MetaMask Plans Consumer Split from Consensys

Consensys Software Inc. plans to become two independently operated companies. The existing legal entity will continue under the MetaMask name and run the wallet and consumer products, while a newly formed Consensys will take the protocols group and institutional blockchain-infrastructure business, MetaMask said on Sept. 9. The company expects the separation to complete by the end of 2026.

The division follows what each side already does. MetaMask will stay an Ethereum-first but multi-network product, giving access to tokens and blockchains and expanding into traditional financial instruments. The new Consensys keeps building on the Ethereum and Linea protocols and stays developer, steward, and maintainer of Besu, the Ethereum execution-layer client at the core of many permissioned bank networks, alongside Teku, Consensys wrote.

Joseph Lubin will be chairman and chief executive of MetaMask and executive chairman of the new Consensys. The new company will run under chief executive Mike Kriak and president David Cunningham. The announcement names Linea, Besu, and Teku among the products and teams moving over.

"For over a decade, the Consensys teams and products that ultimately became Consensys Software Inc. helped build the foundations of the Ethereum ecosystem, from the protocol itself to the tools and infrastructure that made self-custodial finance and sovereign networks possible," Lubin said. "MetaMask grew out of that work into the world's most widely used self-custodial wallet, and today it's becoming something larger: a platform where people don't just hold their assets, but manage their money in its many diverse forms and aspects."

Cunningham framed the institutional side around banks moving to round-the-clock operations. "Financial institutions and market infrastructure are moving to always-on operations with tokenization at the core. Consensys Software Inc. has built the open-source technology that is the foundation of this transition," he said.

The scale of what splits is large. MetaMask counts more than 100 million downloads across about 190 countries, with trillions of dollars in cumulative transaction volume through the platform, per the Sept. 9 release. At least 30 million of its 100 million users are active monthly, Ledger Insights reported in April.

This is the second breakup in the company's history. Lubin founded Consensus Systems in November 2014; developers Aaron Davis and Dan Finlay launched MetaMask as a browser extension in July 2016, and Infura followed that November. In 2020 the group divided into Consensys Software Inc. and Consensys Mesh, the company recounts. The milestones since include a $450 million Series D in March 2022, the Linea mainnet launch in July 2023, the MetaMask Card debut in August 2024, and the announcement of MetaMask USD in August 2025 as the first stablecoin from a self-custodial wallet.

The consumer company MetaMask inherits has spent 2026 turning the wallet into a spending account. On June 30 it launched Money Account on Monad, its home network: a self-custodial account combining automated earning, instant spending, and one-click trading, paying up to 4 percent variable APY from the moment funds arrive, with no staking, lock-ups, minimums, or manual deposits, MetaMask said. The underlying mUSD stablecoin is backed one-to-one by dollars and short-term Treasury bills in regulated custody with Bridge, a Stripe company, on M0 infrastructure. Vaults are built and run by Veda with risk curation by Steakhouse Financial, deploying into Aave and Morpho, starting with Morpho. Stablecoin conversions into mUSD run instantly at one-to-one parity with no conversion fee, and network fees are sponsored so users pay nothing to earn, spend, or manage balances.

Where the MetaMask Card is available, Money Account connects directly, paying up to 3 percent back on eligible purchases in mUSD. The card itself reached general availability across the United States on Feb. 26, including New York for the first time, on the Mastercard network via Baanx and issuing bank Cross River Bank, accepted at more than 150 million merchants. A $199-a-year Metal tier pays up to 3 percent back on the first $10,000 spent yearly against 1 percent on the standard card, per the February release. The card began as a small EU and UK pilot in August 2024 for spending USDC, USDT, and wETH on Linea, CoinDesk reported at the time. In February the company added 200 tokenized U.S. stocks, ETFs, and commodities through Ondo Global Markets for eligible users outside the United States, Cointelegraph noted.

The split lands against an unresolved question about a public listing. Consensys pushed a potential U.S. IPO to the fall at the earliest, citing weak markets, after reportedly engaging JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs to lead it. The Sept. 9 announcement says nothing about listing plans or which business might pursue one, CoinDesk noted. Lubin told Fortune the split followed recognition that the consumer operation was accruing value faster than the rest, while declining to discuss IPO timing; Fortune read the move as suggesting a standalone MetaMask could seek a listing as early as 2027, presented as its interpretation rather than company guidance, in its Sept. 9 piece.

For users, the company says nothing changes for now: app, assets, keys, and access stay as they are, SDKs and developer tooling continue, and Consensys remains a channel partner for MetaMask under undisclosed commercial terms. The release cites a Citi "Tokenization 2030" report estimating tokenized assets could reach $5.5 trillion to $8.2 trillion by 2030 as the backdrop both companies are betting on.