What Changes
Consensys Software Inc. is splitting into two companies, the firm said Wednesday. The existing corporate entity will continue as MetaMask and run the wallet plus consumer products. Co-founder Joe Lubin becomes chairman and chief executive of that side. The Protocols Group and institutional blockchain infrastructure, including the Linea layer 2, move into a newly formed company called Consensys. The split separates Ethereum’s most widely used wallet from one of its largest protocol development shops for the first time since Lubin founded the company in 2014. Each side gets its own chief executive, board and capital allocation. One side sells stablecoin yield and card spending. The other sells tokenization infrastructure to banks.
Who Runs What
Mike Kriak becomes chief executive of the new Consensys, with David Cunningham as president and Declan Fox as chief product officer, according to the company’s post on X. Lubin will be executive chairman. That entity keeps Linea, the Besu Ethereum execution client used in permissioned enterprise networks, the Teku consensus client and Consensys’ Ethereum protocol work. The announcement does not say which company takes Infura. Infura’s website now brands it as part of MetaMask Developer. MetaMask keeps the wallet and the Money Account, a self-custodial product combining automated yield, card spending and swaps. It launched on June 30 and pays up to 4% on stablecoin balances. The company says the wallet has passed 100 million downloads across roughly 190 countries. Completion of the separation is expected by the end of 2026. Users need to take no action.
The Institutional Pitch
Cunningham framed the institutional side around settlement plumbing. He said financial institutions and market infrastructure are moving to always-on operations with tokenization at the core. The release cited a June 2026 Citi report estimating tokenized assets could reach $5.5 trillion to $8.2 trillion by 2030. Linea’s own numbers are smaller. The network holds $29 million in DeFi deposits, DefiLlama data show, against $38.1 million in stablecoins issued on it. LINEA trades at $0.002664, down 2.2% over 24 hours and 94% below its September 2025 all-time high, according to CoinGecko. That gives it a market capitalization of $65.3 million. Another 960 million tokens unlock on Sept. 10. The token launched at roughly a $500 million market capitalization a year ago. Lubin teased further rewards for holders after it halved within weeks.
The $MASK Question
Neither the press release nor Lubin’s blog post mentions a MetaMask token. Lubin confirmed on The Block’s podcast in September 2025 that a $MASK token was coming. He tied it to the decentralization of certain aspects of the MetaMask platform. The company registered a claim.metamask.io domain in October 2025 and has not shipped a token since. The announcement is also silent on the initial public offering the company has been preparing. Axios reported in October 2025 that Consensys had hired JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs to advise on a listing. Which of the two entities carries that process forward is unstated.
