What Is Metis (METIS), the Gas Token With 65% of Its Supply in One Bridge

Metis (METIS) is the gas token of Andromeda, an Ethereum layer 2, and one Ethereum bridge contract held 64.76 percent of its 10 million maximum supply on 13 September 2026. Every METIS that pays gas on Andromeda was minted there against a token locked in that bridge, so one contract backs every fee the network charges.

At 13:17 UTC on 13 September 2026, Ethereum block 25,968,757 showed the bridge holding 6,476,136.05 METIS, and Andromeda block 23,140,692 put the layer-2 supply at 6,473,107.30 five seconds later. The two ledgers land 3,028.75 tokens apart, with the surplus on the Ethereum side. METIS closed the Saturday 12 September session at $3.07 on Phemex spot, up 6.60 percent.

What Is Metis and What Does the METIS Token Do

Metis is an Ethereum layer 2 whose mainnet, Andromeda, runs transactions off Ethereum and settles the record back to it. The Metis developer documentation describes an optimistic rollup whose transaction ordering rotates among several sequencers, and each sequencer has to lock METIS on Ethereum to join the set. Metis marked its move to that decentralized sequencer design on its Medium blog on 13 March 2024. If the rollup model is unfamiliar, how Ethereum layer 2 networks work covers the general case.

The METIS token does two jobs. It pays for gas on Andromeda, where it plays the role ether plays on Ethereum. It's also the stake a sequencer puts up to join the rotation. A token with both jobs draws demand from users paying fees and from operators who want a seat.

Metis runs a second network too. Its documentation opens on Hyperion, a high-performance layer 2 the team says will coexist with Andromeda for different use cases. The explorer those pages link to runs on a testnet domain. Every supply figure on this page comes from Andromeda.

Why Did METIS Climb 27.39 Percent in Thirty Sessions

METIS closed the Saturday 12 September session at $3.07 on Phemex spot, up 27.39 percent over thirty sessions and 35.84 percent above its 18 August close of $2.26. That $2.26 is the lowest Phemex spot close in the 365-session window ending 12 September 2026. CoinGecko puts the token's all-time low at $2.25 on the same day.

The sharpest session of the climb came on 6 September, when METIS closed at $3.59 for a 22.53 percent gain on about twice its 30-session median Phemex turnover. It gave back 13.37 percent the next session and closed at $3.11.

No dated Metis event attaches to the 6 September spike or the 12 September close, and no Metis catalyst carries a date on the calendar ahead. A move with no named cause is one to size smaller, because nothing tells you when the buyers behind it leave.

What the climb did change is the chart. On Phemex spot closes and simple averages, the 6 September close of $3.59 was the first above the 200-day average since 23 August 2025. Three of the six sessions after it closed above that line as well, and the 12 September close of $3.07 cleared the 200-day at $3.0161. The 50-day trails at $2.6422, 12.40 percent below it, so the death cross that printed on 1 February 2025 still stands. A close above the 200-day is not a golden cross. Traders watch that line because a simple moving average turns 200 closes into one level a price either holds or loses.

How Does the METIS Token Work

The METIS token starts on Ethereum. The contract at 0x9E32b13ce7f2E80A01932B42553652E053D6ed8e returns the name Metis Token and the symbol Metis with 18 decimals, and it reports a total supply of 10,000,000, the same maximum CoinGecko lists.

Moving METIS to Andromeda locks your tokens in a bridge contract on Ethereum while the layer 2 mints the same amount on its side. A withdrawal runs the other way, burning the tokens on Andromeda before the bridge releases them on Ethereum. The Metis predeploys page lists the bridge address as the proxy for its standard bridge, and Etherscan tags the same contract as the Metis Andromeda bridge.

On Andromeda the token lives at a fixed system address ending in 0000, and the Andromeda FAQ says METIS there is a native token that is also ERC-20 compatible. We checked what that means on 13 September at 13:17 UTC. On three addresses the chain's native-balance call and the token contract's balance call returned identical figures to the last decimal, including 14,836.50 METIS at one system address. The coin that pays for gas and the token the bridge minted are one ledger.

