Ecosystem Update #1

Where we are, why it looks quiet, and what we’re building

Over the past weeks, we’ve seen a lot of thoughtful discussion in the community. Some of it is critical, some of it sceptical, and much of it is simply people trying to understand where Vision is heading and how it fits into Bitpanda’s broader strategy.

This update is meant to give a clear, honest snapshot of where we stand today, what we’ve been working on, and why certain decisions were made.

Communication, “soon”, and expectations

Let’s start with the obvious one: yes, we know that “soon” can be frustrating.

At a high level, there are two ways to communicate progress. One is to only speak once something is finished and ready to be pushed through a marketing campaign. The other is to give earlier insight into what’s being built, even if not every detail is finalized yet.

We deliberately chose the second approach. That means more transparency, but it also means that timelines sometimes look vague from the outside. Going forward, our goal is to give fewer early hints, more concrete updates once things are actually ready to be used.

Wallet first, everything else builds on top

The wallet is the gateway to Web3. We intentionally launched it in a basic form, focused on core functionalities like trading and earn products. 

Since December, we’ve been rolling out our internal activation layer, the Engage section, step by step. Engage is not a cosmetic feature. It’s the basis for retention and activity inside the wallet. The goal is simple: every euro spent on acquisition should generate more long-term value by keeping users active instead of churning out.

On the product side, we’ve also submitted a new asset discovery section for app store review. As usual, Apple is still pending, while Google is ready. This update makes discovering interesting assets more seamless than ever, with dedicated views for trending assets and top movers. The same release also includes improvements to Engage, such as visible progress bars for missions, making progression clearer and more motivating.

Vision Chain and why some things took longer

With Vision Chain, we can now go more into detail than before in our upcoming deep dive video, which will be recorded next week. That’s not because it suddenly became important, but because key decisions are now locked in.

Earlier on, we deliberately avoided communicating assumptions that might not hold later. That caution may have looked like a lack of progress from the outside, but internally, it was about reducing rework and avoiding promises we couldn’t stand behind. Infrastructure decisions are hard to reverse once they’re public, so we chose to take more time upfront.

Resources and team setup

A question that comes up often is whether Web3 has enough resources.

The honest answer is: not in every area, at every point in time. The Web3 organisation is very much a “company within the company.” We benefit from Bitpanda’s existing structures, but we’re still building a dedicated team around a new product stack.

Hiring aggressively and hoping speed will magically increase doesn’t work. Team building has to happen gradually and organically; otherwise you end up slowing yourself down through coordination overhead and inefficiencies.

Since Q3, we’ve been steadily expanding across engineering, product, community, marketing, and business development. New team members need time to onboard and become net-positive contributors. That process can’t be rushed, and it’s one of the main reasons progress sometimes feels slower than expected.

Priorities inside Bitpanda

Another common concern is how Vision ranks internally compared to other Bitpanda initiatives.

Products like stocks and ETFs are important, just as Vision and Web3 are. These initiatives run independently, with separate teams, budgets, goals, and target audiences. They don’t compete for attention in the way it might look from the outside.

Vision is not a short-term growth lever. It’s part of Bitpanda’s long-term Web3 strategy, and it remains a high priority regardless of other product launches.

Listings and regional focus

Listings are important for accessibility, but they were never meant to be a silver bullet or a tool for short-term price action. From the start, the goal has been to position Vision broadly and internationally so that it is accessible when real catalysts emerge.

That’s also why we focused early on Asia. Around two thirds of the world’s population lives there, which alone gives the region significantly higher long-term growth potential than most other markets. At the same time, while the US currently leads in Web3 and tokenization, it is already highly saturated with large, established players. Asia, by contrast, is less crowded and currently the fastest-growing region in this space, making it particularly relevant for Vision alongside Europe.

Another important factor is the exchange landscape. A large share of the major crypto exchanges are based in Asia, and without at least some level of presence and awareness in the region, sustainable listings are difficult to achieve, regardless of fees. For us, this made the regional focus a necessity, both for the broader Web3 strategy and for the listing strategy itself.

The objective has always been long-term accessibility and relevance, not short-term effects.

Next steps

When it comes to the Token, the most important question is not short-term price movement, but whether the economic system actually works. Everything else is secondary.

The next critical step is getting the flywheel running. That means moving from setup to validation: real users using real products, generating real fees. Those fees are the foundation for sustainable token support mechanisms, such as buybacks and burns that are funded by ecosystem revenue rather than treasury spending or temporary incentives.

In practical terms, this is where focus shifts from building individual components to connecting them. Wallet usage, Engage-driven activity, onchain interactions, and future Vision Chain use cases all need to reinforce each other. The goal is not to optimize one metric in isolation, but to create a system where increased usage strengthens the token economy and, in turn, supports further growth.

Once this proof exists, the broader narrative becomes credible on its own. At that point, the story is no longer based on expectations or roadmaps, but on observable behaviour and measurable outcomes. Without that proof, no narrative, no matter how well communicated, can hold over time.

This is the phase Vision is now moving into.

Closing thoughts

It’s fair to question momentum, timelines, and priorities. Vision is a long-term bet, and long-term builds rarely look exciting every week.

What we can say clearly is this: the direction hasn’t changed. Vision is not being phased out, deprioritised, or turned into a side project. The focus is on building products that are used, not on defending a story.

We’ll keep using these updates to be more explicit about where we are and what’s next, to bring the community along on our journey more effectively.

Thanks for sticking with us and for holding us to a high standard.

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