Ethereum Wallet MetaMask Sees 38-Fold Jump In Monthly Active Users Amid Rising NFT Popularity

Blockchain technology firm ConsenSys said that its Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) wallet MetaMask saw a 38-fold year-over-year increase in the number of monthly active users.

What Happened: ConsenSys said Wednesday that its flagship portfolio product MetaMask now has about 21 million monthly active users and noted that the self-custodial cryptocurrency wallet’s in-app swap feature has enabled more than $10 billion in peer-to-peer token swapping.

MetaMask enables users to interacts with about 3,700 unique Web3 applications, the company noted. These include non fungible token (NFT) marketplaces, play-to-earn games, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, and metaverse worlds.

ConsenSys also said it has closed a $200 million financing that values the Ethereum software company at $3.2 billion. The investors include HSBC Holdings plc (NYSE: HSBC), Coinbase Ventures and Daniel Loeb’s hedge fund Third Point LLC.

See Also: How To Buy Ethereum (ETH)

Why It Matters: MetaMask supports Ethereum-compatible Layer 2 networks, including Polygon, BSC, Avalanche and NEAR/Aurora, which represents more than 90% of global smart contract network volume.

In April, ConsensSys said it raised $65 million from a funding round, with investment from companies like JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) and Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA).

The New York-based company’s CEO and founder Joe Lubin is a co-founder of Ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

Ethereum has outperformed apex cryptocurrency Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) year-to-date, following the rise in popularity of NFTs.

Last year, ConsenSys acquired JPMorgan’s enterprise blockchain platform Quorum, which it operates in addition to MetaMask, and Ethereum node Infura.

Price Action: Ethereum is up 2.5% during the past 24 hours, trading at $4258.90 at press time.

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