MetaMask adopts custodial features for NFT-hungry institutional investors

Published at: Sept. 28, 2022

Institutional investment is pouring into the crypto world, notably the nonfungible token (NFT) scene. In a reaction to the influx, MetaMask Institutional announced another addition to its custodial services offerings for institutional-level clients.

MetaMask’s partnership with NFT management and storage service Cobo aims to create a “one-stop platform” for large corporations dealing with digital assets.

Although MetaMask is a non-custodial wallet at its average user level, the institutional branch of the wallet has been adopting custodial partnerships in various countries around the world.

Tavia Wong, the director of marketing and business development for Cobo, told Cointelegraph that not only does custodianship provide asset protection, but for institutions specifically, custodianship becomes useful on an administrative level.

“Because of the high levels of users and different clearance levels, institutions require additional features to avoid internal failures and the consequences of negligence."

While wallets like MetaMask have been deemed not as “user friendly” in the past, this addition to custodial offerings prioritizes usability for big investors.

The new integration allows institutional clients to designate roles amongst the company alongside internal collaboration tools. According to Wong, this enables user limits on buying, trading and selling as permitted by the administrator.

“With multisig access, it ensures that no single entity will be able to control all assets, removing any single point of failure."

The debate between noncustodial and custodial wallets still rages on nonetheless.

With many in the space touting the slogan “not your keys; not your coins,” noncustodial wallets are often looked to for more security and financial autonomy.

However, as mainstream users continue to enter the space without a technical background, custodial wallets often offer a more user-friendly environment. Some users even refute the aforementioned slogan in favor of greater accessibility for easy adoption:

"not your keys, not your crypto" is short-sighted, small-minded and impractical.if we don't create solutions that welcome *everyone* to crypto then it won't be *anyone's* crypto... because it'll fall irrelevantly into the annals of history.

— Chris Maddern (@chrismaddern) September 27, 2022

Traditional financial giants like Société Générale, one of the largest investment banks in Europe, recently opened up crypto asset management services to provide its clients with an easy on-ramp.

Nasdaq also announced on Sept. 20 that it will offer crypto custodial services.