Xapo Wealth
Xapo Bank built its reputation on one promise: don't lose my Bitcoin. It became a fully licensed bank serving members in emerging markets (primarily Latin America and Africa) who chose it because it is calm, conservative, and safe. Wealth was the next chapter: giving those members access to 600 assets (whole and fractional shares across stocks, ETFs, and a curated set of cryptocurrencies) inside the bank they already trust.
I shaped the design direction and strategy for Wealth and designed its core flows end to end. I worked with designers, developers, stakeholders, legal, and marketing, because in a regulated bank every word on every screen is a compliance conversation.
The Problem
Investing products usually optimize for engagement: green flashes, streaks, day-trading energy. Xapo members are the opposite audience. Our research showed the core user: 50+ years old, $200K+ in savings, living in emerging markets, looking for dollar-denominated stability. They are long-term, safety-first, and allergic to casino patterns.
And we shipped into the hardest possible moment: the 2022-23 downturn, when a series of high-profile platform failures had just taught the world that crypto platforms lose people's money. Trust in the industry had collapsed.
So the brief was this: extend the trust of "don't lose my Bitcoin" into "grow my wealth." Build access to markets that feels like the bank, not a gambling app. Reassurance wasn't a nice-to-have; it was the job.
Reassurance wasn't a nice-to-have; it was the job.
Goals
A cautious member should travel from curiosity to a funded first investment feeling like they're banking, not gambling
Six hundred assets should feel navigable, not overwhelming
Ship a real MVP in one quarter without a single corner cut on clarity or compliance
Design for a user base that is older, wealthier, and more risk-averse than typical fintech adopters
UX Thinking
The research phase was fueled by the stakeholders' vision: enable people in emerging markets to access US dollars and invest in stocks, crypto, and other financial instruments. We validated this through a questionnaire to existing Xapo users. The findings confirmed the hypothesis: users with significant savings wanted investment advisors and wealth expansion tools. Xapo wasn't chasing user volume; it was chasing user quality.
I benchmarked 20+ competitor apps (via 11:FS) to understand which functions were table stakes and where I could add value. The gap was clear: most investing apps were built for young, engaged traders. None were built for cautious, older savers who wanted to park wealth, not play with it.
The journeys we mapped:
First-time investor: Eligibility check → KYC → fund Wealth → browse → first investment
Existing member adding Wealth: Discover Wealth tab → understand what it is → fund → invest
Repeat investor: Browse portfolio → add to position → review → confirm
Edge cases that shaped the design:
- Eligibility rejectionNot all members qualified. Clear explanations and alternative paths, not dead ends.
- Out of trading hoursShow status transparently instead of a disabled button with no context.
- Trading haltExplain why, not just block the action.
- Insufficient balanceOffer transfer from main savings, don't just say "no."
- Order errorClear recovery path with specific next steps, not generic "try again."
Alternatives we explored and rejected:
A separate "Invest" tab in main navigationRejectedfelt like a different product. Wealth lives inside the existing wallet structure.
Real-time stock tickers and price alertsRejectedtoo trading-app, contradicts calm positioning.
Social features (see what friends buy)Rejectedwrong audience. Privacy-first members; social proof would erode trust.
Gamification (streaks, badges)Rejectedexplicitly off-brand. "Calm by design" means no dopamine loops.
A "simple mode" vs. "pro mode" splitRejectedbifurcated the experience. Instead, flows are adaptive: simple by default, advanced controls available.
Decisions
05.1
Curation is a trust feature
Six hundred assets is a paradox: enough choice to be a real investing product, enough to paralyze a careful person. The catalog was built to be entered gently: search when you know what you want, curated paths when you don't, and a deliberately selective crypto list rather than an everything-listed free-for-all. Fractional shares lowered the stakes of the first step: a first investment can be small, reversible, and calm.
05.2
Design the trust moments
In a trading app, the hero screen is the chart. In a bank, the hero screens are the ones where money moves. We spent disproportionate design time on the moments where a member's anxiety peaks: funding Wealth for the first time, reviewing and confirming an order, and understanding exactly how assets are held. The custody story is told at the point of purchase, not buried in a help center.
05.3
Calm by design
The visual and behavioral language was tuned against the casino: long-term framing over tick-by-tick drama, restrained data presentation, confirmation patterns that slow the member down at exactly the right moments. The measure of success was simple: Wealth had to feel like a room in the same bank, not a door into a different building.
Process
Every journey started as a sketch alongside project managers, then flow maps, then wireframes. Visual design entered only once the structure survived scrutiny from legal and stakeholders. The POC was built with minimal resources: an Android frontend, a backend team, and three KYC screens to prove eligibility and asset access could work.
After the POC succeeded, I worried about how the slice-by-slice roadmap would affect the overall in-app experience. I created a large vision map to show stakeholders and product teams what we were aiming for. It helped the campaign, gave dev teams a north star, and let us think through the roadmap better.
For MVP, we improved the eligibility flow, optimized KYC to a minimum, expanded requirements with account details and Wealth statements, and grew the asset list to 150+ stocks. Corner cases were thought through. The design system evolved alongside, with new components and requirements appearing constantly and increasing complexity, but the system absorbed it.
POC
The POC: minimal resources, maximum proof Progression
From sketch to shipped: the unglamorous middle where most real decisions happen KYC
KYC optimized to a minimum: compliance as a feature, not a barrier Errors
Every unhappy path designed to build trust: honest states, clear recovery
Impact
I shaped the design direction and strategy, designed core flows end to end, and partnered with engineering, legal, and marketing through a company transition and shifting product map.
- 930
closed beta users before official release (average of $450 invested per user in real money)
- 93%
task completion rate: onboarding, search, buy/sell, and transaction detail flows
- $450
average invested per beta user (real money)
- 1 month
MVP shipped from kickoff; extended the following quarter
- 150 feedback tickets collected, primarily around onboarding eligibility criteria and feature requests, which informed post-MVP iterations
- Amplitude dashboard showed significant increase in engagement and conversion rates
- What I also shipped alongside Wealth: Lightning Network, USDC, and USDT rails inside the regulated wallet.
Hindsight
If I revisited this project today, I would change three things:
Push harder on the "first investment" guided journey. We assumed curiosity would carry users from browsing to buying, but the beta data showed hesitation at the funding step. A clearer "fund → browse → invest" funnel with progress indication would have accelerated activation.
Dedicate more time to north-star exploration of the big picture. Working in slices kept momentum, but it made the long-term goal harder to hold onto, and a few flow decisions had to be revisited once the pieces finally came together.
Design for the "portfolio empty state" more deliberately. The first-time Wealth screen with $0.00 felt like a dead end. I'd add a clearer "start with $5" CTA and a sample portfolio preview to reduce the psychological barrier of the first investment.