By
Tolu Ajiboye
April 8th, 2024
CEO of BitGo Mike Belshe noted that the partnership with MetaMask had become a necessity because of the growing interest of their clients in the DeFi market.
Popular DeFi wallet MetaMask is partnering with crypto custodians BitGo, Qredo, and Cactus Custody. Through the partnership, the company hopes to attract more institutional players to the DeFi market while complying with regulatory requirements.
The partnership is particularly regarding the wallet’s package for institutional investors – MetaMask Institutional (MMI). ConsenSys first unveiled MMI in December 2020. The aim was to help crypto funds, market-makers, and trading desks seeking to increase exposure to DeFi to do so safely.
These organizations struggle to meet the security, operational, and compliance requirements for such large-scale operations. With MMI, the investors enjoy complete access to DeFi and Web3 that meets most institutional requirements.
Partnership between MetaMask and BitGo: An Answer to Customer Demand
According to product lead for MMI, Johann Bornman, “MetaMask Institutional’s focus is to provide unrivaled access to DeFi even in the face of rigorous institutional requirements.” Also, Bornman believes custodians and custody technology have a huge role to play in these requirements.
By forming alliances with three leading custodial asset managers, the institutional investors will be able to use the best custody solutions to seamlessly discover and interact with DeFi. The partnerships solve for all as the three strategic partnerships will address different classes of investors.
CEO of BitGo Mike Belshe noted that the partnership with MetaMask had become a necessity because of the growing interest of their clients in the DeFi market.
DeFi Interest Inevitable
The growing interest in DeFi is not surprising. Last week, DappRadar’s report showed value locked in DeFi has grown by over 930% in the last year. At the time of writing, about $195 billion in actual value is locked into the DeFi ecosystem according to industry data.
MetaMask’s monthly active users (MAUs) were also up by about 19 times in just over a year. Likewise, the firm surpassed 10 million MAUs in August.
Belshe said, “MetaMask is the gold standard of DeFi wallets and the integration of MetaMask Institutional with BitGo wallets allows for key management and custom policies to remain in BitGo.” In addition, he asserted that the vision to provide world-class institutional-grade DeFi solutions to large financial institutions globally is one the company believes in, and is willing to participate in.
Currently, BitGo has $40 billion in assets under custody. With MMI due to be integrated into BitGo wallets, over 500 firms in crypto will be able to access DeFi once the integration is complete. MMI also noted that integration with other custodians will be announced subsequently.
