MetaMask gets an overhaul with better UX, simpler swaps

This is a segment from The Drop newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.

---

MetaMask has tweaked its fox logo and is making major changes to its crypto wallet, the team announced on Thursday.

I chatted with MetaMask co-founder Dan Finlay to get all the deets on how the classic crypto wallet is changing. 

“It almost feels like closing Chapter Two on wallets,” Finlay said.

Ethereum’s Pectra hard fork will let MetaMask change its wallet so that it’s asking you way less often to sign something. That could be a plus for safety, and it’s definitely a plus for more seamless usability. 

The current way wallets work can be bad for security too — Finlay said a “blind sign” incident was what enabled the recent Bybit hack. 

“They were asked to sign a hash just blindly. And they did it. That’s just so deeply, fundamentally broken,” he tells me.

With this update, you’ll be able to revoke permissions right in your wallet. They’re also going to abstract away networks and gas to make using MetaMask feel easier — no more typing in strange codes to add blockchains to your wallet.

“Users are still signing stuff they don’t understand. And if we want to make this like the rails of an actual functional economy, people need to actually get what they’re doing, and it has to be like at the deepest level,” Finlay added.

They’re also enabling gas-included swaps within the wallet itself, so you don’t have to go through the hassle of getting other gas tokens into that wallet to complete the swap. And next month, they’re going to also let MetaMask users pay gas fees in whatever tokens you hold to make transactions even smoother.

Multiple secret recovery phrases will soon be possible, as will be the ability to sync up your MetaMask profile regardless of what web browser or device you’re using.

The wallet’s page that shows all your tokens will now show all of them in one place, like the Coinbase Wallet, regardless of what chain they’re on. It just makes more sense to see all your crypto in one place. Plus, the wallet will filter out spammy tokens and stuff that’s causing clutter from view.

“We’re in the, like, spam filtering, trying to filter sewage era of blockchain,” Finlay said. “I hope that people are going to notice like, hey, this, this actually works better.”

And then, similar to what Avalanche is doing with the Avalanche Visa card, MetaMask is launching a Mastercard-powered credit card that lets you connect your self-custody MetaMask wallet and spend that crypto.

Full Bitcoin and Solana support is coming to the MetaMask wallet, too — in a more seamless way than the current third-party enabled option — so your MetaMask can finally feel more like the be-all, end-all crypto wallet of your dreams. 

I’ll be honest: I have a MetaMask wallet, a Coinbase wallet, a Phantom wallet, a Ronin wallet, and a Ledger hardware wallet. It’s a lot. It’s too much. I mainly just use my Coinbase wallet because its UX is sleek, and its swaps and automatic network switching just makes more sense. Ease-of-use wins. 

But this update could get me to reconsider MetaMask, for sure.

---

Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

• The Breakdown: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.
• 0xResearch: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst.
• Empire: Crypto news and analysis to start your day.
• Forward Guidance: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.
• The Drop: Apps, games, memes and more.
• Lightspeed: All things Solana.
• Supply Shock: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.