The sequencer job lives on Ethereum. A would-be sequencer locks METIS in the Metis locking pool and receives an NFT whose transfer the contract restricts, according to the locking documentation. Leaving takes 21 days from the exit request before the locked METIS comes back, so sequencer stake can't hit the market in a hurry.

How Much METIS Is Locked in the Metis Bridge

The Metis bridge on Ethereum held 6,476,136.05 METIS at 13:17 UTC on 13 September, 64.76 percent of the 10 million that can ever exist. No other Ethereum address comes close. The next-largest holder on Ethplorer's list that day held 361,984 METIS, or 3.62 percent, which gives the bridge almost 18 times the next wallet.

Method: call the METIS contract on Ethereum for the bridge's balance, then call the token contract on Andromeda for its total supply, and read both inside the same minute. The machine names are balanceOf with the bridge address as its argument and totalSupply on the layer-2 contract. Any public node for either chain returns the same answer at the same block.

Subtract and the bridge holds 3,028.75 METIS more than Andromeda has issued, a gap of 0.047 percent of the layer-2 supply. A lock-and-mint bridge produces a surplus in that direction. A deposit locks tokens on Ethereum a little before Andromeda mints them. A withdrawal burns tokens on Andromeda well before the bridge pays out, so anything in transit shows up as surplus on the Ethereum side. Tokens someone sent to the bridge contract by mistake would land on that side too. Two balance reads can't split the 3,028.75 between those causes, and at 0.047 percent the split doesn't change the finding.

So the reconciliation holds, and it says something plain about the token. Every METIS paying gas on Andromeda has a locked counterpart in one Ethereum contract. Against CoinGecko's circulating count of 7,928,533 METIS on 13 September, the bridge balance equals 81.68 percent of the float, so most circulating METIS lives on Andromeda. At the $3.07 Phemex close that float rebuilds to a market cap of $24.34 million, and how to calculate market cap walks through why the supply basis moves that answer.

What Can Move the METIS Price

Each driver of the METIS price below comes with a number or a date you can check.

Gas demand and the bridge balance

Andromeda users buy METIS to pay for transactions, so layer-2 activity is the demand side of the token. The bridge balance is the cleanest gauge you have, because a rising balance means METIS moving onto the network and a falling one means holders pulling it back to Ethereum.

The 200-day average at $3.0161

The 12 September close of $3.07 cleared the 200-day simple average by 1.79 percent on Phemex spot closes. A close back under that line would give up the first break above it since August 2025, and the 50-day at $2.6422 is the next level below.

The FOMC on 15 and 16 September 2026

The Federal Reserve meets on 15 and 16 September 2026 and publishes a Summary of Economic Projections with its decision. Its 29 July statement held the target range at 3-1/2 to 3-3/4 percent, and all three dissenters wanted a quarter-point hike. A token with $1.61 million of dated daily volume on CoinGecko's 12 September row tends to move further than the majors on the risk tone a meeting like that sets.

Supply outside the circulating count

CoinGecko's circulating count leaves about 2.07 million of the 10 million maximum outside the float, and no dated release schedule for that remainder appears in the sources we opened. Any of it that reaches the market adds supply to a token already 81.57 percent under its 365-session closing high. That high was $16.66 on 18 September 2025, measured on Phemex spot closes in the window ending 12 September 2026.

Sequencer stake

Sequencers lock METIS on Ethereum to join the rotation and wait 21 days to leave. The number of operators who want a seat therefore changes how much METIS stays off the market. An exit request starts a clock you can see three weeks ahead.

Risks of Buying or Trading Metis

One contract held 64.76 percent of all METIS

On 13 September the Metis bridge contract held almost two-thirds of every METIS that can exist, and every token on Andromeda depends on it. Etherscan tags it as a proxy, the pattern that lets whoever controls its admin key replace the code behind the address without moving the tokens. A bug in that code or a stolen key would reach 6.48 million METIS in one place.

