Consensys, the Ethereum (ETH) development firm behind the popular MetaMask wallet, has officially pushed back its planned U.S. public offering until at least the fall of 2026. The decision, confirmed by two individuals with direct knowledge of the situation, comes in response to the sustained downturn in the crypto market, which has made a near-term listing impractical.
The company, led by Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, had been working toward filing a confidential S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) around the end of February 2026, a key first step in the IPO process. To lead the offering, Consensys had engaged financial giants JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs. A company spokesperson declined to comment on the matter, stating, “As a matter of policy, we don’t comment on market speculation.”
The delay is a direct result of market turmoil that began in February 2026. A significant sell-off in crypto assets was triggered by a combination of macroeconomic uncertainty, new tariff concerns, reduced expectations for interest rate cuts, and heavy outflows from Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs). This led to a wave of leveraged liquidations across the digital asset space, prompting investors to pull back from risk.
Consensys is not alone in hitting the brakes. Other prominent crypto firms, including exchange giant Kraken and hardware wallet maker Ledger, have also paused their IPO preparations due to the unfavorable market climate. This shift in momentum stands in contrast to earlier in the year when improved regulatory clarity in the U.S. had encouraged several companies to signal their intentions to go public.
The recent public debut of crypto custodian BitGo (BTGO) serves as a cautionary tale. As the only crypto-native IPO of 2026 so far, BitGo raised approximately 213millioninJanuary,pricingsharesat18 and enjoying a 20% surge on its first trading day. However, the stock has since dropped roughly 36% below its IPO price, highlighting the difficulty of sustaining investor appetite for crypto-linked listings in the current environment.
Consensys, which last raised external capital in early 2022 with a 450millionSeriesDroundata7 billion valuation, has not disclosed a revised valuation in connection with its updated IPO timeline.