MetaMask’s move to an independent company caps a year in which the crypto wallet quietly rebuilt itself as a consumer finance platform, the company said in its announcement of the Consensys split on September 9.
The split, announced Wednesday, separates Consensys Software Inc. into two companies by the end of 2026: the existing entity rebrands as MetaMask, focused on consumer self-custody, while a newly formed Consensys takes the protocols and institutional infrastructure business. In the announcement, Consensys co-founder Joe Lubin said consumer finance deserves the same focus the company brought to building Ethereum, and he becomes chairman and CEO of MetaMask full time.
The consumer platform was already well past the wallet stage before the announcement. In June, MetaMask launched Money Account, a single balance that earns up to 4% variable APY on eligible mUSD stablecoin funds through decentralized lending strategies and can be spent through MetaMask Card. In February, it rolled out its Mastercard-enabled spending card across 49 US states, after earlier availability in Europe, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, and added access to 200 tokenized US stocks, exchange-traded funds and commodities through Ondo Global Markets for eligible users outside the United States.
The company’s own stablecoin, mUSD, launched in 2025 on Ethereum and Linea, with payments planned through the MetaMask debit card. December brought native Bitcoin support, after Solana, letting users hold BTC alongside assets on Ethereum and other supported networks. MetaMask started in 2016 as an Ethereum browser extension for decentralized applications. According to the company, it now has more than 100 million downloads across roughly 190 countries.
Johann Bornman, MetaMask’s senior director of product, described the direction earlier this year as a “neo-banking experience” for Money Account. The split formalizes that shift: the consumer business now stands alone, competing in payments, savings and investing rather than only crypto custody.
The new Consensys, led by CEO Mike Kriak and President David Cunningham with Lubin as executive chairman, takes Linea, Besu and Teku and will focus on blockchain infrastructure for banks and other financial institutions.
