G-Knot is a pioneering biometric technology company that develops advanced hardware and software, most notably the world’s first finger-vein-authenticated, non-custodial crypto wallet, designed to provide high-security digital asset custody through unique vascular pattern recognition. Pulse 2.0 interviewed G-Knot CEO Wes Kaplan to learn more.
Wes Kaplan’s Background
Could you tell me more about your background? Kaplan said:
“I’m the CEO of G-Knot, where we are building secure hardware and high-assurance biometric authentication to make digital identity and wallet security stronger and more usable. My background spans fintech, crypto, and institutional finance, which gives me a practical lens for bridging traditional financial systems with emerging Web3 infrastructure.”
“I previously served as CEO of Cointelegraph, where I oversaw global operations, content strategy, and partnerships, and helped scale the organization into one of the most recognized names in digital asset media during the 2021 to 2022 market cycle. Before that, at AscendEX (formerly BitMax), I led marketing and operations, supporting growth initiatives and campaigns across over 50 listings, while the company raised a $50M Series B at a $500M valuation.”
“At Tradewind Markets, I helped position the business in the tokenized precious metals space, supporting go-to-market execution, capital-raising efforts, and global visibility in collaboration with industry partners. Earlier, at BNY Mellon, I worked on the technology marketing team focused on digital transformation across technology and asset servicing, including go-to-market planning, client enablement, and thought leadership programs. My time at J.P. Morgan in Private Bank Mortgage Advisory deepened my experience in credit analysis and risk assessment, where I supported tailored lending solutions for high-net-worth clients.”
“Overall, this mix of institutional rigor and high-growth operating experience is what I bring to G-Knot as we build secure, user-centric products designed for real-world adoption.
Formation Of The Company
How did the idea for the company come together? Kaplan shared:
“G-Knot came together as a spin-out from eTunnel Inc., a Seoul-based biometric R&D firm. eTunnel spent years developing advanced biometric hardware and AI, and we saw a clear opportunity to take that deep technical foundation and bring it to market through products that people can actually use.”
“The insight was straightforward. Identity and authentication are still the weakest link in digital security. Passwords get stolen, SMS can be compromised, and even some biometric approaches can be imitated. We built G-Knot to commercialize eTunnel’s work by pairing high-assurance biometrics, including finger vein and other modalities, with secure hardware and modern software. With this, access and approvals are tied to a real person, with a user experience that is simple enough for everyday adoption.”
“Put simply, eTunnel is focused on deep technology development, and G-Knot is focused on turning that technology into intuitive consumer and enterprise products.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Kaplan reflected:
“One of my favorite memories so far was our debut at Korea Blockchain Week in Seoul in September 2025. We hosted a private event where we unveiled the G-Knot wallet presale and gave a live demo of our finger vein authentication, and it was the first time many people saw this level of biometric security working in a real product setting.”
“What made it especially memorable was watching how quickly it clicked once people understood what was happening under the hood. We use near-infrared light to capture the vein pattern inside the finger, then our tech extracts and matches that pattern in under a second. Because it is verifying something beneath the surface, it drives a very different conversation than fingerprint or face alone, especially around anti-spoofing and liveness.”
“That demo also opened up deeper discussions with industry leaders about how we tie authentication to secure hardware workflows, including air gapped signing and multi-chain support. It felt like a real transition point from deep R&D into market traction, with clear validation that the product approach resonates with both technical and non-technical audiences.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Kaplan explained:
“G-Knot is building a finger vein biometric authentication ecosystem that spans consumer and enterprise use cases. Our flagship product is our cold wallet that uses finger vein scanning to secure access and signing, to make self-custody more secure and more usable. For the wallet, we use near-infrared illumination to map a subsurface vein pattern before our AI-based pipeline converts that into a secure template, and we protect sensitive operations inside an EAL 6+ Secure Element with encrypted storage and integrity checks. The device pairs to the mobile app over BLE for daily use.”
“On the enterprise and government side, we offer biometric access products, including Smart ID fingerprint and finger vein cards and devices for PC log-on and physical access control, such as office building turnstiles or corporate login environments.”
