1kx Research Report: Safe, Ushering in the Era of Programmable Ownership
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1kx Research Report: Safe, Ushering in the Era of Programmable Ownership
As the first leading smart account provider, Safe has been at the forefront of the account abstraction movement, aiming to establish smart accounts as the default way to interact with Web3.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: 1kx
Translation: TechFlow
Since the fund's inception in 2018, we at 1kx have invested in over 100 projects. Our thesis has been that token networks driven by software and governed by communities hold immense potential to impact the global economy and society as a whole. We believe the technology enabling this will be built on three core principles:
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Self-custody: Users should fully own and control their digital assets, and be able to use them securely and conveniently.
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This marks the first time digital property rights have ever been unlocked.
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Open innovation: Technology should be permissionless and composable, fostering a resilient ecosystem of independent products and services built atop it.
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Community ownership: Builders, contributors, and users should own and govern the protocols and infrastructure powering our daily lives. This aligns incentives among network participants over the long term, with tokens serving as the mechanism for protocols to capture and distribute value to stakeholders and activities contributing to their success.
Over the past five years, Safe has established a strong foundation across three pillars of the Web3 ecosystem. First, it delivered a self-custodial smart account enabling on-chain organizations to securely store and manage funds. Second, it opened its core infrastructure, allowing independent teams to build modularly and permissionlessly. Third, it launched SafeDAO and the SAFE token, aiming to decentralize key components of the Safe ecosystem—technologically, economically, and in governance.
Why We Invested in Safe
Safe originated from the classic startup adage, "build what you want to use," when the Gnosis team developed an internal multisig smart contract wallet—"Gnosis Safe"—to secure their own funds. This multisig product was quickly adopted by other DAOs and communities seeking simple management of their on-chain assets. At a time of growing DAO tooling, Safe was one of the first to achieve product-market fit.
By the time we led Safe’s funding round in 2022, it had become the de facto asset management solution for DAOs, enterprises, and power users. At that point, Safe safeguarded over $40 billion in assets and supported a thriving ecosystem of products built on its core smart account, including wallets (Metamask Institutional), treasury management tools (Coinshift, Parcel), DAO platforms (Onchainden), and NFT portfolio managers (Castle).
As long-term users ourselves, we already viewed Safe as critical infrastructure within the space—but we were even more excited about its future trajectory. Safe’s value proposition extends far beyond being just another multisig wallet. It aims to become a fully secure, programmable ownership platform. Over the past two years, we’ve collaborated closely with the team to shape this vision and continue advancing it through Safe(Wallet) and Safe(Core).
Empowering Programmable Ownership
Safe(Wallet) is the flagship self-custodial wallet built on the Safe(Core) smart account contracts. Thanks to its unmatched security record, technical excellence, and community-driven governance, it has emerged as one of the most influential products in Web3.
Safe’s adoption has grown steadily across market cycles, further accelerated by the collapse of centralized service providers caught misusing user funds. In the week following the FTX implosion, Safe saw net inflows exceeding $800 million as users migrated to self-custodial solutions—an indicator of strong market confidence—and significantly expanded the user base across its product and service ecosystem.
Today, Safe powers:
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Over $100 billion in total value secured across 15+ networks
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Over $1 billion in monthly transaction volume on Ethereum alone
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8 million Safe accounts created (up 290% year-over-year)
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42 million Safe transactions executed (up 350% year-over-year)
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200+ projects building on Safe accounts and tooling
Safe is now being used to enable traditional payments via debit card products like Gnosis Pay and BasedApp. For the first time, consumers can use assets in their Safe to purchase goods from any merchant accepting Visa. The Safe(Core) smart account also powers Worldcoin’s self-custody ownership stack, serving millions of users globally.
Thanks to its smart contract foundation, Safe(Wallet) is composable with other protocols and applications. Its app store currently offers access to over 100 apps spanning DeFi, NFTs, bridges, and governance, all directly accessible from the wallet interface. More importantly, Safe’s architecture enables functional expansion through third-party modules. This allows users to choose their preferred service providers and transforms Safe itself into a platform for downstream products and services.
One example is the recovery module, which allows users to designate a guardian and customize recovery conditions. Safe’s recently launched Recovery Hub leverages this module to offer a curated marketplace of crypto recovery options, starting with Sygnum and Coincover, providing tailored recovery solutions and providers for individuals, DAOs, and institutions with varying needs.
Other examples include session keys, account automation, and spending limits. The Zodiac team has so far contributed the richest set of Safe modules. But over the past year, specialized module infrastructure projects such as Rhinestone and ZenGuard have emerged, accelerating module development through developer tools and module registries, making smart accounts more powerful than ever before.
Making Web3 Accessible to Everyone
As the leading smart account provider, Safe has been at the forefront of the account abstraction movement, aiming to establish smart accounts as the default way to interact with Web3. 2023 was a pivotal year for the wallet ecosystem, marked by the mainnet deployment of the ERC-4337 EntryPoint contract and the rise of embedded wallets, enabling users to log into dapps using familiar sign-in flows.
For developers and builders, Safe(Core) is a crucial tool for integrating Safe smart accounts into any platform. It includes an account abstraction SDK designed to work agnostically with any payment provider, authentication system, or transaction relaying infrastructure, making Safe accounts compatible with nearly any development stack. The Safe(Core) SDK has maintained a leading market share as builders seek to enhance dapp usability with AA capabilities.
Safe’s commitment to the highest security standards and its proven track record enable developers to launch production-ready applications. Users can confidently interact with Safe accounts knowing they have stood the test of time. Account abstraction is only the first step toward unlocking Web3’s full potential. Safe’s plug-and-play, use-case-agnostic design, battle-tested infrastructure, and vibrant builder community position it well to tackle even more ambitious goals in the years ahead.
As long-term users and members of the Safe ecosystem, we look forward to seeing Safe’s primitives proliferate across new user segments, networks, and markets as smart accounts become the primary gateway to Web3.
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