MetaMask officially unveiled its native stablecoin Wednesday, the first of its kind launched by a self-custodial wallet.
The token, dubbed mUSD, will be fully integrated with the MetaMask DeFi ecosystem, and will allow users of the dominant Ethereum wallet to easily on- and off-ramp self-custodied cryptocurrencies into dollar-pegged tokens.
The stablecoin will be issued by Bridge, a Stripe company, and one-to-one backed by dollar equivalent assets in compliance with the recently passed GENIUS Act.
At launch, expected later this year, mUSD will be available in-wallet both on Ethereum and Linea, the layer-2 blockchain developed by MetaMask’s parent company, Consensys. (Disclosure: Consensys is one of 22 investors in Decrypt, which retains editorial independence.)
By the end of the year, though, MetaMask plans to enable mUSD as a payment method for the physical MetaMask debit card, which is powered by Mastercard.
MetaMask’s stablecoin gambit, which Decrypt reported on last week, will see the wallet developer join an increasingly crowded throng of entrants looking to capitalize on the growing, now-federally greenlit sector. But the company’s leadership is confident mUSD will have a leg up on other stablecoin issuers, given MetaMask’s baked-in audience of millions of active crypto traders.
Ajay Mittal, MetaMask’s VP of product strategy, told Decrypt that mUSD’s integration across the MetaMask ecosystem will offer the stablecoin several advantages over competitors’ more “fragmented” user experiences. Those could include potentially lower costs, greater composability, and smoother transaction flows, he said.
Mittal added that, from MetaMask’s perspective, the goal is for mUSD to not only become the connective liquidity layer inside the wallet’s ecosystem, but also across all of DeFi.
Ethereum Layer-2 Linea Reveals Token Plans, Taps SharpLink and Others for Distribution
Like other stablecoins created for payment companies, mUSD is crucially not issued by MetaMask itself, but by Stripe, a third party. The GENIUS Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump last month, prohibits stablecoin issuers from allowing customers to generate rewards or yield on their deposits, but makes no such stance against other companies doing so.
This subtle distinction in the law, which has been fiercely opposed by the banking lobby, has allowed companies like PayPal and Coinbase to offer lucrative returns to customers on stablecoins — even those named after, or previously issued by the firms. Such companies have maintained that offering customers sizable annual returns on stablecoin deposits, typically between 3% and 5%, is key to the products’ popularity.
When asked whether the company plans to offer rewards on mUSD deposits to customers, Mittal responded, “Currently, mUSD will not offer yield directly to users. However, mUSD could play a role in future incentive programs within MetaMask.”
