(Reuters) – Mysten Labs, a platform that provides infrastructure to accelerate web3 adoption, raised $300 million in a funding round led by cryptocurrency exchange FTX, valuing the firm at more than $2 billion.
The Series B round also saw participation from a16z crypto, Apollo, Binance Labs, Franklin Templeton, Coinbase Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners, among others.
Founded in 2021, the Palo Alto-based company intends to use the proceeds to continue building out the core infrastructure to power web3’s next wave of applications and increase the pace of adoption of the Sui ecosystem.
“With Sui, we are endeavoring to build a blockchain that scales with demand and incentivizes growth, eliminating middlemen and enabling users across applications to seamlessly integrate and interact with their favorite products,” said Mysten’s Chief Executive Officer Evan Cheng.
Ethereum, the blockchain that underpins the world’s second-largest crypto token, is set for a major software upgrade, referred to as “Merge”, where the creation of new ether tokens becomes far less energy-intensive.
Mysten’s move to raise funds comes at a time many believe the Ethereum Merge will breathe life into the embattled crypto sector. JP Morgan, last month, called it the “most significant event in the history of the crypto ecosystem”.
FTX, led by Sam Bankman-Fried, in recent months has thrown lifelines to several digital asset platforms, including cryptocurrency lenders BlockFi and Voyager Digital.
(Reporting by Mehnaz Yasmin in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
