Bitcoin Is Coming to Ethereum Digital Wallet MetaMask

MetaMask is a giant in the Ethereum (ETH) ecosystem, the most-used wallet on that blockchain. It’s poised to cross one of the biggest tribal divides in cryptocurrencies, with plans to add support for Bitcoin (BTC), according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.

The exact timeline is unclear, but one person said access could arrive in MetaMask within the next month. Another person said the exact Bitcoin functionality is not yet set in stone, but features could initially be limited and expanded over time.

MetaMask’s Ethereum wallet is the gateway for more than 30 million monthly active users into the Web3 world of decentralized applications and non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. When Ethereum debuted almost a decade ago, it expanded the capabilities of what a blockchain could do beyond what Bitcoin pioneered, adding support for smart contracts – essentially software built atop that blockchain.

MetaMask helps users navigate such a smart contract-based environment. Since early last year, similar functionality has been added to Bitcoin, including NFT-like Ordinals and Runes, which enabled the creation of meme coins on Bitcoin. Whether MetaMask support will help users traverse these Bitcoin enhancements is unclear.