DeFi wallet MetaMask sees user count surge 1,800% in a year to top 10 million as ethereum booms

• Crypto wallet MetaMask's user count has soared 1,800% over the last year to top 10 million.
• MetaMask has benefited from the boom in interest in decentralized finance in 2021, becoming the most-used DeFi wallet.
• A wallet is crucial to interacting with the crypto world, allowing users to keep their tokens safe.

The number of monthly active users of crypto wallet MetaMask has grown 1,800% over the last year to top 10 million, its parent company ConsenSys said on Tuesday, in a sign of the booming interest in decentralized finance and the ethereum network.

MetaMask had 545,000 monthly active users in July 2020, but that shot up to 10.35 million by August 2021, ConsenSys said. ConsenSys is a software company that develops the ethereum crypto network and was founded by ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin.

MetaMask's breakneck growth has been driven by a surge in interest in decentralized finance or DeFi - that is, applications such as trading platforms, or interest-bearing products that use crypto technology and do not need centralized parties such as clearing houses, or banks.

In the summer of 2020, around $2 billion in cryptocurrency was locked up in DeFi contracts and products. But that had surged to more than $80 billion by August this year, according to DeFi Pulse.

Read more: The CEO of a crypto-trading firm that's seen a 487% surge in trade volume explains how institutions find market-beating performance in DeFi - and what could become the third most dominant coin

A cryptocurrency wallet is a piece of software that stores users' "private keys" - effectively passwords that give people access to their crypto and allow them to send and receive tokens safely.

MetaMask has become the most widely used wallet in the DeFi world. It is most commonly used as a web browser extension, but launched a mobile app in September 2020.

"MetaMask owes its growth to our community," said MetaMask cofounder Dan Findlay said. "They are constantly coming up with new ways to build and organize, and are always pushing us to improve in countless ways."

The crypto wallet's parent company, ConsenSys, is one of many to receive strong interest from Wall Street on the back of the boom in digital tokens. In April, ConsenSys won the backing of JPMorgan, UBS and others in a $65 million funding round.