Dan Finlay, MetaMask’s co-founder, announced Wednesday that he is leaving ConsenSys after more than ten years of building one of the world’s most widely used crypto wallets. The reason: burnout.
A Decade of Building MetaMask
MetaMask launched in 2016, created by Finlay and Aaron Davis under ConsenSys. At the time, interacting with decentralized applications required deep technical knowledge. MetaMask changed that. As a browser extension, it let ordinary users connect their wallets to blockchain apps without running their own nodes or navigating command-line interfaces.
The wallet expanded rapidly: Bitcoin, Tron, and other non-EVM networks. Prediction markets. Tokenized stocks. A payment card through Mastercard, with cashback paid in mUSD, its native stablecoin. It evolved from a scrappy browser extension into something resembling a bank.
Advanced Permissions: Finlay’s Final Contribution
Before leaving, Finlay shipped one final feature: Advanced Permissions, based on the ERC-7715 standard. This feature lets decentralized apps request specific, pre-approved permissions from users instead of asking for approval on every transaction.
In practice, a user could authorize a DeFi app to spend up to 10 USDC per day buying ETH over a month. The app executes each transaction automatically within that limit, without prompting the user.
Roman Storm, Tornado Cash’s co-founder currently facing federal charges, called it “extremely important.” His view is that crypto has finally built something approaching Visa and Mastercard’s recurring payment infrastructure, a feature traditional finance possessed for decades. Finlay called Advanced Permissions “a big missing piece” and said he looks forward to using it as a regular consumer.
What’s Next for MetaMask?
Tim Beiko, an Ethereum Foundation core developer, posted a public thank-you shortly after: “Hard to overstate the impact MM has had on growing this entire space, can’t imagine the toll it must have taken over a decade.”
Finlay isn’t the first, and won’t be the last. Crypto is a 24/7 industry by design. There’s no off switch, no quiet season. A decade of that takes something out of you.
One question Finlay’s departure leaves unanswered is when is the MetaMask airdrop? The wallet has generated transaction fees at scale for years, and the idea of a MetaMask token with a retroactive drop for existing users resurfaces regularly without materializing.
When will it come? Is 2026 the year?
