MetaMask Partners with Custodians Due to Institutional Clients Wanting to ‘Actively Participate’ in DeFi

MetaMask Institutional (MMI), the institutional arm of popular Ethereum wallet MetaMask, has partnered with three firms — US-based BitGo, British Virgin Islands-headquartered Qredo, and Hong Kong-based Cactus Custody.

The institutional offering was launched in December.

The ConsenSys-owned wallet MetaMask already has 10 million monthly active users and is among the most popular to access the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. But now, as institutions’ interest in DeFi grows, the wallet provider is bringing in the custodians into the mix.

“Compressed yields are driving more institutions to DeFi, but it still remains painful for these big players to allocate capital to the ecosystem,” said Anthony Foy, Qredo CEO.

DeFi has been rapidly growing since last year and has achieved a market cap of $124 billion overall. The sector has also amassed a whopping $200 billion in total value locked (TVL), a new all-time high.

“As the DeFi ecosystem matures, many of our institutional clients are interested in actively participating,” Mike Belshe, BitGo CEO, said in a statement.

According to MetaMask, qualified custodians would play a fundamental part in the rigorous institutional requirements. These partnerships will allow operational efficiency in terms of streamlined trade flow, unrivaled access to DeFi by interacting with multiple chains, and governance and compliance through scalable transaction signing, audit-ready reporting, and direct integration with licensed custodians.

“Institutional investors have started to recognize the tremendous opportunities that DeFi offers,” noted Cynthia Wu, Head of Sales and Business Development at Matrixport, the parent company of Cactus Custody.

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