New York, NY, September 28, 2022 — Today, Consensys unveils the third round of institutional custodians onboarded to MetaMask Institutional (MMI), a version of MetaMask designed to meet the needs of the rapidly growing number of institutions embracing Web3 and investing in Decentralized Finance (DeFi). Cobo, Floating Point Group, Liminal and Propine will join MMI’s already expansive suite of custodians — enhancing choice, security, and operational efficiency for crypto funds, market-makers, trading desks, DAOs and other organizations seeking exposure to the digital asset class.

“The latest onboarding brings the total number of custodians supported by MetaMask Institutional to eleven, further bolstering our position as the premier institutional wallet for Web3 and the only one to integrate with multiple trusted institutional custodians”, said Liz Mathew, Global Head of Growth and Partnerships for MetaMask Institutional.

Over 1,800 organizations may access MMI to engage in Web3

MetaMask Institutional (MMI) launched in 2021 with the mission to offer all organizations across the globe a bridge to Web3. Now, over 1,800 organizations have access to the MMI wallet, including crypto and DeFi native funds, traditional financial institutions, non-financial enterprises, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). The most prominent use case is DeFi trading activity on Ethereum and EVM compatible chains; however, a growing number of organizations turn to MMI to access non-DeFi related Web3 utilities such as NFT marketplaces and the social engagement of Web3 communities. Regulated custodial integrations with broad jurisdictional reach are paramount to material institutional participation in this space, and MMI is dedicated to providing one of the most expansive solutions on the market. 

Leading Custodians With Global Reach

MMI is now partnered with 11 top-tier qualified custodians and custody providers. Prior to today’s announcement, MMI previously onboarded seven custodians to serve the needs of organizations in different jurisdictions with unique key management requirements across the US, EMEA, and APAC regions. With the newest four custodians, MMI expands its geographical footprint with Cobo, Liminal and Propine in Asia and MENA, and FPG in the US. 

Metamask, with 30mm MAU, has emerged as the dominant user experience for retail customers. Metamask Institutional’s integrations and aggregation across eleven custodians levels up the industry's collective capability to offer organizations the broadest and compliant access to DeFi and Web3. The MMI platform standardises the operational framework with which organizations manage their Web3 portfolios.

MetaMask Insitutional’s Newest Custodians

Cobo – Cobo is Asia-Pacific’s largest digital asset custodian and blockchain technology provider, based in Singapore. Trusted by over 500+ institutions to grow and protect their digital assets, the company focuses on building scalable infrastructure and powering the Web 3.0 revolution around the world. Its proprietary DeFi asset management services crossed the 1.5B AuM mark and achieved a unique risk-to-reward profile that rivals top hedge funds - without over-exposure to headwinds. As a strong blockchain and DeFi infrastructure builder, Cobo provides SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) products such as WaaS (Wallet-as-a-Service), Argus (Smart Contract Based Digital Asset Guardian), and their latest product, "NaaS" (NFT-as-a-Service).

Floating Point Group – Floating Point Group is a crypto prime brokerage and agency trading desk for asset managers that removes the barriers and complications of accessing liquidity across a broad set of markets. FlowVault, a technology-first prime brokerage platform, provides fast and secure access to the world’s leading exchanges, offering institutions access to both CeFi and DeFi markets. FlowVault helps traders achieve superior returns by lowering trading fees, broadening access to exchanges, and opening up new pools of capital. The platform's enterprise security, customizable user controls, and insurance allow traders to manage their assets without compromising on OpSec and cybersecurity. A single onboarding gives access to the largest crypto exchanges and DeFi venues with a regulated entity. Floating Point Group is regulated in the U.S., and has also secured VASP registration in the Cayman Islands.

Liminal – Liminal is an automated wallet infrastructure platform that offers robust security to digital assets. An ISO 27001, SOC Type  2 certified organization, Liminal is based out of Singapore. As a trusted entity in the ‘Wallet as a Service’ category, Liminal enables crypto-native companies to securely scale their digital asset operations through automated, plug-and-play wallet architecture. They provide a combination of multi-signature and multi-party computation (MPC) to provide secure, efficient, and compliant access to digital assets. Its operational excellence framework provides efficient fee management, transaction confirmation guarantees, seamless onboarding, and other wallet operations hence saving businesses significant development costs. Liminal’s unified interface ensures the same wallet management experience across multiple blockchains. Its proprietary regulatory readiness program, which includes AML checks, travel rules and CCSS-compliant platforms, helps projects fast-track their compliance journey.

Propine - Established in 2018, Propine was the first licensed digital asset custody service provider holding a CMS licence by MAS. They are ISO 27001 certified WITH SOC Type  2 audit currently underway. Their one-stop custody solution ProtectTM, caters to digital asset custody needs on a single integrated platform, including digital securities, cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, NFTs, and fiat. They provide fiat on and off ramp through CrypTradeTM without requiring users to leave their platform – enabling frictionless trading and instant settlement world. Their breakthrough solution - DeFi-nityTM is a regulated window into the DeFi world. The platform allows a safe connection with yield-generating solution providers in the Defi space through staking, borrowing & lending, and other forms of liquidity mining. Propine also provides end-to-end tokenization and issuance services built for digital securities from the ground up, serving the needs of institutional clients.

The addition of these four leading custodians to MMI comes immediately after Ethereum’s historic Merge, where the network abandoned the Proof of Work algorithm in favour of Proof of Stake, reducing the electricity consumption and carbon footprint of the Ethereum network by over 99.988 % and 99.992%, respectively. In becoming more sustainable, Ethereum is removing barriers to adoption by institutions that would otherwise have been deterred by the high environmental cost. MetaMask Institutional is now primed to support incoming organizations with unparalleled access to DeFi and Web3 and a wide range of custody solutions to choose from.

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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, MetaMask Institutional, 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.