In Brief:
- MetaMask has partnered with three crypto-focused custodians to attract more institutional capital into the digital asset market.
- ConsenSys introduced MetaMask Institutional in May.
- MetaMask surpassed ten million active users in August.
MetaMask, a decentralised finance (DeFi) wallet and browser plugin, has teamed up with three crypto-focused custodians as part of a larger drive to bring more institutional capital into the digital asset market.
BitGo, Qredo, and Cactus Custody signed new MetaMask Institutional agreements with the company on Tuesday. MetaMask Institutional Wallet is a new product offering in the DeFi market that allows institutional investors to access large quantities of collateral.
This is a crucial milestone to allow organizations to leverage leading custody solutions in order to seamlessly discover and interact with DeFi. It will provide small and large organizations with access to DeFi that fulfills institution-required security, operational efficiency, and compliance needs.
MetaMask Institutional was launched in May by ConsenSys, the Ethereum developer behind MetaMask. When asked how MetaMask Institutional integrates with other MetaMask features, a spokesman told: “MetaMask Institutional provides the same functionality and features as MetaMask — i.e. Connectivity to the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ecosystem spanning 10s of thousands of venues for trading, staking, lending, and borrowing across all EVM-compatible (Ethereum Virtual Machine) chains.”
The way private keys are stored differs the most between MetaMask Institutional and the company’s main browser and wallet plugin. According to the spokesperson: “Within MetaMask, keys are stored in the extension. MetaMask Institutional has built an SDK (software development kit) and API (Application Programming Interface) that connects to qualified custodians and custody tech stacks. This offers organizations unrivaled access to DeFi with the most trusted wallet in DeFi along with institution-required storing of private keys.”
The institutional service also includes built-in compliance features that analyse DeFi pools for Know Your Transactions.
One of the most potential applications of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency is decentralised finance. The DeFi ecosystem has almost $195 billion in total value locked.
According to industry estimates, Ethereum-based protocols account for roughly 69 percent of the total. According to new statistics released this week by DappRadar, the value locked in DeFi has increased by 936 percent in the last year.
The increase of active users on MetaMask and other browser extensions has coincided with DeFi’s growth. MetaMask topped 10 million active users in August, after expanding nineteen-fold in just over a year. You can create your own MetaMask wallet.
