Ethereum technology solutions provider ConsenSys has announced another massive funding round that shows interest in the world’s largest smart contract network is not waning. On March 15, ConsenSys announced that it had closed a US$450 million Series D funding round, bringing its valuation to more than US$7 billion.
The funding round was led by ParaFi Capital and included a number of cryptocurrency companies and regular tech giants, such as Singapore’s Temasek, Microsoft, SoftBank, Vision Fund 2 and Anthos Capital. Previous investors included Third Point, Marshall Wace and TRUE Capital Management.
The big names in technology and investment putting their money behind an Ethereum and Web3 software company stress that they foresee a bright future for the world’s second largest cryptocurrency network. According to the announcement, the investment will be converted into ETH to “rebalance the ratio of ETH to USD equivalents in line with ConsenSys’ treasury strategy.”
Ethereum has maintained a substantial treasury of ETH and stablecoins that it actively uses to fund its own infrastructure. It also uses this stash to generate returns on various DeFi staking protocols.
The funding will also be channeled into the company’s flagship cryptocurrency wallet, MetaMask, which is scheduled for a major upgrade later this year. MetaMask now has more than 30 million monthly active users, showing 42% growth in just four months, the announcement added.
The company also plans to accelerate global adoption of Infura’s developer toolset and further drive NFT growth. Infura interfaces with the Ethereum blockchain and runs nodes on behalf of its users, leading some to question decentralization as it is the backbone of the network.
ConsenSys will undertake a hiring spree this year, expanding its 700 employees to more than 1,000. In November, ConsenSys closed a US$200 million funding round that followed the US$65 million the company raised in April from backers that included JPMorgan, MasterCard and UBS.
