MetaMask could already be a go-to title for hundreds of thousands of crypto customers, however the standard digital pockets might probably attain a a lot wider viewers because it begins to broaden past Ethereum—beginning with Bitcoin.
Whether or not on networks like Bitcoin or Solana, customers are more and more exploring decentralized finance, or DeFi, throughout a broader vary of ecosystems.
Christian Montoya, Consensys’ product lead for MetaMask Multichain, acknowledged the development in an interview with Decrypt—and mentioned MetaMask has been constructing on this path for a while. (Disclosure: Consensys is one in all 22 buyers in an editorially unbiased Decrypt).
“Clearly, MetaMask is the O.G. Ethereum pockets, and it was constructed for Ethereum,” he mentioned. “However we've been exploring for fairly some time how we will broaden past that.”
Earlier this month, Consensys marketed a job posting for a product supervisor liable for MetaMask’s “end-to-end Bitcoin expertise,” designing and delivering potential future merchandise.
The posting references expertise with Ordinals and Runes—Bitcoin's equivalents of NFT and meme coin protocols, respectively—as a plus. And whereas “something is on the desk,” Montoya mentioned primary Bitcoin performance will undoubtedly be the start line.
“There's numerous various things that make up Bitcoin’s ecosystem, and it might be very troublesome for any pockets to attempt to seize all of that,” Montoya mentioned. “What we're actually searching for is somebody who could make strategic choices about what crucial issues to discover are.”
Created by Consensys in 2016, MetaMask turned a mainstay for a lot of within the cryptosphere when Ethereum NFTs offered at eye-popping valuations in 2021 and 2022.
However Ethereum isn't essentially the epicenter of the crypto ecosystem anymore. As the recognition of high-value NFTs pale, meme cash quickly took their place final yr—and that ecosystem flourished on Solana as a substitute of Ethereum, because of low prices and speedy transactions. DeFi has gained traction on Bitcoin, as nicely.
Ethereum has additionally confronted heavy criticism during the last yr. Whereas Bitcoin and Solana have each seen surging consideration, and the costs of each have jumped to all-time highs inside the final week alone, ETH stagnated and has remained nicely wanting its 2021 worth peak.
It's an ecosystem in turmoil: Traders and builders alike are pissed off on the languid worth motion, with some pointing to an absence of engagement by the Ethereum Basis or the sudden worth drain of layer-2 networks contributing to the state of affairs.
Only recently, the Basis dedicated to varied adjustments, with Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin adopting a extra "degen" character—a "wartime" vibe, as some have described it. Buterin's tone shift has extensively been seen as an try to rally his troops and compete with the vibrancy of the Solana neighborhood, amongst others.
Going multi-chain
This isn't the primary time that MetaMask has enabled exploration of different crypto ecosystems, although earlier efforts have been fueled by exterior builders.
In 2023, the digital pockets launched its MetaMask Snaps characteristic. It permits customers so as to add community-developed performance, reminiscent of Solflare’s Snap for managing Solana-based tokens and NFTs, or Leap’s Snap for interacting with Cosmos’ Web of Issues ecosystem.
On the similar time, Snaps allowed MetaMask builders to start modularizing the pockets’s codebase, Montoya mentioned.
Amongst options stemming from the interior work, MetaMask will launch a cross-chain API later this yr, permitting decentralized apps to attach and function throughout a number of networks concurrently, he mentioned.
“The dapps that builders can construct at this time are considerably restricted by this legacy paradigm, which is one account, one community at a time,” Montoya mentioned, including that the brand new API will assist “at the least 50 completely different non-EVM networks” already enabled via Snaps.
Whereas MetaMask began shifting full steam forward with its multi-chain method round two years in the past, Montoya mentioned the technique was validated by initiatives issuing belongings throughout completely different networks inside the previous yr.
Pudgy Penguins, the second-largest Ethereum NFT assortment by market cap, for instance, launched its PENGU token on Solana final month.
However after being the Ethereum pockets for thus lengthy, will this shift be too little too late for MetaMask? Multi-chain rivals have taken maintain lately and are gaining steam.
The NFT market Magic Eden, after first being constructed on Solana, went multi-chain in 2022. A yr later, it debuted a cross-chain pockets supporting Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and the Ethereum scaling community Polygon. That pockets was the unique manner that Magic Eden merchants might declare the current ME token drop.
Phantom, which additionally helps Bitcoin Ordinals and BRC-20 meme cash, in addition to Ethereum and scaling networks like Base, introduced a $150 million Sequence C fundraising spherical final week. The pockets has gained substantial adoption amongst meme coin merchants lately amid fixed hypothesis over a possible Phantom token drop—which the corporate has denied.
Within the Sequence C announcement, Phantom mentioned that it had achieved 15 million month-to-month energetic customers (MAUs). In the meantime, Consensys reported that MetaMask had 30 million MAUs in January 2024. The corporate didn’t have newer information out there to share for this story.
Makes an attempt to forge a path ahead throughout a multi-chain ecosystem stay fragmented, with extra growth wanted to scale towards mass adoption. However one analyst mentioned that MetaMask's shift may very well be a step in the precise path.
“No single chain can at the moment deal with the throughput wanted for a world, simultaneous, viral occasion,” VanEck Head of Digital Asset Analysis Matthew Sigel instructed Decrypt. “[MetaMask’s] transfer appears an acknowledgment of that actuality.”
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair and Andrew Hayward
