ConsenSys to Split Into Two Companies: MetaMask and Institutional Infrastructure Unit

Consensys Software Inc. plans a two-company reorganization by year-end 2026. The current entity will be renamed MetaMask, while the Protocols Group will move into a newly created business that keeps the Consensys name, according to a Sept. 9company announcement.

Joe Lubin will chair MetaMask and serve as CEO. He will also become executive chairman of the new Consensys. Mike Kriak will lead the company as CEO, with David Cunningham as president.

MetaMask will retain its consumer self-custody business while expanding into payments, savings, investing, and traditional financial products.

Consensys Software said its consumer and institutional businesses are increasingly pursuing different priorities. The company also said financial firms are moving beyond blockchain trials and putting systems into production, alongside growing demand for stablecoins, tokenization, and infrastructure.

Lubin said Consensys teams had spent more than a decade contributing to Ethereum through work spanning the protocol, tools, and infrastructure that supported self-custodial finance and sovereign networks.

He described MetaMask as having emerged from those efforts to become the most widely used self-custodial wallet, while now developing into a platform for handling money in multiple forms.

MetaMask dates to 2016, when it launched as an Ethereum browser extension that let users interact with decentralized applications and manage crypto assets, according to aConsensys history of MetaMask.

Company figures put MetaMask downloads above 100 million across about 190 countries. Consensys Software also says the platform has facilitated cumulative transaction volume measured in trillions of dollars.

In February, eligible users outside the United States gained access to an Ondo Global Markets offering comprising 200 tokenized U.S. stocks, along with exchange-traded funds and commodities.

The MetaMask card reached 49 U.S. states later that month after earlier availability in Europe, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. The Mastercard-enabled product provides U.S. users with rewards in the mUSD stablecoin.

MetaMask launched Money Account in June, giving eligible mUSD balances access to a variable annual percentage yield of up to 4%. The yield comes from DeFi lending strategies and does not constitute interest paid by MetaMask or the stablecoin issuer.

Money Account balances can also be used for MetaMask Card purchases, trading, perpetuals, and prediction markets.

Separately, Lubin said last year that MetaMask would get a MASK token and connected the plan with the wallet’s decentralization strategy.Fortune reported around the restructuring announcement that the company was not providing information about either a possible IPO or a token.

The new Consensys will take responsibility for Linea, the Besu and Teku clients, and its institutional infrastructure business.

Its mandate will center on Ethereum infrastructure for financial institutions deploying blockchain technology for tokenization, stablecoins, and other onchain financial services.

Linea is also positioned to attract institutional capital. Notably, Consensys’ Besu infrastructure is in use at Citi, DTC, and BNY Mellon.

Cunningham said tokenization is becoming central as financial institutions and market-infrastructure providers move toward round-the-clock operations.

He added that Consensys Software’s open-source technology provides part of the technical base for that transition. The institutional business delivers interoperability infrastructure for the world’s largest financial marketplaces, where privacy, operational resilience and scalability are required, Cunningham said.