Blockchain studio ConsenSys closed a $65m spherical of funding this week. Whereas the funding is sizable, the buyers are the true prize.
Main the spherical are banking heavyweights UBS and JPMorgan Chase. The latter beforehand bought its enterprise blockchain tech Quorum to ConsenSys in a deal final August — now, they personal a lil’ little bit of ConsenSys. AKA the full-circle again scratch is full.
To not be outshined by its banking large bros…
… Mastercard is getting in on the motion, too
MC ponied up money within the funding spherical and inked a partnership take care of ConsenSys to develop enterprise blockchain functions.
The funding and partnership announcement comes on the heels of a common legitimization of blockchain know-how amongst funding circles — *cough* Coinbase IPO *cough*.
The wrinkle is ConsenSys dabbles in Ethereum
AKA ETH, the No. 2 cryptocurrency behind Bitcoin.
Based by Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin, ConsenSys’ work has centered round 2 Ethereum-based blockchain applied sciences: NFTs and DeFi, or decentralized finance.
Notably, ConsenSys is the workforce behind MetaMask, a preferred browser extension for interacting with NFTs and Ethereum wallets. If you happen to have been dropping dimes on CryptoPunks final month, you in all probability used it.