“Under the hood, our multi-modal stack is powered by the P2N2 AI Engine, designed to support multiple biometric methods like finger vein, fingerprint, face, and iris within a single module.”
Challenges Faced
Have you faced any challenges in your sector of work recently? Kaplan acknowledged:
“Yes, we have faced a few common challenges in any security and biometric-driven category recently.”
“One challenge is balancing security with usability. In crypto and digital identity, a product can be extremely secure but still fail if everyday users cannot navigate onboarding, pairing, and recovery. We have addressed this by running structured testing and tightening the app and device flows step by step, including clearer pairing and verification steps and more consistent backup behavior, so the experience is easier to complete correctly.”
“A second challenge is moving from concept and R&D into production and reliable delivery. Biometric hardware requires stability across firmware, sensors, and app integration, and it takes disciplined iteration to reach production readiness. We have leaned into frequent integration testing and firmware updates to keep improving device behavior in real conditions.A third challenge is building trust in a market where people are understandably skeptical of security claims. How we overcome that is by grounding our story in real validation and credible partners. For example, our core technology partner eTunnel achieved KISA certifications and has been selected as a smart card supplier for military personnel authentication tied to the International Telecommunication Union under the UN, which helps reinforce that this is not theoretical tech.Overall, our approach to challenges is straightforward. We take a security-first posture, validate in real-world environments, and keep iterating until the product experience matches the level of assurance we aim to deliver.”
Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching Kaplan noted:
“Since launching, we have evolved from a strong concept and proven biometric R&D into a production-focused product and ecosystem. Early on, the priority was validating that finger vein biometrics could deliver a more secure and usable alternative to passwords, recovery phrases, and fragile recovery flows. As we moved forward, the work became about hardening every layer, from biometric reliability to firmware stability, to the mobile app experience, so that the product could stand up to real-world usage.”
“On the technology side, we have continued advancing the biometric engine that powers our stack, including expanding performance and supporting a multi-modal approach within a single integrated module. In parallel, we have tightened the device and app workflows through structured testing and integration, which is what turns cool tech into something consumers and enterprises can trust day to day.”
“Operationally, we have shifted into production readiness and commercialization, including preparing for token and wallet presale activity and building a pipeline around go-to-market partnerships. We also formalized our relationship with eTunnel through an exclusive agreement covering global supply rights to the underlying biometric authentication technology and security devices, which has helped accelerate our path from R&D to market delivery.”
“And finally, we have started proving market pull. We have moved beyond building in isolation and into active conversations with investors, partners, and our community, including live demos and feedback loops at major regional events in Seoul and Tokyo. Alongside that, we have increased public visibility through media and thought leadership, including in-studio discussions on Nasdaq TradeTalks.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Kaplan cited:
“Some of our most significant milestones have been turning deep biometric R&D into a commercial platform with real market credibility. A foundational step was establishing G-Knot and signing an exclusive agreement with eTunnel for global supply rights to their biometric authentication technology and security devices, which gave us a clear path to scale commercialization.”
“From there, we focused on validation. eTunnel achieved meaningful milestones that strengthened trust, including KISA certifications and selection as a smart card supplier for military personnel authentication tied to the International Telecommunication Union under the UN. In parallel, the development of the P2N2 AI Engine for integrated biometric algorithms helped lay the groundwork for supporting multiple biometric modalities across consumer and enterprise use cases.”
Customer Success Stories
Can you share any specific customer success stories? Kaplan highlighted:
“One of our strongest institutional validation points is our work with the United Nations International Telecommunication Union, or ITU. Our biometric Smart ID solution is currently supplied to the UN ITU and is designed for secure identity verification in real workplace environments, including physical access control and PC log-on, without requiring a full rip-and-replace of existing RF reader infrastructure. It is built to reduce unauthorized use if a card is lost or stolen, with fingerprint data encrypted and securely stored within the card to reduce biometric leakage risk and support GDPR-oriented requirements.”
