“Ethereum Is The Clear Winner,” says ConsenSys CEO as MetaMask Users Grow 38x in Last Year

The Ethereum backer also raised $200 million at a $3.2 billion valuation from investors, including hedge fund Third Point and Europe’s largest bank HSBC.

Blockchain technology firm ConsenSys raised $200 million in a fresh fundraising round that gave it a valuation of $3.2 billion. The new capital was from investors, including hedge fund Third Point and HSBC.

Just earlier this year, HSBC, Europe’s largest bank, said that it had no plans to launch a crypto trading desk or offer the asset to customers, and now it is investing in the companies that are building the infrastructure of the crypto ecosystem.

Just six months ago, ConsenSys also raised $65 million from Mastercard and another banking giant, JPMorgan.

New York-based ConsenSys was founded by CEO Joe Lubin, who also co-founded the second largest cryptocurrency Ethereum.

Popular Ethereum wallet MetaMask is one of ConsenSys’s main products, which announced on Wednesday that its monthly active users have now reached 21 million, an increase of 38x from last year.

“ConsenSys’ MetaMask wallet and other tools offer a unique platform for consumers, enterprises, and developers to engage, build, and create on the decentralized web,” said Third Point CEO Daniel Loeb.

There are now more MetaMask users than there ever will be Bitcoin 🦊

Thank you for trusting us to help you access and navigate Web3.

This is only the beginning. pic.twitter.com/3yB17lILQV

— MetaMask (@MetaMask) November 17, 2021

The Ethereum backer that holds a treasury of ETH and other cryptocurrencies said it raised outside funds to facilitate “hyper-growth” and potential acquisitions.

The fresh capital will also be used to make 400 new hires. “There’s a war for talent going on,” ConsenSys Chief Strategy Officer Simon Morris said in an interview, “and we are going to make sure that we can grow our team, acquire some teams, acqui-hire some teams,” to stay competitive on the Ethereum front.

This year, several layer 1 blockchains such as Solana, Polkadot, Cosmos, Avalanche, Fantom, Polygon, BSC, and others have grown their ecosystem and emerged as a strong competitor to Ethereum, but CEO Lubin isn’t really concerned.

SOL -10.35% Solana / USD SOLUSD $ 196.71
-$20.36-10.35% Volume 3.94 b Change -$20.36 Open $196.71 Circulating 303.51 m Market Cap 59.7 b 7 h “Ethereum Is The Clear Winner,” says ConsenSys CEO as MetaMask Users Grow 38x in Last Year 1 d Brave’s Self-custody Built-in Crypto Wallet to Give 42 Million Users Access to DApps for EMV-compatible Chains 2 d Paradigm Launches Largest New Venture Capital Crypto Fund, Valkyrie and Coinbase Target DeFi DOT -8.80% Polkadot / USD DOTUSD $ 39.09
-$3.44-8.80% Volume 2.19 b Change -$3.44 Open $39.09 Circulating 987.58 m Market Cap 38.61 b 7 h “Ethereum Is The Clear Winner,” says ConsenSys CEO as MetaMask Users Grow 38x in Last Year 2 d 13 Consecutive Week of Inflows Send Bitcoin AUM to A Record $56B and Ether’s Past $21B For The First Time 1 w Sharp Pick Up in Demand: BTC Price Aims for $69k as Inflows into Bitcoin Hit A New Record of $8.9 Billion ATOM -9.48% Cosmos / USD ATOMUSD $ 26.79
-$2.54-9.48% Volume 536.58 m Change -$2.54 Open $26.79 Circulating 224.79 m Market Cap 6.02 b 7 h “Ethereum Is The Clear Winner,” says ConsenSys CEO as MetaMask Users Grow 38x in Last Year 4 w Cosmos Unveils New Blockchain, Sagan, A Canary Network to Allow Developers to Run Tests And Experiments 1 mon Over 160 Projects Are Launching on Terra by Early Next Year to ‘Amplify Demand for UST’ and Send it to $10 Bln, says Founder AVAX -6.02% Avalanche / USD AVAXUSD $ 100.08
-$6.03-6.02% Volume 1.93 b Change -$6.03 Open $100.08 Circulating 220.29 m Market Cap 22.05 b 7 h “Ethereum Is The Clear Winner,” says ConsenSys CEO as MetaMask Users Grow 38x in Last Year 1 d Brave’s Self-custody Built-in Crypto Wallet to Give 42 Million Users Access to DApps for EMV-compatible Chains 2 d Paradigm Launches Largest New Venture Capital Crypto Fund, Valkyrie and Coinbase Target DeFi FTM -13.71% Fantom / USD FTMUSD $ 1.86
-$0.26-13.71% Volume 948.3 m Change -$0.26 Open $1.86 Circulating 2.55 b Market Cap 4.74 b 7 h “Ethereum Is The Clear Winner,” says ConsenSys CEO as MetaMask Users Grow 38x in Last Year 2 d Paradigm Launches Largest New Venture Capital Crypto Fund, Valkyrie and Coinbase Target DeFi 5 d DeFi Still In The Early Stages With A Lot Of Potential But Faces Regulatory Hurdles: JPMorgan Report MATIC -8.72% Polygon / USD MATICUSD $ 1.50
-$0.13-8.72% Volume 1.04 b Change -$0.13 Open $1.50 Circulating 6.94 b Market Cap 10.45 b 7 h “Ethereum Is The Clear Winner,” says ConsenSys CEO as MetaMask Users Grow 38x in Last Year 1 d Brave’s Self-custody Built-in Crypto Wallet to Give 42 Million Users Access to DApps for EMV-compatible Chains 2 d Paradigm Launches Largest New Venture Capital Crypto Fund, Valkyrie and Coinbase Target DeFi

“Solana is a wonderful technology,” which will be “important as our ecosystem evolves,” said Lubin in his interview with Bloomberg. But he noted that these platforms like to think of themselves as layer one, but actually, they are “competing with Layer 2 protocols on Ethereum.”

“Ethereum has chosen to focus on decentralization, and that’s where you get trust foundation,” while other layer 1s focus on execution rather than security or data availability. “Ethereum is the clear winner in terms of security, decentralization, and trust,” he added.

Talking about ConsenSys’ participation in the development of Web 3, CEO Lubin said, they “operate a flywheel where we build a bunch of developer tooling that enables us and our community to build applications on an open-source decentralized global super app” and then in MeatMask they provide the user interface to that super app.