When the Safe project first launched, the vision was clear: build a decentralized ecosystem around the Safe Smart Account, with Safe{Wallet} as an open-source community interface. To protect diversity and resilience, all instances of Safe{Wallet} were deliberately operated by independent entities and teams (Core Contributors GmbH at app.safe.global, Protofire at app.safe.protofire.io or Den at safe.onchainden.com), while the intellectual property was held by the non-profit Safe Foundation (@safefndn).

Why the Old Setup No Longer Worked

Over time, expectations from users, partners, and institutions rose dramatically. Reliability, uptime, governance, and enterprise-grade standards became non-negotiable. At the same time, the Foundation’s ability to influence the hosted versions of Safe{Wallet} and ensure they meet those standards was limited, because these products were operated by independent parties.

This distance created problems:

• Governance gaps: The foundation had limited direct influence over how instances of Safe{Wallet} were operated.

• Misaligned incentives: Safe{Wallet} operators monetized their services largely through support/maintenance contracts with networks/L2 teams, risking a divergence in strategic priorities to optimize for this revenue model.

• Reliability concerns: Downtimes and incidents, including the Bybit incident, showed that a single operator’s impact on the reputation of Safe{Wallet} as an open-source solution can be significant.

What started as a deliberate separation to foster diversity, over time, turned into a structure that was too distant and risking increasingly misaligned priorities.

What’s New

To address these challenges, Safe Labs (@SafeLabs_), a fully owned subsidiary of the Safe Foundation, will operate its instance of Safe{Wallet} on app.safe.global. Users will have to accept the Terms & Conditions of Safe Labs to migrate their accounts.

This shift establishes a direct link between the operations of Safe{Wallet}, the Foundation, and by extension the SafeDAO. It aligns incentives, governance, and funding, making it possible to invest at the scale required to meet today’s expectations.

New Leadership

Rahul Rumalla (@rahulrumalla) has stepped up as CEO of Safe Labs. He will lead this transition and chart the course for Safe{Wallet}’s future development.

More Aligned Monetization

By bringing an instance of Safe{Wallet} into the Foundation’s orbit, new monetization paths can be explored that align with ecosystem growth. Future monetization paths can be tied more closely to the SAFE Token and be reinvested back into the product and ecosystem.

Stronger Governance

The Foundation can act directly through exercising its shareholder rights, rather than being limited to influence from the sidelines.

What is Not Changing

This is a deliberate step in order to invest into an instance of Safe{Wallet} that can meet enterprise-grade standards. However, the commitment to build out the open-source infrastructure and foster client diversity is going to stay. The ability to fully run the necessary infrastructure to manage Safe Smart Accounts is core to the mission of the Safe Foundation.

What this means for Users

The Safe{Wallet} interface on app.safe.global will be operated by Safe Labs starting October 15th, 2025.

In the coming months you can expect:

• Enterprise-grade reliability: Major investments in infrastructure, uptime, and resilience are aiming to make the entire platform truly enterprise-grade. Turning Safe Labs’ Safe{Wallet} into the most resilient and secure, and enterprise-grade self-custody platform in the industry, meeting the high bar that users rightfully expect.

• Faster product cycles: A more opinionated product direction and quicker execution. Stronger obsession over creating user-value.

• Stronger governance: Closer strategic alignment with the Foundation. Practically, the foundation can exercise direct shareholder rights and appoint the Safe Labs leadership.

• More SAFE utility: Over time, the Safe{Wallet} instance of Safe Labs can integrate more functionality linked to the SAFE token.

Safe{Wallet} was born as a community interface. That will not change. What will change is the structure around it: new leadership, tighter alignment, stronger governance, and the ability to make the investments required to take Safe{Wallet} to the next level and make it harder, better, faster, stronger.