MetaMask Splits From Consensys to Go Solo With 100M Downloads

The Wallet Most of Crypto Uses Is Now Its Own Company

Consensys Software Inc., the company that built MetaMask, said on September 9 that it will separate into two independently operated businesses. The consumer side keeps the MetaMask name and the app. The protocols and institutional infrastructure side becomes a newly formed company that carries the Consensys name.

It is an unusual move for crypto. Most companies in the sector spend years bolting products together. This one is doing the opposite, pulling itself apart on the argument that serving ordinary users and serving banks have become two different jobs.

According to the company’s announcement, the separation is expected to be complete by the end of 2026.

Who Gets What in the Split

MetaMask keeps the wallet, the browser extension, the mobile app and everything else pointed at retail users. Joe Lubin, the Ethereum co-founder who started Consensys, becomes chairman and chief executive of the company.

The new Consensys takes the Protocols Group and the institutional blockchain work. That includes Linea, its Ethereum layer-2 network, plus the Besu and Teku client software that keeps Ethereum itself running. Mike Kriak becomes chief executive there, with David Cunningham as president and Lubin remaining executive chairman.

The infrastructure half is not a small business. Citi, the Depository Trust Company and BNY Mellon all use Besu, The Block reported.

A Wallet With 100 Million Downloads in 190 Countries

The scale numbers explain why MetaMask can stand on its own. The company says the wallet has surpassed 100 million downloads in roughly 190 countries and has processed trillions of dollars in cumulative transaction volume since its launch.

That reach is the asset. It is also the constraint, because a product used by that many beginners cannot be run like enterprise middleware.

“MetaMask grew out of that work into the world’s most widely used self-custodial wallet, and today it’s becoming something larger,” Lubin said in the announcement.

What Self-Custody Means When the Company Changes Shape

This is the part that matters for anyone holding coins in the app, and it is simpler than it sounds.

A self-custodial digital wallet does not hold your money the way a bank does. Your coins sit on the blockchain, and the wallet is just the key that unlocks them. The private key lives on your device, not on a company server. That is why a corporate reshuffle does not move anybody’s balance: there is no vault to hand over.

Consensys said the app, user assets, private keys and access all remain unchanged, and that customers do not need to take any action because of the restructuring. The trade-off is the one self-custody always carries. Lose the key or the recovery phrase and no support desk anywhere can restore the funds.

MetaMask Has Been Growing a Financial Product Line

The split makes more sense against what MetaMask has already shipped this year. In February it opened access to roughly 200 US stocks, exchange-traded funds and commodities in tokenized form through Ondo Global Markets, Cointelegraph reported.

It launched a Mastercard-enabled spending card across 49 US states, paying crypto rewards in its own mUSD stablecoin. In June, it added a Money Account offering up to 4% variable APY on mUSD balances.

Payments, savings, investing, and a card are not a wallet roadmap. It is a consumer finance roadmap that explains the decision to give that business its own board, budget, and chief executive.

The IPO and Token Questions Nobody Answered

Two obvious follow-up questions went unanswered on the day of the announcement. The company stayed quiet on whether either entity is heading for a public listing, and quiet on token plans, despite Lubin having previously confirmed that a MASK token was coming as part of decentralising the wallet.

A cleaner corporate structure could make either path easier to pursue, since a consumer business and an infrastructure business can be valued on very different terms. Separating them would at least allow each side to be judged on its own numbers rather than being blended into a single balance sheet. Nothing has been filed or confirmed, so both remain open questions rather than plans.

Consumer Crypto and Institutional Crypto Are Splitting Apart

The interesting signal here is not the org chart. It is the admission that these two audiences have drifted far enough apart to need separate companies.

Institutions want tokenization rails, compliance and settlement. Citi’s June 2026 “Tokenization 2030” report, cited in the announcement, estimated tokenized assets could reach between $5.5 trillion and $8.2 trillion by 2030. Retail users want an app that holds their money, spends it and pays a yield, and mostly do not care what is underneath.

The same divide showed up in Telegram’s billion-user wallet rollout earlier this month, where the pitch was convenience rather than protocol design. Consensys is among the first major builders to redraw its own structure around that gap, and if the consumer half performs, it may not be the last. For anyone watching crypto prices for a read on the sector, the more telling development this week happened on an org chart, not a chart.