The Android app of the popular Ethereum wallet and decentralized application browser MetaMask has been banned from the Google Play store. Appeals to reverse the ban have also been denied.
Per MetaMask, it was banned on social media over Google’s policy against cryptocurrency mining apps on its app store. MetaMask, as an ETH wallet and decentralized application browser, doesn’t offer any mining features. Those backing the ETH wallet noted it’s unclear “whether the reviewer doesn’t understand the policy, or whether they are enforcing an unwritten policy.”
This isn’t the first time Google banned MetaMask. Back in 2018 the wallet was banned from the Chrome Web Store, but after the community made known concerns regarding the move the tech giant quickly re-listed it on its platform.
According to the ETH wallet’s developers, if MetaMask is left banned, they will work on “other ways of bringing our services to users still stranded on the Android platform while they migrate to something more free.”