After Linea postponed its token issuance, did the founders start leaking information continuously?
Written by: Pzai, Foresight News
On May 14, MetaMask co-founder Dan Finlay stated in a podcast that the wallet team is still considering launching a native token for the wallet. Although there seems to be no clear plan at the moment, Finlay pointed out that under the more relaxed regulatory framework of the Trump administration, 'there are more types of token issuance that are safe.'
As early as 2021, MetaMask engineer Erik Marks proposed the idea of token issuance, while ConsenSys CEO Joseph Lubin also tweeted that year hinting that the token had attracted market attention. However, now the market is more focused on the TGE process of Linea, a Layer 2 product under ConsenSys. On March 8, Linea announced that it would not issue tokens in the first quarter of 2025, raising community concerns about the TGE progress. In such a public opinion environment, will ConsenSys find another way to surprise a large number of wallet users?
In the wallet war, is token issuance a means of differentiated competition?
As the leading wallet in the Ethereum ecosystem, despite repeated delays in token issuance, MetaMask, with its large scale of 3 million monthly active users, keeps the expectation of a token a focal point of community attention. From trading data, the current trading volume of Metamask Swap is relatively small, with daily trading amounts insufficient to reach $100 million for a long time, and far lower than the trading volume on the Solana chain. As market liquidity trends have significantly shifted towards the Solana chain, Metamask is gradually losing its market share in trading, dropping from 77% at the end of 2022 to less than 3% now. Although Metamask is actively connecting developers to introduce external wallets like Solana through tools like Snap, it still cannot compete with the rapid growth of exchange wallets in trading products.
In today's market environment, MetaMask may achieve decentralized operations through DAO governance tokens, deeply binding token functions with cross-chain interactions and even offering fee rebates, strengthening its positioning as a multi-chain hub. This 'delayed gratification' strategy may seem somewhat manipulative, but it also encourages the community to continuously use the Swap function and participate in cross-chain trading in hopes of increasing airdrop weight. As major exchanges actively expand their wallet product lines and accumulate on-chain liquidity, issuing tokens could also be an opportunity for differentiated competition, aiming to recover liquidity while enhancing user activity.
Additionally, as the market environment warms up, the loosening of the regulatory environment also provides a compliance basis for token issuance. For example, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against ConsenSys last June, accusing MetaMask of being an unregistered securities broker, allegedly providing illegal securities offerings and trading services. However, on February 28, the SEC proposed to withdraw its enforcement lawsuit against ConsenSys and MetaMask.
Is the expectation for wallet token issuance scarce under Linea's procrastination?
Linea, as an Ethereum Layer 2 project under ConsenSys, has attracted users to participate in ecological tasks since its mainnet launch in 2023 with the star halo of 'backed by MetaMask,' and promised to airdrop tokens to early supporters through the LXP (Linea Experience Points) reward system. However, the token generation event (TGE) originally scheduled for the first quarter of 2025 has been postponed to the second quarter, with official reasons including 'the need to improve token economics' and 'complex legal processes.' However, the community generally believes that these reasons lack substantial evidence and questions that the essence is an excuse for 'indefinite delay.' Moreover, due to the successful token issuance of other Layer 2s (such as Starknet and zkSync) around the same period, Linea's delayed progress has caused user funds to be locked in the ecosystem, greatly increasing opportunity costs.
From a data perspective, assets on the Linea chain are continuously flowing to other ecosystems, with the cross-chain asset scale falling below $300 million. Linea's product leader Declan Fox stated that the TGE will occur after the market transitions from bearish to bullish. Given the current market trends, as a pre-market trading project with an FDV stabilizing around $2-3 billion, we can anticipate Linea's TGE.
