connect to decentralized applications, and access yield and lending products. On top of this, Xverse has built a developer infrastructure suite and, more recently, expanded into an onchain banking proposition.

Consumer wallet and DeFi. Users can earn yield on stablecoins at up to 6% APY with no lock-up periods or minimums. Onchain lending allows users to borrow against collateral without credit checks. A fiat integration layer provides near-zero fee virtual accounts for sending and receiving fiat globally, positioning Xverse as an alternative to traditional neobanks for Bitcoin-native users. A privacy mode routes transactions through shielded layers — specifically Starknet zero-knowledge infrastructure — for users who want confidential transaction flows.

STX Stacking and Bitcoin yield. Users can participate in Stacks Proof-of-Transfer consensus directly from Xverse, locking STX to earn Bitcoin payouts every reward cycle. In June 2024, Acre launched Bitcoin staking on mainnet through a Xverse integration, adding another native BTC yield pathway.

Lightning Network. In May 2025, Xverse expanded Lightning access to its user base through an integration with Sati, enabling sub-cent Lightning payments and invoice handling from within the wallet interface.

Developer infrastructure. The Xverse API provides REST endpoints covering Bitcoin RPC, mempool data, UTXOs, balances, ordinals, runes, and swap aggregation across multiple chains. Sats Connect is a wallet SDK that lets applications connect to Bitcoin wallets and interact with the full Bitcoin asset stack — it has accumulated roughly 2 million downloads across BitcoinFi applications. Agent Wallet is a purpose-built product for AI agents, providing a Bitcoin-native wallet that can pay, receive, and trade programmatically across Lightning, Spark, and Starknet without requiring a custodian or custom node infrastructure.

Supported Assets and Networks

Xverse supports Bitcoin (BTC) on mainnet, Ordinals (Bitcoin-native NFTs), BRC-20 tokens (fungible tokens inscribed on Bitcoin), Runes (the post-halving fungible token protocol, supported ahead of the April 2024 halving), Stacks (STX) and sBTC (the canonical Bitcoin-pegged asset on Stacks), stablecoins via Stacks and Starknet integrations, and Lightning Network payments via Sati.

Networks currently integrated: Bitcoin L1, Stacks L2, Lightning Network, Starknet, and Spark.

Security and Audits

Xverse is open source and publicly audited. The non-custodial design means the platform holds no user funds, and no KYC or identity verification is required to use the wallet. For additional key security, Xverse supports hardware wallet integration with Ledger and Keystone devices, allowing private keys to remain air-gapped while still transacting through the Xverse interface.

Cross-Chain Swaps and Solana Connection

In December 2024, Xverse launched cross-chain swaps from Solana to Bitcoin, powered by Changelly. The integration allows Solana users to convert SOL or Solana-based assets directly into BTC, which lands in their Xverse wallet without manual bridging steps. This positions Xverse as a destination for Solana-native users looking to move value onto Bitcoin rails, and it is the primary point of contact between the Xverse product and the Solana ecosystem.

Recent Direction

Through mid-2026, Xverse has continued expanding its onchain banking proposition. Xverse Cash, announced in July 2026, introduces a stablecoin-denominated dollar layer designed to give Bitcoin holders a native, self-custodial way to hold and spend dollars onchain without leaving the Bitcoin ecosystem. The product reflects a broader strategic direction: to make Xverse the primary financial account for Bitcoin users who want the security of self-custody without sacrificing yield, payment, and banking features.

The Starknet integration, formalized in March 2025, underpins several of these features — particularly privacy-preserving transactions and high-throughput, low-fee DeFi activity. Xverse has cited the combination of Starknet zero-knowledge proofs with Bitcoin settlement as a key technical pillar for its privacy and DeFi roadmap.

As of mid-2025, Xverse reports approximately two million users. It has received coverage in CoinDesk, TechCrunch, Yahoo Finance, and Bitcoin Magazine, and counts endorsements from notable figures including Udi Wertheimer and Qiao Wang of Alliance.