Disclaimer: Gauntlet is submitting this governance proposal on behalf of Consensys. We have no material interest in the outcome and have received no compensation for submitting this proposal.
Late last year, a potential Mastercard deal was proposed to the Compound community. This opportunity would enable Debit Card holders to spend Compound assets directly with local merchants. Users could earn supply APR on their funds on Linea up until the moment they spend.
Through this partnership with MetaMask, Compound receives:
- Instant‑spend integration: Cardholders can spend USDC, cUSDC, or cETH held in Compound on Linea through the MetaMask × Mastercard debit card.
- Built‑in TVL story: “Earn until you pay” positions Compound as one of the default savings layers inside every MetaMask Card.
- Amplified reach: Linea and MetaMask commit to joint marketing to spotlight the new feature. Including but not limited to:
- Twitter Spaces with the newly created Compound Foundation.
- Spotlight threads on X.
- MetaMask dedicated blog post highlighting the partnership.
- Distribution through various other Consensys channels.
- High-growth user base: MetaMask is working to scale up the card usage to its 30M MAU.
- Currently, MM Card has over 50k users
- United States general release moving out of beta plus new market launches in Canada, Africa, LATAM & the Middle East are scheduled over the next two quarters to augment the 36 countries we’ve already launched in
- We are on track to gain 500k-1M users by year end
- Compound gains direct access to spend-ready users as they cement on-chain payment habits.
The engineering integration work has already been completed. Compound has a USDC market deployed on Linea. No further development is needed from the Compound community.
Budget & Plan
To launch the MetaMask partnership, the following budget is requested:
$150,000 $USDC – Integration of cToken Off-Ramp
Covers integration costs and establishes a reserve to manage operational risks, such as depeg events. Baanx requires this buffer to facilitate fiat settlement while holding tokens. The reserve grows over time via off-ramping fees.
- cUSDC - Currently live on Linea Mainnet
- cUSDT - Will be added when market is live
- cETH - Will be added when market is live
$150,000 $COMP – Comp Token CashBack
Provide 2% cashback in Comp tokens on 7.5M dollars of spend. We plan to use this cashback only on cToken spend to encourage the use of interest-bearing c-tokens on the card and the supply side for the markets. This will also be one of the first instances of a DeFi Token reward for card users to boost excitement and usage of cTokens.
Consensys will report back with a full report on the forum 6 months into the program, with analytics and data from the campaign for the DAO to review.
Additional Benefits
- All MetaMask Card users are KYC’d, enabling fair and compliant reward distribution.
- Option to provide cashback in COMP or other assets.
- Reward structures can include partner campaigns. (Example: Mantle could allow cardholders to claim rewards by engaging with Mantle vaults.
- Integrates Compound into real-world payment rails.
- Unlocks new TVL and user flows from MetaMask’s growing card user base.
- KYC’d users expand Compound’s addressable market beyond on-chain activity into everyday life.
Logistics
MetaMask integration complete
Compound USDC Comet deployed on Linea
Cashback user flow is integrated
Requesting DAO funding to activate:
- $150,000 USDC (passed through to Baanx)
- $150,000 COMP for rewards
Next Steps
Pending DAO support, funds will be deployed to:
- Finalize cToken off-ramp infrastructure
- Launch COMP-backed cashback
- Kick off co-marketing and onboarding with MetaMask, Linea, and Compound Foundation
Summary
This proposal activates a high-profile, low-lift growth channel for Compound on Linea, backed by MetaMask and Mastercard. With DAO support, Compound can extend its footprint to real-world payments, expand TVL, and convert passive deposits into everyday spend, all while earning yield. We look forward to community feedback.