Dan Finlay, the co-founder of MetaMask, announced on X that April 22, 2026, was his last day at Consensys. The post closed out a run of more than ten years building the self-custody wallet1. “Today is my last day at Consensys, where I've been building MetaMask for over ten years. I'm burned out and need to spend time with my family,” Finlay wrote, in a post timestamped 23:51:54 UTC that same day.
The second executive exit at Consensys on the record since 2019
Every move CryptoLately has verified there, by the day it became public
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Nov. 15, 2019 | Cassatt left as Chief Strategy Officer. Sam Cassatt left as Chief Strategy Officer of Consensys |
| Oct. 29, 2024 | Layoffs. Layoffs at Consensys became public |
| April 22, 2026 | Finlay left as Co-Founder. Dan Finlay left as Co-Founder, MetaMask of Consensys |
27 executive exits on the record in 2026, the most of any year
Executive exits CryptoLately has verified, by year; 2026 through Oct. 2, 2026
- 2026: 27
- 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 6 |
| 2020 | 1 |
| 2021 | 9 |
| 2022 | 9 |
| 2023 | 8 |
| 2024 | 11 |
| 2025 | 20 |
| 2026 | 27 |
Cointelegraph's report on April 23, 2026 placed Finlay's exit inside his own account of it. The outlet wrote that he was “stepping down from Consensys, citing burnout, as long-time crypto figures such as Bitcoin advocate Preston Pysh also pull back from public roles”2. Cointelegraph credited Finlay with helping MetaMask grow “into a default gateway to Ethereum and other Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible networks” since its start as a browser extension in the 2010s. It said he had become "one of the wallet industry's most recognizable public voices" over that stretch.
How Finlay closed the message
Finlay's closing line pointed at the team he was leaving, apart from the wider industry reading his post. “Wishing the team the best, they have an amazing road ahead of them,” Finlay wrote1. The post left any successor announcement for Consensys to make later. Cointelegraph's report carried the exit as a clean one, matching a founder picking his own date2.
Cointelegraph tied the announcement to a wider pattern. Bitcoin advocate Preston Pysh told followers a day earlier that he was “stepping back from public work, including his podcast, social media presence and venture investing, to focus on his wife and children”2. The outlet wrote that Pysh, “like Finlay, did not signal any loss of faith in the sector itself, but a rebalancing of priorities after years in the spotlight”.
What to watch
A named successor for Finlay's role on MetaMask's product side would mark the clearest signal of how Consensys plans to carry his work forward. Its own statement on the exit, beyond Finlay's post, would show how the company characterizes the departure.
Sources
- Dan Finlay, "Dan Finlay on X," April 22, 2026, https://x.com/danfinlay/status/2047101119709827580
- Christina Comben, "MetaMask co-founder Dan Finlay leaves Consensys after 10 years," Cointelegraph, April 23, 2026, https://cointelegraph.com/news/metamask-cofounder-dan-finlay-steps-down-after-a-decade