Joe Lubin drops hints about how MetaMask developer Consensys would go public

The crypto market is in a bull run.

Bitcoin and Ether are going mainstream. And the industry has overcome a punishing bear market.

Is the stage finally set for Consensys, one of crypto’s most influential tech firms, to go public?

Maybe so, said Joe Lubin, the founder and CEO of the company that runs the popular MetaMask wallet, among other ventures.

“We’ve talked about that for a long time,” Lubin, an Ethereum co-founder, told DL News at the crypto conference DappCon in Berlin.

“And there are different ways to go public in our ecosystem,” he continued. “You can launch a protocol, you can tokenise a protocol, you can externalise a project.”

Airdrops

In the crypto world, many view a project’s tokenisation or airdrop event — in which a token is created and distributed to its most loyal users — as akin to an initial public offering.

For years, there have been hints about a MetaMask airdrop. With more than 30 million users, the distribution of a MetaMask token would make quite a splash.

‘If we do go public in some form, we’ve always been biassed to using our own technology.’

Joe Lubin, Consensys

So which method might Consensys, a company focused on developing blockchain and web3 software, use?

Lubin kept his cards close to his chest but he did say that Consensys may spin out MetaMask or other units, such as toolkit developer Infura, or Linea, a layer 2 blockchain network.

“We spun out over 40 of them,” he said, rocking an Ethereum T-shirt. “Some of them like Gnosis are very successful.”

Lubin was referring to the sprawling suite of crypto projects that Consensys has spawned over the years. Gnosis is a group of crypto projects that include the Gnosis Chain network and payments network Gnosis Pay.

Lubin offered fresh hints something was in the works. He said Consensys is working with the auditing firm KPMG but declined to provide details.

Still, he was clear that Consensys would opt for blockchain route to going public rather than listing shares on the Nasdaq or another stock exchange.

“If we do go public in some form, we’ve always been biassed to using our own technology to do something,” Lubin said.

“That doesn’t mean we would want to walk away from American capital markets, which are deep and liquid,” he continued. “But there might be ways to go public using our own technology and still make it accessible.”

Dealhunting

Lubin, who got a taste of Wall Street as a technology executive in Goldman Sachs private wealth unit in the early 2000s, is also eyeing acquisitions.

“The board just approved something,” he said. “We’re very active.”

Other than hinting it was a venture in the cybersecurity area, he was coy on the details.

Lubin said Consensys has a record of acquisitions, intellectual property purchases, and acqui-hires — deals designed to absorb staff.

“All I can say is that the highest priority for us is the security that we provide to our end users,” he said.

Little wonder — MetaMask must be a tempting target for bad actors.

“Essentially, you can think of our ecosystem as being filled with certain kinds of predators,” said Lubin.

Liam Kelly is a DeFi Correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email at liam@dlnews.com.