MetaMask spent years because the default gateway to Ethereum, a browser extension that turned “connecting to your pockets” into muscle reminiscence for thousands and thousands of customers.
Now ConsenSys is betting on the chance that the identical reflexes will work throughout blockchains. In late Could, MetaMask switched on native Solana help, permitting its 30 million month-to-month lively customers to handle their SOL and SPL tokens with out putting in Phantom or different Solana first wallets.
Bitcoin help is on the roadmap someplace in 2025 and was initially scheduled for Q3, however it hasn’t shipped but.
If that occurs, MetaMask would be the first major pockets to natively help Ethereum, Solana, and Bitcoin. These three ecosystems have historically required separate apps, seed phrases, and psychological fashions.
The timing is just not delicate. In accordance with Artemis information for June, Solana’s month-to-month lively addresses matched all different Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks mixed.
Solana stopped being an “Ethereum different” and began wanting like a spot the place actual customers would present up.
Within the case of MetaMask, this created an uncomfortable dynamic. The pockets with the biggest distribution was lacking the chain with essentially the most exercise.
Solana-born incumbent Phantom, which has 15 million month-to-month lively customers (MAUs) and $25 billion in consumer property, had already made the alternative transfer, including help for Ethereum and Bitcoin all through 2024.
Multi-chain wallets weren’t a futuristic idea. It already existed, however MetaMask was sluggish.
UX Theme: One Account, Three Rails
What MetaMask is proposing goes past characteristic parity. The product now supplies a unified portfolio view throughout Ethereum and Solana, with swaps and bridges constructed immediately into the interface.
Customers can import their present Solana pockets utilizing the identical secret restoration phrase they use to handle their Ethereum keys, consolidating the work of juggling a number of apps right into a single session.
The arrival of Bitcoin help ends the loop of 1 restoration phrase, one interface, and three utterly completely different consensus mechanisms and encryption schemes.
The comfort is clear. This danger is just not typically mentioned, however it’s troublesome to disregard. At the moment, a single seed phrase controls the EVM chain’s secp256k1 key and Solana’s ed25519 key, adopted by Bitcoin key derivation.
If one backup is compromised, all chains are uncovered concurrently. Though Consensys has revealed safety steering on multi-chain fashions, the trade-off between blast radius and ease of use stays.
An extension bug that appeared earlier this 12 months prompted MetaMask to put in writing extreme information to the SSD on some Chromium setups, however it did not assist the reliability story.
Though Consensys shipped a repair, this episode highlighted how extension-level failures can erode belief quicker than characteristic bulletins can construct it.
That is the place account abstraction comes into play. Consensys will mix the multi-chain rollout with the Delegation Toolkit and the upcoming EIP-7702 normal in Ethereum’s Pectra improve.
These instruments allow gasoline sponsorship, transaction batching, and session-style permissions, and represent a software program layer that enables wallets to utterly conceal seed phrases and execute multi-step flows with out repeating approvals.
The result’s what the business calls an “invisible pockets,” which permits customers to work together with apps with out ever having to consider keys, gasoline, or chain ID.
Whereas this can be a compelling imaginative and prescient, EIP-7702 additionally opens up new avenues for phishing. Malicious dapps can request broad permissions to behave in your behalf, making it your pockets’s job to differentiate authentic requests from scams.
MetaMask’s safety alerts and the way proactive you’re with warnings about delegate permissions are simply as vital as bettering the UX itself.
Shelf area as distribution
The pockets interface is now your new dwelling web page.
Thousands and thousands of EVM native customers will pattern Solana when MetaMask exhibits Solana dApps, Stablecoin Bridges, and Memecoin Swaps in its default view. Not as a result of we studied the ecosystem, however as a result of the trail of least friction pointed us there.
The identical logic applies to Bitcoin. Bitcoin’s each day lively addresses sometimes vary from 700,000 to 1 million, and ordinal numbers and inscriptions have made BTC greater than only a financial savings asset.
A local Bitcoin tab inside MetaMask permits Ethereum and Solana customers to experiment with Bitcoin-based collectibles and Lightning funds with out switching contexts, and provides Bitcoin-first customers a purpose to attempt stablecoin swaps and DeFi protocols on quicker chains.
The strategic query is whether or not distribution alone can change the gravity of an ecosystem. Though MetaMask’s 30 million MAUs are dwarfed by Phantom’s 15 million, Phantom owns mindshare amongst Solana customers and has spent years constructing instruments round NFTs, token launches, and social discovery.
If MetaMask turns even 10% to 18% of its consumer base into lively cross-chain members throughout the first few weeks, thousands and thousands of individuals might all of the sudden find yourself shopping Solana dapps from their Ethereum wallets.
This isn’t a winner-take-all final result, however fairly reshapes the aggressive panorama. Phantom will doubtless additional improve the highly effective options and community-driven discovery that made it the default for Solana residents within the first place.
MetaMask is betting that “ok” cross-chain UX and account abstraction rails are extra invaluable than specialised depth.
The shadow of regulation and the ultimate part of tremendous apps
The SEC sued ConsenSys in June 2024, alleging that MetaMask’s swap and staking options resulted in additional than $250 million in charges with out correct dealer registration.
ConsenSys is contesting jurisdiction, and whereas the lawsuit will not sluggish it down, it’ll add a layer of uncertainty to any product rollout.
Every new chain, swap route, and income supply invitations new scrutiny.
OKX Pockets, alternatively, operates as a full-fledged tremendous app, supporting over 100 chains and good account options, demonstrating what is feasible when regulatory constraints are mild.
Coinbase Good Pockets took a very completely different path, surpassing 1 million accounts created over the summer season utilizing passwordless flows and embedded wallets. All on Base, all EVM, no Solana or Bitcoin in sight.
Coinbase is focusing on customers who do not know they’re utilizing a pockets, which might be the true finish objective for mainstream adoption.
MetaMask falls someplace in between. Too seen to keep away from regulation, too decentralized to maneuver to a totally managed mannequin, and too massive to disregard the chains the place customers are literally spending their time.
Multi-chain pushing is an ambition, but in addition a matter of survival. If a pockets’s market share is a proxy for ecosystem influence, then the pockets with the least friction and spanning essentially the most chains will management the place the following inhabitants of customers will land.
Phantom was first profitable with Solana and Bitcoin, however MetaMask is attempting to be first with “all the things directly.”
The pockets wars have moved from key administration to defaults. Whoever owns the primary connection, the primary swap, the primary faucet, which consists of the chain that hundreds when a brand new consumer opens the app, would be the one that can steer the path of what thousands and thousands of individuals suppose cryptocurrency will occur.
If MetaMask’s Bitcoin integration ships by the top of the 12 months, 2026 will start with a single interface that treats Ethereum, Solana, and Bitcoin as tabs throughout the identical browser fairly than separate universes. At that time, the query is just not which chain will win. That depends upon which pockets decides.
