Viktor Radchenko is the Founder of Trust Wallet, a noncustodial multi-crypto wallet app founded in 2017. Viktor Radchenko was the CEO of the platform until March 2022 when he stepped down from his position to focus on his family. ^[1][2]

Career

Viktor Radchenko, originally from Ukraine, relocated to the US in 2011. Radchenko served as an early employee at Symphony, a secure, cloud-based communication platform. Before that, he was involved in co-founding Trucker Path, a startup in the logistics industry that offered navigational support and freight matching services. ^[5]

Trust Wallet

Viktor Radchenko founded Trust Wallet in November 2017. It is a non-custodial cryptocurrency wallet built to enable buying, sending, receiving, trading, and storing of cryptocurrencies. Trust Wallet can be used to access Ethereum-based and EVM-Compatible tokens, blockchains, and crypto assets, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), BNB, and Tether (USDT).

In an interview, Vicktor stated that he initially created Trust Wallet to store tokens on his phone.

"The biggest problem that initially led to the creation of Trust Wallet is I wanted to store my tokens on my phone. That was the problem I was solving myself because I participated in different ICOs back in 2017, and there were no products on mobile that allowed you to store tokens directly on your phone.
So that was missing, and I thought “okay, I’ll build that”. So I built it, and that was the first version of Trust that came out two weeks after I started working on it." - Viktor on the creation of Trust Wallet^[3]

He also mentioned that he created Trust Wallet to make crypto accessible to everyone:

"We’re trying to give access to crypto to people who’ve never had access to crypto before. So simplifying it, and making crypto accessible. That’s the baseline. And by that I mean having the ability for people to create wallets without limits; so no KYC, you are free to set up a wallet anywhere you want, any country." - Viktor Radchenko^[3]

Binance Acquires Trust Wallet

In July 2018, Binance acquired Trust Wallet for an undisclosed amount, making Trust Wallet the official decentralized wallet of the Binance platform. Speaking on the acquisition, Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, highlighted the importance of wallets for the crypto economy and reiterated the service that Trust Wallet provides:

“Wallets are the most fundamental interface to the crypto economy, and a secure and easy-to-use wallet is key to proliferate the adoption of cryptocurrencies. Trust Wallet is simply the best in this category in my opinion"

“Viktor and the Trust team are product and user focused. The team is small and highly effective and shares the same values as Binance. The combination of Trust Wallet’s team and product is the perfect epitome of what we look for in a great company" - CZ stated.^[4]

Viktor Radchenko also commented;

“This is an incredible opportunity for Trust Wallet to work with the biggest and the most respected exchange in the world, but we also feel as though we are aligning with a partner that shares a similar approach towards security and user management,”

“This is a great partnership and we look forward to collaborating with the amazing team from Binance.” - said Radchenko on the acquisition.

Trust Wallet Token (TWT)

Trust Wallet Token (TWT) is a BEP-20 utility token that lets users participate in the wallet's decision-making process. TWT holders vote on and propose in-app features, updates, and other key changes. TWT holders can also participate in the governance of Trust Wallet and can vote on Trust Wallet update proposals, helping to shape the development of the app. Trust Wallet Token was initially launched as a BEP-2 asset on Binance Chain but was relaunched as a BEP-20 token on Binance Smart Chain in October 2020. ^[6][7]

According to Radchenko, TWT was initially created as a "fun thing";

"When we created it we wanted to give people a digital asset that doesn’t have any value — that was the intention. We were building a referral system, and thought, okay, we can give points to people, but then they’re kind of useless because you don’t actually own anything. So we thought it would be cool if we gave out a token that represents a digital asset." - Vikto stated in an interview^[6]

He also stated that the token is useful in governance and education;

"TWT is proving useful in governance, and what’s really cool about governance is that we’re able to educate people that there is this thing called governance, and you can vote for things in general — it doesn’t have to be Trust Wallet, but I think Trust Wallet is an example where you make that decision, you give your voice for things you want."^[6]

In terms of the supply of the Trust Wallet Token (TWT), Radchenko said that he initially created the highest supply and it was 90 billion when it was being distributed. But in 6 months, only about 200 million was distributed so the team decided to cut the supply, and 99% was burned leaving 1 billion. ^[6]

"Now we have a billion, instead of 90 billion, and we still have enough tokens to distribute to so many people in the world, and we continue doing it. We’ve already distributed around 25–30 percent or so of the tokens. And then we’re going to continue distributing the rest within the next five, ten years. We just want to incentivize people to be in this community, get educated about the product, and about crypto." - Radchenko explained. ^[6]

Radchenko Steps Down as CEO

Viktor Radchenko resigned as CEO of Trust Wallet in March 2022 to prioritize his family. He had been with Trust Wallet since its inception and announced his resignation in 2022 after 5 years of service. ^[8]

“I’ve decided to step down from running Trust Wallet. It’s been an incredible 4-5 years journey of building and making crypto more accessible.”

"From now on, I will take some time off to recharge and then will continue helping crypto to grow #ToTheMoon." - Viktor Radchenko tweeted ^[8]

He was replaced by Eowyn Chen^[9], former Binance Marketing VP.

"@EowynChen will be taking on my responsibilities to continue pushing Trust Wallet forward and bringing more users to the web3 ecosystem." - Radchenko tweeted^[10]