Consensys Software Inc. said on September 9, 2026 that it plans to separate into two independently operated companies by the end of the year, placing its MetaMask consumer business on one side and its protocol and institutional infrastructure operations on the other.
Under the proposed restructuring, the existing company will be rebranded as MetaMask. A newly formed company will take the Consensys name. The move puts the company’s best-known consumer-facing product into a standalone operating business while preserving the Consensys brand for infrastructure-focused operations.
The announcement provides a clearer division of the group’s businesses, but it leaves a key corporate question open: neither Consensys nor reporting on the transaction said whether MetaMask or the new Consensys would pursue the company’s previously delayed U.S. initial public offering.
MetaMask takes the existing company name and consumer mandate
The planned separation will make the existing Consensys Software entity MetaMask, a consumer self-custodial finance company chaired and led as chief executive by Consensys founder Joe Lubin. Consensys said the separation is expected to be completed by the end of 2026.
MetaMask has recorded more than 100 million downloads across approximately 190 countries and facilitated trillions of dollars in cumulative transaction volume, according to Consensys. The restructuring separates that consumer wallet business from Consensys’s protocol and institutional-infrastructure operations.
The announcement did not clarify whether either resulting company would pursue Consensys’s previously delayed U.S. initial public offering.
New Consensys keeps Linea, Besu and Teku
Consensys is planning two independently operated companies. MetaMask will focus on consumer self-custodial finance, with Joe Lubin as chairman and CEO; the newly formed Consensys will retain Linea, Besu and Teku and focus on protocols and institutional infrastructure.
The new Consensys will be led by Mike Kriak as chief executive officer, with David Cunningham as president. The separation is expected to distinguish the consumer wallet business from the protocol and institutional operations, and Consensys says the companies will operate independently once it is complete.
That structure was also described by CoinDesk, which reported that MetaMask’s consumer wallet operation is being separated from Consensys’s institutional blockchain infrastructure and protocol businesses.
Official Consensys graphic accompanying the announcement that Consensys Software Inc. will become MetaMask and that a new company will retain the Consensys name. — Source: Consensys
The delayed U.S. IPO question remains unanswered
The planned separation arrives without an answer on a previously delayed U.S. IPO. CoinDesk said the September 9 announcement did not clarify whether either MetaMask or the newly formed Consensys would seek to revive those listing plans.
That omission matters because the split creates two businesses with different operating focuses, leadership teams and product sets. The available announcement establishes the intended allocation of those operations, but does not identify which entity, if any, could ultimately be linked to a future public-market process.
For now, the disclosed milestone is the targeted completion by the end of 2026. MetaMask is set to carry the former Consensys Software company into its consumer-focused role, while a new Consensys will house Linea, Besu, Teku and the group’s institutional infrastructure mandate.
