ConsenSys, the creator of crypto wallet MetaMask, wants to redesign the wallet and has raised funds for that purpose. The $450 million investment round nearly doubled ConsenSys’ valuation to $7 billion in a raise featuring participation from ParaFi Capital, Microsoft, SoftBank, and Temasek.
The funding round comes amid allegations levied by ConsenSys shareholders that its founder, Joseph Lubin, illegally transferred assets from ConsenSys Mesh (the company’s venture arm) to ConsenSys Software Incorporated (the parent entity to MetaMask) in the transaction. The group, which claims to represent more than 50% of ConsenSys Mesh shareholders, is urging a Swiss court to conduct an independent audit of the privately-traded company.
With that said, ConsenSys aims to earn yields on assets by using its own financial infrastructure, protocols, and staking. It will reportedly launch a plug-in system as part of its raise and subsequent redesign of MetaMask, which can be integrated with a wide range of blockchain protocols and account security schemes.
For these developments, the company will use the fund toward hiring more than 600 new employees. It has nearly 700 full-time employees and hopes to have more than 1,000 by the end of 2022. Additionally, the firm announced the creation of a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) and the launch of a MetaMask native token.
“This round takes in digital assets as well as fiat and converts immediately to ETH. Next round will be our ‘Series ETH’ where we will assist investors in getting fully crypto native to contribute ETH as a symbol of and commitment to the ongoing paradigm shift,” said CEO Joseph Lubin on the latest funding round.
To summarize, the crypto giant plans to leverage a number of different trends, including DeFi protocols, NFTs, bridges, wallets, token launches, web3, and more. It’s going to be interesting to see how the plan coincides with the allegations by the shareholders in the future.