- The Philippines is top three in the most number of MetaMask users.
- As for activities within the app, the country is top six and top two in DeFi and Gaming respectively.
- MetaMask exclusively revealed to BitPinas that it has observed a lot of user activities in the Philippines in the play-to-earn game Pegaxy in Q1 2022.
- MetaMask revealed this, along with other key data trends as it celebrates its 6th anniversary.
The Philippines has the third highest number of MetaMask users behind the United States and Brazil in Q1 2022. MetaMask revealed this, along with other key data trends as it celebrates its 6th anniversary.
The firm previously exclusively mentioned to BitPinas that in November of last year, 17% of its 21 million users back then, or 3.57 million users, are from the Philippines.
Top 25 Markets for MetaMask
Table of Contents.
Here are the top 25 markets with the most number of MetaMask users as of Q2 2022.
Note that the Philippines was ranked first when the crypto wallet first began sharing these milestone reports last August 2021, which coincidentally was the time when play-to-earn reached peak popularity in the country.
Brazil ranked eighth in the August 2021 milestone report but is now at number two.
- United States
- Brazil
- Philippines
- Indonesia
- India
- United Kingdom
- Russia
- France
- Turkey
- Germany
- Vietnam
- Canada
- Thailand
- Nigeria
- Italy
- Australia
- Japan
- China
- Netherlands
- South Korea
- Spain
- Ukraine
- Morocco
- Mexico
- Hong Kong
Fast Growing MetaMask Markets
Here are the 10 fastest growing countries in the same period:
- Morocco
- United Arab Emirates
- Philippines
- Turkey
- China
- Brazil
- Ecuador
- Saudi Arabia
- France
- Hong Kong
MetaMask Activities in the Philippines
MetaMask categorizes the main activities in its wallet into DeFi, NFTs, or Gaming. The firm said the Philippines is sixth (6th) in terms of DeFi activities and second (2nd) when it comes to gaming.
Last year, MetaMask said the growth of the wallet in the Philippines was fueled by play-to-earn gaming, spearheaded by Axie Infinity, which at one point reached more than 2 million users, half of which are from the Philippines. Jacob Cantele then-Lead Operations and now Strategic Advisor at the firm said to BitPinas last August 2021, “Historically, we’ve had a lot of Filipino users even pre-dating the gaming boom. We’ve seen people using MetaMask for decentralized finance services in the Philippines. All of those different usecases have brought more people into the decentralized web.”
Thetan Arena and DeFi Kingdoms
In a media statement, MetaMask looked back at that time, “Initially catalyzed by Axie Infinity, which reached over a million users without being allowed in either the Apple or Google app stores, the model spread to other popular games like DeFi Kingdoms and Thetan Arena.”
Pegaxy Leads MetaMask Activity in the Philippines in Q1 2022
When this writer asked about usership in the Philippines, Dan Finlay, founder of MetaMask revealed that the app saw a lot of user activity in the game Pegaxy.
“MetaMask has observed lots of user activities in the Philippines in the first Quarter of 2022 in the game Pegaxy. Since MetaMask’s creation in 2016, Filipinos have been among the most active communities globally in the Web3 ecosystem, leading global adoption.”
Dan Finlay, MetaMask Co-Founder
Pegaxy is a player-vs-player horse racing game with play-to-earn mechanics. Data from DappRadar shows volume for the game started increasing in January and peaked the month after.
Still, the bear market has affected MetaMask’s monthly active users, MetaMask said. But the firm is optimistic. “Based on historical patterns, it is normal and consistent,” while also noting that it is “still seeing sustained use as new applications continue to launch on Ethereum and other blockchains supported by MetaMask.”
MetaMask’s 6th Anniversary
For the first time, the firm’s founders Dan Finlay and Aaron Davis, who are notoriously very private about their personal lives, spoke about the beginnings of MetaMask and its exponential growth. Finlay is an English Literature major and Davis a Japanese and Chinese scholar who wanted to become a simultaneous interpreter before they decided to do full-time programming.
When Ethereum launched in 2014, after some idea iterations, they decided to create a web extension for people and developers to interact with the new blockchain. This allowed them to go to hackathons and have developers look into their product. They launched MetaMask in 2016.
Why MetaMask as the name? It’s a combination of things, said Davis.
It must be a name that rolls off the tongue nicely and must pass the “phone test” which means “Can you say it over the phone and can they write it down?” “Meta” means self-referential while “Mask” is a metaphor for identity. “MetaMask was meant to mean, ‘the thing you use to manage your many identities,” he said. Given Facebook’s rebrand, the firm noted how the choice of name appeared clairvoyant looking back.
MetaMask Snaps
Snaps is a system that allows developers to expand MetaMask’s capabilities, such as support for other blockchains and other user experiences. This, in ways, allows MetaMask to get modified which was impossible before. This, in turn, leads to more developers working on the product. One of them is the Keystone Wallet’s team led by Lixin Liu which created Bitcoin Snaps. This “snap” enables MetaMask users to interact with the Bitcoin Blockchain.
“Since our team came from the Bitcoin community and deeply love Bitcoin, delivering Bitcoin Snaps opens the possibility to let more than 30 million users seamlessly manage their Bitcoin,” Liu said in a statement.
Dealing With Scams
Every time a person tweets about MetaMask or tag the app’s account, a barrage of “fake” MetaMask accounts or “fake MetaMask customer representatives” would reply, which, if the user proceeds, would likely lead to a person’s MetaMask wallet to be hacked.
In May of this year, MetaMask partnered with Asset Reality, a firm specializing in helping users who got scammed, and it’s actually available for the wallet’s users in the Philippines as well. “Asset Reality will be the case handler for MetaMask’s affected users. They will take the heavy lifting off the users to build an investigation into each scam operation, greatly increasing the likelihood of fund recovery and bringing scammers to justice,” MetaMask stated.
20, 30 Years from Now
As for the future of MetaMask, the firm said it is clearly looking beyond the bear market, as MetaMask Snaps now have 600 unique developers, all creating applications that expand MetaMask’s capabilities.
The firm said it is convinced that it is the community that will build the next cycle of MetaMask. “2022 has been a year of building the systems and teams MetaMask needs to fulfill users’ needs more completely,” it said in a statement.
Davis said what is popular now might not be in the future. “Most things in Web3 that are popular now won’t be around in 20 or 30 years,” he said. Still, he said his goal is to make sure they build a Web3 “civilization starter kit.”
“Today, most people neither know how to trust computers, nor each other. The internet has shattered our sense of unity. I want to leave people feeling like they are able to trust more things again, but for the right reason,” Finlay concluded.
This article is published on BitPinas: Philippines Rank Third in Most Number of MetaMask Users in Q2 2022
Disclaimer: BitPinas articles and its external content are not financial advice. The team serves to deliver independent, unbiased news to provide information for Philippine-crypto and beyond.
