During TOKEN2049 Singapore, ChangeNOW Strategic Partnerships Director Martin Masser admitted that even when he has no payment needs, he opens his banking app just to check his balance. This habit is exactly the kind of everyday entry point crypto platforms are eager to replicate.
The crypto industry is pushing the "super app" model, putting trading alongside payments, lending, and other services on the same platform, giving users a reason to come back between trades. But whether these services can become habits remains a harder question.
When asked whether the crypto market has enough demand to support super apps, Masser first discussed the limitations of token swaps. Some traders operate at high frequency, while others swap only once every few days or even once a week. Checking earnings and reviewing transaction history can also become reasons to open the app. He used banks as an example: customers often just look at their money without transferring any.
"The more use cases there are, the more you use it," he said. A 2026 Kaiko study shows that exchanges are expanding toward broader financial platforms, connecting trading balances with yield products and consumer services. Keeping multiple activities on the same platform increases the chance of retaining customers and their funds. Masser gave examples of related behavior, but the interview did not provide ChangeNOW user retention data.
Does a super app need one absolutely dominant high-frequency use case? Masser believes different customers will form different habits around the same product. "People use apps very differently," he said, adding that he himself is not a user. Someone checking balances may have little interest in lending; an active trader may care more about swap fees. He also mentioned ChangeNOW Pro's AML wallet check feature, used to identify money-laundering risk exposure. His view leaves room for occasional users: an app does not need to compete for attention like a messaging app to play a role in users' financial lives.
For some users, the pain point is more direct: they receive USDT on one blockchain but need to use it on another. Masser said this is a recurring issue in conversations with customers. What looks like a simple transaction to the recipient may require unfamiliar steps across multiple networks. He recalled buying coins on one platform and then swapping them somewhere else. Integrating these steps can also help users discover new services as their needs evolve. "Having it in one place is much easier."
This is also the practical rationale for broader apps: fewer separate processes are needed to complete a financial task. Adding more services only makes sense when moving from one service to another is easier.
But feature expansion also brings design challenges: how can a platform keep adding features without overwhelming the interface? Masser said: "Adding something that makes no sense for the product is meaningless." He used ordering McDonald's in a crypto app as an example to illustrate that some features may seem out of place. His test criterion is: do the services fit together, and can they let people naturally transition from one task to the next? This means expansion has boundaries. Each added feature requires users to understand another choice; a platform promising convenience may also make itself harder to navigate.
While at the TON Foundation, Masser also saw another assumption fall apart: that having a huge audience means a product will succeed. He recalled that some teams launched apps inside Telegram, expecting massive reach to bring users, only to come back complaining: "Martin, we have no users." His answer was direct: "Did you do any marketing?" He said successful teams think about what people want and work to reach them. This experience shapes the questions he now asks developers: why build this product, and how do you define success? "Just because you think you have a large audience doesn't mean the product will succeed naturally."
The same standard applies to partnerships, which is Masser's role at ChangeNOW. "You don't want to build a partnership just to have a name in a press release," he said. He described the work of continuously understanding partners' customers and helping products find their market. A company might first integrate swaps, then later add payment services. ChangeNOW's API allows developers to connect its services to their own apps. Masser said this can save teams from building these features themselves and maintaining support for new blockchains. "Maybe what you start with isn't the finished product." In his view, partnerships should leave room for the product to keep changing after launch.
Stablecoins provide a real-world test for this ambition. Recent reports estimate that in the first eight months of 2026, stablecoin payments amounted to at least $401 billion, up 42% year over year. Businesses received an estimated 58% to 64% of payment volume, so these figures do not prove that consumer spending has become widespread. Masser noted that in some markets, stablecoins are already used more routinely for everyday financial activities, which is exactly the reason to build services beyond holding and swapping.
When asked what would prove a crypto super app successful in five years, he answered: "You use it in your daily life without realizing it's a crypto super app."
For teams building these platforms, this means earning a place in ordinary financial habits. Even when there is no trade to make, users need a reason to open the app.
