WalletConnect at $400B: Pedro Gomes' Next Bet Is Real-World Payments

WalletConnect's $400B scale makes the payments pivot credible

This is how WalletConnect starts to look less like backend plumbing and more like a payment rail. In 2025 the network enabled $400B+ in network volume, grew 119% year over year, and supported 55.5 million active users. That scale suggests WalletConnect is no longer just niche infrastructure; it is a live distribution layer with real reach if checkout becomes the next monetization path.

WalletConnect is explicit about that shift. The company says 2026 is when it expands into point-of-sale systems, e-commerce checkouts, fintech apps, and banks through WalletConnect Pay. That matters because the strategy is no longer only about connecting wallets and apps. It is about directing existing wallet traffic toward actual merchant transactions.

Still, the key debate remains: scale is not the same as scaled merchant monetization. WalletConnect may facilitate huge transfer volumes, but that does not yet prove it can capture durable economics from merchants and payment providers. The company's focus on making digital currency usable at scale at POS and e-commerce checkouts is exactly why 2026 matters. If WalletConnect cannot convert usage into repeatable checkout revenue, the payments thesis stays aspirational.

How Gomes is trying to turn connectivity into checkout

The original thesis was standards, not a proprietary wallet

The strategic context matters. In 2017, Gomes concluded that the best fix for poor wallet UX was not a closed app, but an open protocol that could get wallets coming together through standards. That approach still matters today. WalletConnect is not asking merchants to adopt a new consumer brand first; it is trying to route existing wallet traffic through shared infrastructure and into real merchant flows.

WalletConnect already has the distribution

The network is already deep inside the crypto stack. WalletConnect says it powers billions in value every week, and recent company messaging highlights $6.41B of stablecoin volume flowed through the WalletConnect Network in just a week. That does not prove payments success, but it does show that spendable traffic already moves through the system.

The same message appears in WalletConnect's 2026 outlook: the company describes itself as a communications protocol for web3 that is now pushing deeper into real-world checkout. That is the core bridge to commerce: the distribution is largely there; the question is whether more of that activity becomes spending rather than only transfers or holding.

Pay is the merchant-facing layer

WalletConnect Pay is the clearest expression of this pivot. According to WalletConnect, merchants can Accept compliant crypto payments in 100+ countries, with a single integration. That framing matters because it positions Pay as a merchant tool, not just another crypto wallet feature.

The practical angle is stablecoins. At the merchant end, the appeal is not crypto ideology but straightforward functionality: stablecoin settlement, broad wallet support, and a flow merchants can actually process. The current integration already allows customers to pay with USDC and other supported stablecoins at supported terminals.

The Ingenico deal makes physical retail more concrete

The Ingenico integration is the most tangible proof point yet. WalletConnect Pay now connects to Ingenico POS terminals, extending stablecoin payments into physical retail without requiring WalletConnect to build hardware from scratch. A small but useful real-world test happened in Lisbon, where Gomes invited people to pay using WalletConnect Pay for coffee at a cafe.

What gives this setup an edge is not a fresh user-acquisition push. It is the fact that WalletConnect already sits between wallets, apps, and payment infrastructure. If stablecoin payments become routine, that existing position matters more than a cold-start advantage.

What would move the thesis from infrastructure to payments

The next signal is not another scale headline. WalletConnect already sits inside a network that moves billions in value every week. The more important question is whether the company can start capturing a share of payment economics rather than only enabling transfers.

The macro tailwind is real. WalletConnect Pay is now part of a broader push around payments, and the company is building toward one of the most strategic growth areas for the network: the state of payments. But that tailwind alone does not complete the case.

What investors should watch next

The next validation points are straightforward:

• Merchant adoption: more integrations that put WalletConnect Pay in front of real merchants, not just inside demos.
• Revenue visibility: evidence that WalletConnect earns more from checkout activity than only from connectivity.
• Repeat usage: stablecoin payment volume that keeps showing up in everyday merchant contexts.
• Infrastructure breadth: continued expansion across wallets,POS systems, and payment providers.

The merchant path is becoming more tangible through integrations like Ingenico POS terminals. That makes the upside case easier to take seriously. If WalletConnect becomes the default checkout rail under the hood, it could start looking less like dev infrastructure and more like a toll-layer on merchant payment flow.

For now, though, the right stance is cautious. WalletConnect has the reach, the protocol history, and an increasingly clear payments direction. But until usage turns into merchant revenue, this is still a promising setup rather than a proven payments winner.