Author: Bootly

Following Base suddenly announcing its exploration of issuing tokens, the "veteran" non-custodial wallet MetaMask is also set to launch its own token.

Joseph Lubin, founder of MetaMask's parent company Consensys, revealed in an interview: "The MetaMask token is coming soon, possibly even faster than you think." This statement almost confirms market speculation about MASK and has made "wallet token issuance" another topic of discussion.

The Wallet Traffic Battle

It is not hard to understand why MetaMask has chosen to issue a token at this time.

According to Consensys, MetaMask's global user base has surpassed 100 million, allowing it to maintain a dominant position in the industry for a long time. However, since 2023, the wallet market landscape has quietly changed.

Phantom has risen strongly with the Solana boom, Rabby has quickly attracted Ethereum users with lower gas fees and a friendly interaction experience, while wallets from major exchanges (such as OKX and Binance Wallet) are also competing for traffic. Once widely known, MetaMask is now facing the reality of losing popularity and even being marginalized among certain user groups. Issuing a token has almost become a necessary step.

From a motivational perspective, MetaMask's token issuance has at least three considerations.

First is user retention. For a long time, MetaMask has been more like a "tool," where users open it, complete interactions, and then leave, lacking stickiness. The introduction of a token can help retain users within the ecosystem through airdrops, rewards, staking, and other methods.

Second is the expansion of the business model. In the past, MetaMask's revenue sources were mainly concentrated on swap fees and fiat deposits, but this path is becoming increasingly narrow. The launch of MASK means it can create new revenue opportunities through governance and dividends, and build a value closed loop with Consensys's scaling project Linea.

Finally, there is the need for strategic competition. The wallet sector has entered a phase of "tokenization competition," and if MetaMask continues to be absent, it will not only lose its narrative but also potentially lose user loyalty.

Airdrop Simulation: The Fat Water Ultimately Flows to a Few

The most concerning issue for the market remains the airdrop.

MetaMask claims to have over 100 million users, and if all were included in the airdrop, the result would likely be "a few dollars for everyone," which would be almost meaningless. Therefore, the community generally believes that MetaMask will adopt a tiered selection approach, skewing more rewards towards users who have genuine interactions and contributions. Possible reference dimensions include activity over the past two years, swap amounts, gas expenditures, whether they have used Linea, or participated in DeFi protocols.

Regarding the scale of the airdrop, some analysts have provided estimates.

Crypto researcher @waleswoosh analyzed on X (formerly Twitter) that among MetaMask's users, about 10% are zero-interaction wallets, and another 20% have been almost inactive over the past two years. This means there are approximately 70 million effective users. If we assume each person has an average of 5 wallets, the actual total number of wallets could reach 350 million.

Based on a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $3 billion, it is estimated that each wallet could receive about $8. This conclusion implies that most ordinary users will not receive much MASK, while the real "fat airdrop" may be concentrated among those with high trading volumes and long-term active core users.

Other Layouts

Once the MetaMask airdrop is implemented, it will stimulate a large number of users to return to the wallet and become active in the DeFi ecosystem again. Users will re-engage in swaps, try cross-chain transactions, and even actively use the upcoming new feature—Hyperliquid perpetual contract integration.

This feature was first disclosed in a GitHub update in July. The code at that time indicated that MetaMask would add a deposit process for the USDC stablecoin on mobile, allowing users to fund their Hyperliquid trading accounts without leaving the wallet.

According to the GitHub pull request, the feature design includes minimum deposit thresholds (5 USDC for the mainnet, 10 USDC for the testnet) and offers optimized experiences such as fee previews and transaction tracking.

Originally, this integration was planned to be released in version 7.53.0, but it ultimately did not appear in the latest 7.54.0 version.

The community generally speculates that this delay is because MetaMask intends to announce this collaboration at the Token2049 conference on October 1-2, especially after the Hyper team hinted at it in a post on X on September 17.

The dual stimulation of features and tokens is expected to drive a wave of on-chain activity. For the long-dormant DeFi sector, this could become a new growth opportunity, allowing MetaMask to further break through its positioning as "purely a wallet tool" and evolve into a super application that integrates asset management, trading, and derivatives entry. Meanwhile, competition among wallets will also escalate.

From a broader perspective, MetaMask's token issuance is not only about its own positioning but may also have far-reaching implications for the Ethereum ecosystem. As a core product of Consensys, its tokenization is expected to elevate Consensys's overall valuation and influence, further strengthening the competitiveness of the Ethereum ecosystem. Lubin recently hinted that users holding Linea assets may receive additional reward opportunities in the future, which has also increased expectations for the potential linkage between MASK and Linea.

Conclusion

After Base announced its exploration of token issuance, MetaMask quickly followed up with a "dual signal," aiming to solidify its narrative and user base with MASK while expanding product boundaries through Hyperliquid integration. For ordinary users, the opportunities brought by the airdrop are real, but most may not receive the ideal amounts. Regardless of the outcome, these actions mark a new phase in the wallet sector. MetaMask is bidding farewell to its role as a "single entry tool" and accelerating its evolution towards a comprehensive super application for Web3.

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