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One Wallet, Many Chains: Echelon Milestone Enabling Unified Asset Management

April 25, 2025

One Wallet, Many Chains: Echelon Milestone Enabling Unified Asset Management


  • Cross-Chain Integration
  • Native Ethereum
  • Secure Signing
  • Treasury Unification
  • Bridge -Free Unification

Let's explore one of the recent milestones on the Internet Computer.

In Africa and other emerging markets, where users often rely on mobile-first interfaces and need cost-effective solutions, having a single wallet or app that can manage multiple blockchain assets securely can be a game-changer for DeFi adoption, remittances, and savings tools.

The fragmented nature of blockchain ecosystems has long been a pain point for users and developers alike. Juggling multiple wallets, navigating different standards, and paying high fees for bridging assets across chains has made the user experience more complicated than it needs to be.

The Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) is solving this challenge head-on with its Echelon milestone—a bold leap toward unified, cross-chain asset management. By enabling native support for Ethereum (ETH) and ERC-20 tokens, Echelon turns the Internet Computer into a multi-chain powerhouse that reimagines how users, developers, and DAOs interact with digital assets.

What is Echelon? Echelon is one of the core milestones in the 2025 ICP roadmap under the Digital Assets category. It builds upon the infrastructure laid by the Nexus milestone, extending support from ICP-native tokens to externally issued digital assets, starting with Ethereum and ERC-20 standards.

With Echelon, Internet Computer canisters (smart contracts) can:

  • Hold ETH and ERC-20 tokens natively
  • Send and receive tokens across chains without bridges
  • Sign Ethereum transactions using threshold ECDSA
  • Act as custodians or fund managers for digital asset portfolios

The Problem Echelon Solves In today’s blockchain ecosystem:

  • Users must rely on custodial wallets or use multiple browser extensions to interact with assets across chains.
  • DAOs and protocols manage fragmented treasuries, with limited visibility across ecosystems.
  • Developers face high complexity when integrating cross-chain features.
  • Bridges—often seen as a go-to solution—remain major security risks.

Echelon changes the game by allowing canisters on the Internet Computer to directly interface with the Ethereum network, eliminating middlemen, bridges, and third-party custodians.

Key Features of the Echelon Milestone

Native Ethereum & ERC-20 Support

Internet Computer smart contracts (canisters) can now:

  • Hold and manage ETH like a regular Ethereum wallet.
  • Interact with ERC-20 tokens as first-class citizens—minting, burning, transferring, and querying balances.

Threshold ECDSA for Native Signing

ICP’s powerful cryptography allows canisters to generate and use Ethereum-compatible signatures. This enables:

  • Secure, decentralized transaction signing
  • True interoperability with Ethereum dapps and contracts

Unified Treasury Management

DAOs, communities, and protocols can now:

  • Manage assets from multiple chains using a single treasury dashboard
  • Execute cross-chain transactions programmatically via canisters
  • Automate fund distribution, payroll, and investments using smart logic

No Bridges, No Wraps

Unlike traditional interoperability protocols, ICP’s Echelon uses direct integration with no need for wrapped tokens or external bridge protocols, drastically improving security and speed.

Why This is important for the Future of Web3

The Echelon milestone reflects ICP’s broader mission: to create a seamless, scalable, and interoperable Web3 ecosystem. For users, this means better UX. For developers, it’s fewer hoops to jump through. For institutions, it unlocks a pathway to non-custodial fund management and multi-chain strategies without technical debt.

What Comes Next? With Echelon Live, future upgrades will likely:

  • Extend support to other major chains like Solana, BNB Chain, or Polygon
  • Introduce abstracted wallets where users don’t even need to know what chain an asset is on
  • Power cross-chain DeFi, enabling users to stake ETH, earn rewards in ICP-native protocols, or swap ERC-20 tokens using ICP's speed and low fees

Conclusion

Echelon Milestone can be described as a “Wallet That Speaks Every Chain's Language”. Echelon isn’t just another cross-chain tool, it’s a rethink of how Web3 should work. A world where wallets don’t just store assets but manage them intelligently across blockchains is finally coming to life on the Internet Computer.


Article By: Mana Lamja