Bridge failures have cost METIS holders before

The Metis Medium blog published instructions on 15 September 2023 for redeeming METIS lost in the Poly Network hack. That exploit hit a cross-chain bridge the Metis team does not run. The Andromeda bridge is a different contract, and the episode shows how a bridge failure lands on holders of the token that moved through it.

The name belongs to other things first

The word metis also names the Métis people and a Greek goddess of wisdom, which is why a search for the Metis crypto token needs the ticker beside it. On CoinGecko a token called Medusa trades under the same METIS ticker, and a Wrapped Metis entry sits one letter away as WMETIS. A contract that answers to the right name and symbol proves nothing on its own, so match the address before you buy.

A thin spot book and $1.40 million in pools

The Phemex METIS/USDT spot book turned over $96,350 on the 12 September session, and there's no METIS perpetual on Phemex to hedge with. On-chain, DexScreener counted about $1.40 million of pooled liquidity across 32 pairs on Ethereum and Andromeda on 13 September, the largest a METIS and wrapped-ether pool on Ethereum at $654,587. How a liquidity pool prices trades explains why a large market order moves a pool that shallow.

A 99.05 percent fall from the peak

CoinGecko's all-time high for METIS is $323.54 from 16 January 2022, and the $3.07 Phemex close of 12 September is 99.05 percent below it. Size a position for the chance of a fresh low, because the token printed its all-time low of $2.25 on CoinGecko as late as 18 August 2026.

How Do You Check the Metis Bridge Yourself

Start with the addresses and not the name. The Ethereum METIS contract ends in ed8e and the Andromeda token lives at a system address ending in 0000. The bridge proxy ending in c04b is the one that should hold most of the supply. Auditing a contract's liquidity and authorities covers the wider checklist for any token.

Then run the two reads in the same minute and subtract. A few thousand tokens of surplus on the bridge side is normal traffic. A layer-2 supply above the bridge balance would mean METIS exists on Andromeda with nothing locked behind it, and that's the one result you should never see.

Compare two price feeds before you trust either one. Phemex closed METIS at $3.07 on 12 September and CoinGecko's dated close was $3.0778, a spread of 0.25 percent that says the two books agree.

Set the volume against the depth as well. CoinGecko's $1.61 million of dated volume is 0.066 times the token's market cap and 1.15 times its pooled liquidity, and neither ratio points to inflated turnover.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is METIS on Andromeda a wrapped token?

No. The native coin needs no wrapper, but a separate wrapped contract does exist at 0x75cb093E4D61d2A2e65D8e0BBb01DE8d89b53481, deployed by a decentralized exchange team on the same model as wrapped ether. CoinGecko files that contract as a separate asset called Wrapped Metis.

Does Phemex offer METIS futures?

No. The METISUSDT perpetual listed on 14 March 2024 and shows as delisted in the Phemex product list on 13 September 2026, so METIS trades on spot only. The spot pair's daily bars restart on 12 March 2024 after a 504-day gap that followed a bar on 25 October 2022, which makes the current spot listing a relisting.

Who can run an Andromeda sequencer?

Anyone who locks METIS in the locking pool on Ethereum can apply. Once the active set reaches its agreed maximum, new applicants wait in a queue. The documentation says a sequencer that stays unhealthy for a long time gets pulled from the network to free a seat.

Final Thoughts

Most token pages treat a bridge as plumbing. For METIS the bridge is the balance sheet, holding 64.76 percent of maximum supply behind one upgradeable Ethereum contract and backing every coin that pays gas on Andromeda. The reconciliation came out clean on 13 September, with 3,028.75 tokens of surplus on the locked side. That surplus is the number to re-run before you size a position, because Andromeda showing more METIS than the bridge holds would mean coins with nothing behind them.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. Cryptocurrency trading involves substantial risk. Always do your own research before making investment decisions.