Compiled by: Felix, PANew
Last week, a governance proposal outlining MetaMask's stablecoin mUSD was briefly published and then deleted, sparking market speculation about the development of mUSD. The release of this stablecoin has now been confirmed.
The crypto wallet MetaMask developed by Consensys announced on August 21 that it will launch a native dollar stablecoin MetaMask USD ($mUSD), marking the first launch of a self-custody stablecoin by a self-custody wallet. mUSD is expected to be released later this year, initially launching on Ethereum and Linea.
Built on Bridge and M0, will connect to MasterCard by the end of the year
mUSD is built by Bridge, a stablecoin issuance company under Stripe, and is supported by the decentralized infrastructure of M0.
Bridge is a stablecoin orchestration and issuance platform under Stripe that provides compliant licensing, monitoring, and rigorous reserve management for custom-issued stablecoins. The underlying Bridge utilizes the M0 protocol to mint $mUSD, offering a decentralized and scalable stablecoin infrastructure platform built for interoperability, composability, and transparency.
According to MetaMask, mUSD will be fully backed at a 1:1 ratio by 'high-quality, highly liquid dollar-equivalent assets,' including U.S. cash and short-term U.S. government bonds, and will have real-time transparency and cross-chain composability. mUSD is planned to launch later this year on Ethereum and Consensys's Linea network, with deep integration into Linea's DeFi stack, gradually covering lending markets, DEXs, and custodian platforms to facilitate liquidity and reduce user onboarding friction.
mUSD will mainly be used in two ways:
At launch in the wallet: for seamless deposits, exchanges, transfers, and cross-chain bridging.
Expected to be in real life before the end of the year: allowing users to use mUSD at millions of merchants accepting MasterCard through MetaMask card.
Regarding whether to offer mUSD deposit rewards to customers, MetaMask's Vice President of Product Strategy Ajay Mittal emphasized: 'Currently, mUSD will not provide direct benefits to users. However, mUSD may play a role in future incentive programs from MetaMask.'
The specific issuance date or planned issuance scale has not been disclosed officially, but more technical details and user guides will be released in the coming weeks.
Development cycle shortened to a few weeks, stablecoins enter a period of rapid expansion
The release of mUSD coincides with the on-chain trading volume of stablecoins surpassing nearly 1 trillion US dollars, and also with the passing of the GENIUS Act in the United States.
Previously, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller gave a speech supporting cryptocurrencies, emphasizing the role of stablecoins and pointing out their potential to maintain and expand the dollar's position internationally. Meanwhile, Wyoming officially launched the Frontier Stable Token (FRNT), becoming the first state in the U.S. to issue its own stablecoin.
As the digital dollar market flourishes and regulatory transparency improves, the concept of application-based stablecoins is receiving increasing attention. Payment applications, crypto wallets, or DeFi protocols can also launch their own stablecoins while outsourcing compliance, reserves, and infrastructure to providers.
For example, Paxos issued PayPal's PYUSD token, while BitGo supports USD1 from the DeFi protocol World Liberty Financial related to Trump. Earlier this month, the American fintech company Slash partnered with Bridge to launch its own stablecoin.
MetaMask's stablecoin is the first case of collaboration between M0 and Bridge, allowing MetaMask to provide its users with built-in digital dollars without managing complex issuance, compliance, and technical processes.
Zach Abrams, co-founder and CEO of Bridge, stated that they have reduced the development time for custom issuing stablecoins from 'more than a year of complex integration' to 'a few weeks'. This means applications like MetaMask 'can achieve yield more quickly and efficiently than ever before.'
Through this collaboration, M0 and Bridge are seeking to replicate the development outcomes of the MetaMask token to more issuers.
Related reading: PANews release (2025 Global Stablecoin Industry Development Report): Dollar stablecoins occupy 99% of the market, USDC is expected to surpass USDT by 2030.
