Crypto exchange Bitget is making significant strides to establish its own on-chain ecosystem, mirroring the efforts of industry giants like Binance, OKX, and KuCoin. As part of this initiative, Bitget Wallet has launched a $10 million ecosystem fund denominated in its native token, BWB, which is slated to debut this quarter.

According to a statement shared with Cointelegraph on May 15, the Bitget Onchain Layer will integrate a range of native decentralized applications (DApps) through collaborations with developers. “The Bitget Onchain Layer will not only integrate a host of native DApps within Bitget Wallet through joint collaboration with builders,” the statement said. It further elaborated that the $10 million BWB Ecosystem Fund has been established to accelerate the development of the Bitget Onchain Layer and support aligned projects.

BWB, the native token of Bitget Wallet, is similar to the Trust Wallet token (TWT), serving multiple functions within the ecosystem. Bitget’s exchange also features its own native token, BGB, which provides benefits such as trading fee offsets, analogous to Binance’s BNB, KuCoin’s KCS, and OKX’s OKB tokens.

The initial focus of the Bitget OnChain Layer Ecosystem Fund will be on investing in and incubating various Web3 trading services. Current projects include three pre-market price aggregators, an on-chain derivatives market, and trading bots that will enhance Bitget Wallet’s interchain swap service.

Bitget Wallet, a prominent self-custody wallet in the Asia-Pacific region with over 20 million users, plans to launch its native token, BWB, this quarter. During the pre-generation event, 5% of BWB’s 1 billion maximum supply will be reserved for community members. Post-launch, BWB will facilitate governance voting, participation in Launchpad events, staking rewards, and payment of multichain gas fees, powering the Bitget Wallet and OnChain Layer ecosystem.

This initiative underscores Bitget’s commitment to expanding its presence across the crypto ecosystem, facilitating everyday trading activities. This follows the example set by Binance, which launched its BNB blockchain in September 2020, and Trust Wallet’s TWT token, now a separate entity with a market cap exceeding $1 billion. Similarly, OKX has developed a self-custody wallet and Web3 Marketplace for trading NFTs, interacting with DApps, and engaging in innovative trading activities like Bitcoin Runes and BRC-20 tokens. Recently, the OKX Web3 Marketplace became the leading platform for trading Bitcoin Runes, capturing a 51.08% market share.

Bitget’s efforts to establish its own on-chain ecosystem and introduce the BWB token reflect the growing trend among crypto exchanges to enhance their service offerings and deepen their involvement in the broader blockchain space.