Consensys to Split Into Two Independent Entities by 2026

Consensys Software Inc., the blockchain technology firm founded by Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin, announced Wednesday that it will split into two independent corporate entities by the end of 2026. The restructuring will divide the firm’s core operations into distinct consumer-facing and institutional businesses.

Lubin will serve as chairman and chief executive officer of the rebranded MetaMask. The newly created Consensys will be led by CEO Mike Kriak and President David Cunningham, with Lubin serving as executive chairman. The existing corporate entity will rebrand itself as MetaMask, focusing exclusively on consumer financial services and Web3 applications.

The newly formed company retaining the Consensys name will assume control of the firm’s Ethereum protocols, developer tools, and institutional blockchain infrastructure. This infrastructure-focused business will cater to central banks, asset managers, corporate payment providers, and other traditional financial institutions looking to deploy tokenized assets or private ledgers.

MetaMask launched in 2016 as a browser-based gateway to the nascent Ethereum network, allowing users to interact with decentralized applications without hosting a full blockchain node. In the years since, the self-custodial wallet has recorded more than 100 million downloads across approximately 190 countries, facilitating trillions of dollars in cumulative transaction volume.

The restructuring comes as MetaMask increasingly positions itself as an alternative to traditional financial apps. In June, MetaMask introduced “Money Account,” a self-custodial product that consolidates stablecoin yield, payments, and trading into a single balance. At the time of the launch, Johann Bornman, MetaMask’s Senior Director of Product, stated that the initiative was designed to offer a “neo-banking experience.”

Consensys is an investor in Dastan, the parent company of the media outlet Decrypt. “Going forward, the two companies will keep building the same ecosystem, just with the focus each market now demands,” Lubin said in a statement, noting that the separation allows the consumer finance segment to receive “the same focus and ambition that we’ve brought to building Ethereum itself.”

The newly formed Consensys entity will inherit the firm’s enterprise and network-level technologies. This includes Linea, a zero-knowledge rollup layer-2 network designed to scale Ethereum transactions, as well as Hyperledger Besu, an enterprise-grade execution client used to run permissioned blockchain networks. It will also manage Teku, a major consensus client used by validators on the public Ethereum mainnet.

The platform expanded its payments capabilities following the 2025 launch of its mUSD stablecoin on both the Ethereum mainnet and the Linea second-layer network, with plans to integrate the token into a MetaMask debit card. While historically tied to the Ethereum ecosystem, the wallet has also integrated support for other major networks, adding Solana compatibility and introducing Bitcoin support in December.

By splitting its consumer and institutional units into entirely separate companies, the restructuring also divides the firm’s regulatory profiles. Over the past several years, consumer-facing decentralized finance applications have faced intense scrutiny from U.S. financial regulators. In June 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Consensys, alleging that the firm acted as an unregistered broker and offered unregistered securities through MetaMask’s built-in token swap and staking services.

Founded in 2014, Consensys originally operated under a decentralized venture-studio model, incubating dozens of individual blockchain projects. In 2020, the firm executed a major restructuring that separated its venture investment division, ConsenSys Mesh, from its core software development business, Consensys Software Inc. Later that year, the software arm acquired Quorum, an enterprise blockchain platform developed by JPMorgan Chase, to bolster its institutional offerings.

Operating MetaMask and the protocol infrastructure business as distinct corporate entities isolates the consumer wallet’s regulatory and legal exposures from the foundational software systems used by enterprise clients. The separation of these businesses follows a historical precedent of corporate realignments for the company.