Why did MetaMask choose to separate from Consensys?

Written by: KarenZ, Foresight News

Ten years ago, MetaMask was the "little fox" in the browser responsible for connecting dApps and popping up signature requests.

At that time, on-chain wallets were not as crowded as they are today. With its browser plugin and first-mover advantage, MetaMask quickly became the main default entry point to Ethereum and DeFi.

However, in recent years, the wallet market has undergone a transformation. MetaMask's choice is not to continue guarding the entry point but to integrate products like stablecoins, yield accounts, payment cards, perpetual contracts, prediction markets, and tokenized stocks into the same self-custody system one after another.

Now, even the company structure needs to change accordingly.

On September 9, 2026, Consensys Software Inc. announced its reorganization into two independently operated companies: the original company will be renamed MetaMask, focusing on consumer-side business; the protocol team and institutional infrastructure business will transfer to a newly established company, continuing to use the Consensys name. The two companies have already begun to operate independently, and the split process is expected to be completed by the end of 2026.

MetaMask becomes a company, no longer just a product

After the reorganization, the original Consensys Software Inc. will continue to operate under the name MetaMask, responsible for the MetaMask platform and other consumer-facing products. Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin (former Consensys founder and CEO) will serve as the Chairman and CEO of MetaMask.

The new Consensys will take on the protocol and institutional infrastructure business. Consensys Mesh CEO Mike Kriak will become the CEO of the new company, and former Consensys global institutional business head David Cunningham will serve as President, with Joe Lubin also taking on the role of Executive Chairman.

The directions of the two companies are thus clearly separated:

MetaMask targets individual users, focusing on lowering the entry barriers for on-chain finance, allowing the wallet to evolve from a transaction tool to a gateway for daily fund management. Money Account, MetaMask Card, stablecoin mUSD, as well as trading and investment features all belong to this consumer-side route.

The new Consensys targets banks, asset management firms, payment institutions, and other enterprises, focusing on developing Ethereum and institutional-grade blockchain infrastructure. Businesses like Linea, Besu, and Teku will remain within this system to support tokenized assets, stablecoins, programmable settlement, and enterprise blockchain networks.

Lubin stated in an interview with Fortune that the value growth rate of the MetaMask consumer business is faster than that of other Consensys businesses. The company indicated that the consumer side and institutional side have different growth trajectories, requiring independent management teams, investment strategies, and development spaces.

MetaMask: From on-chain wallet to "open currency platform"

MetaMask was launched in 2016, initially handling key management, transaction signing, and connecting to Ethereum applications. The core issue it aimed to solve was actually very simple: how to enable ordinary people to more easily access Ethereum?

In its tenth-anniversary article, MetaMask recalled that the project code repository was created in 2015, with the first official version going live in July 2016. Since then, MetaMask has gone through market cycles of ICOs, DeFi, and NFTs, gradually becoming one of the most widely used wallet gateways in the Ethereum ecosystem.

According to data released by MetaMask, its cumulative downloads have exceeded 100 million, covering approximately 190 countries and regions, with a transaction volume facilitated by the platform reaching trillions of dollars.

However, simply maintaining Ethereum is increasingly insufficient to meet the growth needs of a wallet company, especially as competitors have begun entering the core market of MetaMask, and the share of exchange wallets continues to rise.

MetaMask is also expanding beyond Ethereum. In 2025, MetaMask natively integrated with the Solana network and subsequently officially supported Bitcoin in December.

But multi-chain expansion is just one step. A more significant change for MetaMask is that it has started to bring more financial operations that previously required leaving the wallet directly into the wallet itself.

Currently, MetaMask's products have covered scenarios such as token exchange, perpetual contracts, prediction markets, payments, and tokenized real-world assets.

In September 2025, MetaMask launched the stablecoin mUSD. mUSD is backed 1:1 by US dollars and short-term US Treasury bonds, held in a regulated custodian, and issued through Bridge, a company under Stripe.

In February 2026, MetaMask partnered with Ondo Finance to integrate Ondo Global Markets into the wallet, supporting access to tokenized US stocks, ETFs, and commodities.

In the same month, the MetaMask Card was officially launched. It is a debit card directly linked to the MetaMask wallet, provided in partnership with Mastercard and Baanx, allowing users to spend their crypto assets directly at merchants that support Mastercard.

The product logic of MetaMask is also changing. In the past, the wallet was responsible for directing users to different financial applications; now, MetaMask aims to bring more and more functions of financial applications directly into the wallet.

If perpetual contracts, prediction markets, RWA, and payment cards can still be understood as continuously adding new features to the wallet, then the MetaMask Money Account launched this June attempts to reorganize users' funds within the wallet.

The Money Account is a self-custody account built on Monad. After users deposit funds into the Money Account, the supported assets are converted to MetaMask's own stablecoin mUSD, which then generates returns through on-chain DeFi strategies.

According to MetaMask’s official description, the infrastructure for Money Account is provided by Veda and Steakhouse Financial, with funds generating returns through DeFi markets. The typical product description given at the time of release indicated a maximum floating APY of around 4%.

For instance, if a user deposits $1,000 worth of assets into the Money Account, they can continue to use the balance to purchase tokens, perpetual contracts, prediction markets, tokenized stocks, ETFs, and commodities; they can also transfer funds to other wallets; if they meet regional and product conditions, they can even spend directly using the MetaMask Card. Unused balances will continue to participate in the yield strategy.

In other words, in the past, users' on-chain funds were often fragmented: there was a sum of money in the wallet, but to earn yields, it needed to be deposited into a DeFi protocol; to spend, it had to be withdrawn, converted, or transferred to another platform first.

The Money Account aims to compress this process into a single account: yield is generated when funds are idle, and can be directly traded, transferred, or spent when needed.

This is also why MetaMask calls it an important step towards becoming a complete financial platform. According to the company's proposed "Open Money" positioning, MetaMask hopes users can hold, transfer, grow, and use their assets on the same platform.

IPO or Token Remains Uncertain

The company's independence also easily raises two other questions: IPO or MetaMask tokens. At least for now, there are no clear answers to these two questions.

Fortune reported that Consensys had previously considered going public, but Lubin did not provide a new IPO timeline this time.

The same applies to tokens. Lubin has previously hinted at something related to MetaMask tokens, but in this report, Fortune stated that Lubin indicated the current commercial and regulatory environment has reduced the number of companies hoping to issue their own cryptocurrencies.

Additionally, this reorganization will not change the existing MetaMask users' applications, assets, keys, or access methods; users do not need to migrate wallets, re-import mnemonic phrases, or transfer tokens. MetaMask's SDK, API, and development tools will also continue to operate.

Conclusion

MetaMask is no longer satisfied with merely serving as the entry point to the on-chain world, but hopes to embed more financial activities within its own platform.

This is also the true test that the "Open Money" story must face next: as the wallet itself becomes increasingly difficult to constitute a long-term barrier, can MetaMask transform from the former connector of Web3 into a long-term self-custody financial account for users?