“This capability is built on years of biometric R&D by eTunnel, whose AI-driven biometric engine underpins the performance of our authentication stack.”
Funding/Revenue
Are you able to discuss funding and/or revenue metrics? Kaplan revealed:
“Funding and revenue details are private at this early stage, as we prioritize product refinement and presale execution. We’re bootstrapped via eTunnel’s R&D and strategic investments, with presale proceeds funding 2026 expansions.”
Total Addressable Market (TAM)
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Kaplan assessed:
“We look at TAM in two layers.”
“At the umbrella level, we target the biometric systems market. The biometric system market is projected to grow from USD 53.22B in 2025 to USD 95.14B by 2030, a 12.3% CAGR, driven by demand for secure authentication, according to MarketsandMarkets.”
“Within that, our near-term entry point is cold crypto wallets, meaning hardware wallets. According to Mordor Intelligence, the hardware wallet market is expected to reach USD 0.56B in 2025 and grow to USD 2.06B by 2030, at a 29.95% CAGR. You will see different estimates depending on how a report defines the category. For example, Grand View Research sizes the hardware wallets segment higher, estimating USD 4.35B in 2024, growing to USD 33.70B by 2033. So we frame our TAM as the large and growing biometrics market, with a focused wedge in cold wallet hardware where security and self-custody trends are accelerating, and where our finger vein approach can differentiate on both assurance and usability.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Kaplan affirmed:
“G-Knot is differentiated because we do not treat biometrics as a convenience feature. We use it as a true security primitive, pairing finger vein authentication with secure hardware so access and approvals are tied to a real person, not a password, PIN, or recovery phrase. Unlike most wallets and access systems that rely on surface biometrics, finger vein captures a pattern beneath the skin using infrared and requires a live finger with blood flow. We also built the system with privacy in mind by keeping biometric data on the device and locally encrypted, reducing centralized attack vectors and supporting privacy and compliance-oriented deployments.”
“From a product standpoint, we focus on eliminating common failure points in custody and access, meaning fewer passwords and fewer fragile recovery workflows, while enabling fast unlock and practical redundancy through multi-finger enrollment and multiple patterns per finger. Our multimodal stack is powered by the P2N2 AI Engine, designed to support multiple biometric modalities within a single module and improve recognition speed and learning performance, providing flexibility across both consumer devices and enterprise deployments. Finally, we are not just a wallet company – the same core technology also supports enterprise-grade biometric access devices for PC log-on and facility access, which differentiates us from single-product competitors.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Kaplan emphasized:
“Our near-term goals are to take what we have built and scale it responsibly by delivering production-quality hardware, a polished user experience, and real-world deployments that prove reliability. We are focused on completing internal testing, hardening firmware and app workflows, and ramping manufacturing and fulfillment so we can meet demand from the presale and broader customer base. In parallel, we will keep raising the bar on both security and usability by improving biometric performance, liveness protections, and secure element-based signing flows while simplifying onboarding, pairing, and recovery so mainstream users can use the product correctly. We also plan to expand ecosystem support by broadening chain and asset coverage, deepening dApp connectivity through WalletConnect-style usage, and improving transaction clarity so users can confidently verify what they are signing. Alongside consumer growth, we will continue pursuing enterprise adoption through pilots and partnerships for corporate PC log-in and facility access, working with channel partners who already sell into those environments. Additionally, we intend to build long-term credibility through strategic partnerships, ongoing community engagement, and third-party validation, which strengthens trust with customers and institutions.”
Additional Thoughts
Any other topics you would like to discuss? Kaplan concluded:
“One topic I would add is our go-to-market plan and how we are building the ecosystem around the product. We we used a presale rollout for the G-Knot wallet, and we’ve also launched the GKNT token as part of our broader strategy. We’ve engaged strategic stakeholders who can help accelerate distribution, partnerships, and real-world adoption, and we remain open to discussions with groups that bring meaningful value beyond capital, such as channel access, enterprise relationships, and ecosystem integration. You can learn more at https://www.g-knot.io/, and the wallet presale is available at https://store.g-knot.io/.”
