New York, NY, April 13th, 2022 — MetaMask Institutional (MMI), a version of the wallet that integrates institution-required custody, operational efficiency, risk, and compliance features, announces new strategic partnerships with Gnosis Safe, Hex Trust, GK8, and Parfin. Six months after announcing the integrations of some of the largest crypto custodians globally, MMI brings its offering a step further, now embracing the requirements of DAOs looking for key management solutions to engage in DeFi activities. 

MetaMask Institutional (MMI) was created in December 2020 by Consensys to address the large number of leading crypto funds, market-makers, trading desks, and now, DAOs seeking to increase exposure to decentralized finance (DeFi) and join MetaMask’s 30 Million Monthly Active Users across the globe. Web3, or “the decentralized web,” is the philosophical touchstone that guides Consensys’ and its product suite vision.

MMI provides these organizations with full access to DeFi and Web3 while satisfying even the most rigorous of institutional requirements. Qualified custody, custody technology, and non-custodial solutions play a fundamental role for organizations accessing Crypto and DeFi. These providers solve for the storing of private keys and facilitate the approval and signing of transactions. They are paramount to organizations safely acquiring and holding crypto assets. 

Broader integrations responding to a wider variety organizational needs

MMI’s previous announcement highlighted two qualified custodians and a Multi-Party Computation (MPC) provider across the US, EMEA, and APAC. These latest partnerships compliment these integrations from both a solution and geographic perspective. MMI integrations now include two of the largest licensed crypto custodians in the APAC region and also MPC technology solutions in the US, LATAM, and EMEA. MMI today counts seven custodians that serve the needs of organizations and DAOs in different jurisdictions with unique key management requirements. 

“We are delighted to work with these fantastic partners each with their own unique strengths to help achieve our vision,” said Johann Bornman, Global Product Lead for MetaMask Institutional. “These diverse integrations allow more crypto funds, market makers, trading desks, and traditional organizations to gain access to DeFi and Web3 via MMI. Importantly, working with Gnosis Safe also deeply resonates with our decentralized values, allowing MMI to better cater to crypto-native DAOs.” 

Leading custodians, custody tech providers, and non-custodial solutions provide flexibility to meet the needs of all organizations 

Organizational requirements vary depending on where in the market an institution sits. While MPC allows for multiple parties to hold parts of a key, qualified custodians own the fiduciary responsibilities that go with storing private keys. Smart contract based wallets, on the other hand, provide on-chain and self-custody key management solutions. 

  • Gnosis Safe is a leading digital asset management platform on Ethereum. It offers multiple signature based crypto self-custody to a diverse set of users like institutional investors, DeFi , DAOs and NFT collectives. The smart contract based wallet has been open source and battle tested since 2017, and has established itself as the de facto standard for DAO treasury management with ~$90bn worth of assets stored in self custody.

  • Hex Trust is an institutional-grade digital asset custodian that delivers custody, DeFi, brokerage, and financing solutions to customers in APAC and EMEA. Its proprietary bank-grade platform Hex Safe™ is designed with a compliance-first approach, the highest level of security available in the market, and scalability for high transaction volumes.

  • GK8 is an end-to-end self-managed custody platform combining an offline cold vault with a keyless MPC with an unlimited number of automatic co-signers. GK8 is SOC2 Type 2-compliant and provides custody solutions for banks, exchanges, family offices, and hedge funds globally. Its platform features general support for any Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible layer-1 networks as well as instant integrations with level-2 protocols. 

  • Parfin is a modular platform for secure digital asset custody using MPC technology, trading and management. They are SOC2 compliant and provide custody solutions for institutional players such as banks, exchanges, family offices, and hedge funds globally. They have a strong presence in LATAM with offices in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

John Ennis, Gnosis Safe Ecosystem Lead, says, “DAOs and crypto institutions want the gold standard of Defi integration, whilst still maintaining the industry's security standard when it comes to safeguarding digital assets from operational and security risks. Collaboration is the only way to achieve a solution like this. Thanks to this integration with our partners at Consensys,  users can now benefit from both MMI’s and Gnosis Safe’s collective strengths and perspectives. Ultimately creating a safer, more accessible Web3.”

MMI will continue to respond to the unique and varied needs of organizations and DAOs with the ultimate goal to bridge every organization on the planet into Web3.

Media contact: [email protected] 

ABOUT CONSENSYS

Consensys is a leading Ethereum and decentralized protocols software company. We enable developers, enterprises, and people worldwide to build next-generation applications, launch modern financial infrastructure, and access the decentralized web. Our product suite, composed of Infura, Quorum, Codefi, MetaMask, Truffle, Diligence and our NFT platform, serves millions of users, supports billions of blockchain-based queries for our clients, and has handled billions of dollars in digital assets. Ethereum is the largest programmable blockchain in the world, leading in business adoption, developer community, and DeFi activity. On this trusted, open-source foundation, we are building the digital economy of tomorrow. To explore our products and solutions, visit https://consensys.io.

ABOUT GNOSIS SAFE

Gnosis Safe is the safety standard of Web3 and the most trusted platform to manage digital assets for individuals and communities on EVM-compatible chains. It is a programmable account that enables users to control their digital assets with much more granular permissions, starting with multiple-signature (multi-sig) as the baseline permission. Gnosis Safe stores ~90 billion USD worth of digital assets today.

ABOUT GK8

GK8 is a blockchain cybersecurity company that offers financial institutions an end-to-end platform for managing blockchain-based assets on their own. The company developed the world’s first true air-gapped Cold Vault that enables its clients to create, sign, and send secure blockchain transactions without internet connectivity, eliminating all cyber attack vectors. Recently acquired by Celsius Network for $115 million, the company continues to operate as an independent entity. Chosen by Mastercard to help it define the future of blockchain finance and payments, GK8 serves clients managing billions worth of digital assets, including social investing network eToro, Securrency, a blockchain fintech company backed by State Street, U.S. Bank, WisdomTree, and Abu Dhabi Catalyst Partners, and Prosegur, one of the world’s largest custodians with more than $400B assets under management.

For more information, visit https://www.gk8.io

ABOUT PARFIN

Founded in 2019 by executives Marcos Viriato, Cristian Bohn and Alex Buelau, Parfin is an Anglo-Brazilian fintech that offers a modular and secure platform for custody, trading and management of digital assets. Parfin's platform offers advanced MPC custody and connects institutional investors to the various players in the cryptocurrency market, such as exchanges, banks and custodians.
For more information, visit https://www.parfin.io/ 

ABOUT HEX TRUST 

Hex Trust is the leading fully-licensed, SOC2 compliant, and insured provider of institutional-grade digital asset custody in Asia. Led by veteran banking technologists and award-winning financial services experts, Hex Trust has built Hex Safe™, a proprietary bank-grade platform that delivers custody, DeFi, brokerage, and financing solutions for financial institutions, digital asset organizations, corporations and private clients. Hex Trust has offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Vietnam and is expanding across Europe and the Middle East.

For more information: visit hextrust.com or follow Hex Trust on LinkedIn and Twitter.