Consensys Breaks Into Two: MetaMask and Institutional Arm to Operate Independently
Consensys is splitting into two independent companies by the end of 2026. The company's financial infrastructure and consumer finance arms will operate separately, with MetaMask handling self-custodial wallets and Consensys focusing on Ethereum protocols and institutional infrastructure.
The decision comes as financial institutions and market infrastructure increasingly adopt tokenization at their core, according to David Cunningham, President of Consensys. He stated that financial institutions are moving towards 'always-on operations' with tokenization at the center.
MetaMask will retain its self-custodial wallet, which has seen 100 million downloads across 190 countries and facilitated trillions of dollars in cumulative transaction volume. Joe Lubin, who co-founded Consensys, will serve as Chairman and CEO of MetaMask, while Mike Kriak will lead Consensys as CEO.
Consensys will focus on the institutional stack, including its Besu client, which underpins permissioned EVM networks in traditional finance. The company has also set up the Linea Association to decentralize the Linea zkEVM network and launched the LINEA token for governance.