Hello 2022! Today, MetaMask Institutional (MMI) launches custodian account multi-chain capabilities. This brings four important benefits to the crypto funds, trading desks, market makers, and other organizations working with MMI:
Custodial accounts on MMI, similar to those on the original MetaMask wallet, are now available across EVM networks. Hello sidechains and L2s!
We’ve made it easier for our custodian and custody tech provider partners to roll out access to more EVM chains.
As our custodian partners roll out more EVM chain support, users will automatically gain access to accounts on these chains.
The above changes enable the bridging of assets across chains.
There it is: Web3 access and bridging across multiple EVM chains.
Believe it or not, this is only the beginning!
Let’s dive in.
EVM Chain Support
MMI—like the original non-custodial MetaMask wallet—offers its users access to DeFi and Web3 across all EVM-compatible chains. MMI differs from the original MetaMask in that it is a custodial wallet. This means that custodians and custody technology providers facilitate key storage, key management, transaction signatures, and transaction broadcasting for MMI users, in line with institutional regulations.
Given that it is the custodians who broadcast the transactions—the actual EVM chain access of MMI users is determined by the chains supported by their custodian. In practice for example, if a custodian only supports transactions on the Ethereum mainnet and Polygon network, then an MMI user would be limited to transacting across these two chains.
Today MMI launched features that will support our custodian partners as they roll out more EVM chain access. This will give custodians the capabilities to add, sign, and broadcast any custom RPC url specified by the user—making the roll out of new EVM chain support much easier.
The Ability to Bridge Assets
The ability to bridge assets is a fundamental institutional need within DeFi. This entails performing a cross-chain swap by depositing an asset into a bridge contract in one chain, and then receiving minted assets on another chain. Bridging allows the ability to move assets to APY and unlocks yield farming opportunities across EVM chains.
Based on the way many custodians are architected meant that MMI, historically, has connected one account to one network. This means that institutions would set up an account at a custodian and then have that account tied to a particular network, for example Mainnet or Polygon. This one to one relationship, although providing access, prevents the bridging of assets. In order for assets to be bridged, the address used to deposit tokens into the bridge contract must be the same in order to receive the minted tokens.
Today MMI removes the connection between accounts and networks historically held by custodial accounts. This means that similar to MetaMask, custodial accounts on MMI will be available across multiple networks. As our custodian partners roll out more EVM-chain support, users will automatically have access to accounts on these chains, with no additional work required from either party—allowing for the bridging of assets across chains.
Conclusion
MetaMask Institutional’s focus has always been to provide unrivaled access to DeFi and Web3. We believe this latest feature launch takes us closer to that goal.
Watch this space, because there’s more to come.