On May 27, MetaMask announced on its official blog that it has integrated the Solana network and has launched it online. This is the first non-EVM network (i.e. a network that does not use the Ethereum Virtual Machine) that MetaMask has integrated. The blog stated that more non-EVM networks will be supported in the future.
Solana’s integration into MetaMask means that users can now conduct transactions and interact with Solana-based applications through the MetaMask wallet of the second largest smart contract platform, and Solana users can also access the network through the MetaMask wallet.
Specifically, users can now send, receive, exchange, cross-chain bridge, and purchase Solana-based tokens in MetaMask, and interact with dApps in the Solana ecosystem. All operations are supported by MetaMask’s enhanced security mechanism, “which is why it has become the most secure wallet in the crypto industry.”
The blog post reads: To be honest, managing wallets between MetaMask and Solana used to be a bit cumbersome. But now it’s different. In the latest version of the MetaMask browser extension, you can use Solana natively, displayed side by side with your Ethereum account, and operate it in a unified interface.
The integration is currently only available for desktop and is expected to be launched on the MetaMask mobile app in the coming weeks.
MetaMask is the most widely used decentralized wallet on the Ethereum network and the first crypto wallet used by ordinary users to enter Web3. It currently has more than 100 million active users per year.
Solana, known as the "DePIN public chain"
Solana is known in the industry as the "DePIN public chain", that is, most DePIN projects choose the Solana blockchain as the on-chain operating carrier.
As of April 2025, the total on-chain market value of global DePIN projects (excluding independent project L1/chain) has reached US$7.1 billion, of which the total market value of DePIN projects on Solana is US$3.25 billion, ahead of other blockchain platforms such as EVM ($2.84 billion) and Cosmos ($652.5 million), Cardano ($195.2 million) and Sora ($160.1 million). Based on the average market value of each project, Solana leads again with $191.3 million.
By market value, Solana is the leading DePIN blockchain and the preferred chain for many leading DePIN projects (some DePIN projects also choose to build on other public chains, such as the decentralized cloud computing project PowerVerse built on DeepBrainChain).
This is closely related to Solana's high performance, low cost, security, liquidity, and developer-friendliness.
Grayscale Research believes that Solana is the preferred chain for DePIN for the following reasons:
First of all, Solana is a high-speed and low-cost blockchain, which enables the DePIN project to transfer value and operate efficiently, making it more efficient for both resource providers and users.
Secondly, among all high-throughput, low-cost public chains (such as BASE and SUI), Solana has the strongest network security, liquidity and development history.
Finally, compared to building a Layer 1 application chain on their own, choosing to develop on Solana allows DePIN project developers to focus on the core capabilities of the application layer without having to invest resources in capacity expansion, underlying infrastructure tools and operations.
After Solana is integrated into MeteMask, it will have the following three impacts on the DePIN project and the entire DePIN ecosystem:
1. Significantly reduce the user threshold and usage cost of the DePIN project
Different DePIN projects have their own wallets. If users want to access DePIN projects on Solana (such as Helium, PowerVerse, Render, Hivemapper, io.net, etc.), they often need to download special wallets such as Phantom, Token123, Solflare, etc., which are complicated to operate and have high learning costs.
MetaMask is the entry point for ordinary users to get started with Web3 and is also the wallet with the largest user base. Solana’s integration into MetaMask means that hundreds of millions of users can seamlessly enter the Solana ecosystem without having to switch wallets or get familiar with a new system.
For the DePIN project, this will significantly increase the "user activation rate" and "user retention rate", especially for networks that rely on users to use hardware devices and frequently interact (such as shared WiFi, GPU computing, location data upload, etc.). It will be easier to promote the DePIN project from "early adopters of technology" to "mainstream users".
2. Enhance cross-chain asset flow and resource coordination to accelerate the scale of DePIN network
As a multi-chain portal, MetaMask integrates bridging, asset management, and DeFi trading functions. Now users can easily bridge Ethereum assets to Solana on one interface and participate in DePIN incentives and staking. This is a huge benefit for many DePIN projects that want to use EVM chain funds but are deployed on Solana.
This means that cross-chain user funds flow becomes more convenient, and DePIN projects can more easily aggregate multi-chain liquidity and resources, such as attracting more Ethereum users to provide storage, electricity, computing and other physical resources for its network. This impact helps to promote the outbreak of DePIN's "network effect", that is, the more nodes, the greater the coverage, the stronger the utility, and the higher the attractiveness.
MetaMask's integration with Solana means that the DePIN project will welcome a wider range of users and lower its entry threshold. Functions such as the flow, transaction and staking of cross-chain assets will also form a "multi-chain resource pool" for the DePIN project (that is, the DePIN project is no longer limited to the Solana community, but can attract users and funds from other chains such as Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, etc., to form a "multi-chain resource pool"), which will be beneficial to the project's early cold start, scale expansion and service supply.
