Consensys has made an announcement about its recent acquisition of Wallet Guard, a security tool designed to protect digital assets and data from theft, scams, and fraud. The purpose of this acquisition is to incorporate Wallet Guard’s advanced security features into MetaMask in order to enhance user protection within the Web3 framework. With Wallet Guard’s expertise in transaction validation and client-side heuristics, MetaMask users can anticipate improved security capabilities, such as the detection of scams and drain attacks.
The integration process will involve the Wallet Guard team joining Consensys as part of the MetaMask Product Safety Team, ensuring a seamless transition. Patrick Berarducci, Consensys’ MetaMask and Infura Business Group lead, explained in a written Q&A that the goal of this integration is to eliminate user fund losses entirely.
This acquisition highlights an increased focus on user safety, as the risk of crypto hacks and scams in Web3 continues to grow. According to Chainalysis’ “2024 Crypto Crime Report,” more than $1.7 billion worth of crypto assets were stolen through scams in 2023. Berarducci discussed the growing importance of user safety in Web3 and the implications of this acquisition.
However, despite the progress made in improving user wallet security, Consensys faces an ongoing lawsuit from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which poses a challenge to this acquisition. The SEC filed a complaint on June 28, alleging that Consensys has operated as an unregistered broker and collected over $250 million in fees without proper SEC registration. In response, Consensys sued the SEC in April after receiving a Wells notice, claiming that the SEC was pursuing an anti-crypto agenda through arbitrary enforcement actions.
In other news, a phishing scammer has targeted Hedera users in the crypto-sec space, while an address poisoner managed to obtain $70,000.