MetaMask Introduces Security Alerts on Major Chains

Popular self-custody cryptocurrency wallet MetaMask has expanded its security alert system to cover additional blockchains, coinciding with substantial user growth over recent months.

Today, the Ethereum-based wallet announced it would extend its default MetaMask Security Alerts to its web and mobile users on networks such as Polygon, Optimism, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Binance Smart Chain, and Gnosis Chain.

The security feature, developed together with Blockaid, proactively warns users during transactions if a known scam risk is detected, having helped users avoid over $1 million in potential losses to fraudsters last year.

According to MetaMask’s senior product manager Bárbara Schorchit, Blockaid’s systems spotted a malicious decentralized app a full day before the notorious phishing scam in September 2023 which compromised Vitalik Buterin’s Twitter account.

The collaboration enabled users with security alerts enabled to avoid losses totaling around $100,000 during the scam. Schorchit added that the alerts also played a key role in detecting the security breach when Uniswap founder Hayden Adams’ Twitter account was later hacked in October.

The boost to security provisions comes as MetaMask continues to see substantial increases in its user base, approaching the record levels it registered in 2022.

Monthly active users jumped from 19 million in September 2023 to 30 million in January 2024, while MetaMask also recently announced a partnership with trading platform Robinhood.

The collaboration will enable seamless transfers of crypto assets between users’ MetaMask wallets and Robinhood accounts, allowing wallet users to directly purchase digital assets via Robinhood’s systems.

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