14% Layoffs and a $200M Raise
Ethereum giant ConsenSys splits software and investing business, cuts 14% of staff, seeks $200m investment
Holy moly, Blockfolians
The Lede
Huge news out of Ethereum’s biggest company. ConsenSys is splitting its business into two - separating investments from software. Additionally, it will seek to raise $200m for its software group, which includes Infura and MetaMask among others. As part of the shift, it has reduced 14% of its headcount. Whether this ends up being good for ConsenSys, layoffs are painful no matter what, so it was great to see the crypto community jump in to let those impacted know about new opportunities.
What We’re Reading
🖱️Minecraft players can now win BTC - A new Minecraft server called SatoshiQuest (not to be confused with the IRL game Satoshi’s Treasure) allows players to enter for $1 and then win the bounty in BTC by finding it within the game. Hey…this sounds like a movie I saw!
🥽A cool $1m for PoolTogether - Just a week after hitting a major milestone of more than $1m DAI locked up in its loss-less lottery, PoolTogether announced a new million dollar round of financing. Not bad!
👐 Bitmex adds XRP perpetual swap - Arthur Hayes recently announced that the Bitmex bitcoin perpetual swap had traded more than $2 trillion in total volume since launching. For those who are looking for something a little different, however, the company has now announced new perpetual swap trading on XRP.
A Really Big Number You Should Be Paying Attention To
$37m
That’s roughly the value of the more than 4000 BTC the US Marshall Service will auction off this month. This won’t be the first time BTC is available from the Marshalls. In June 2014, Tim Draper bought nearly 30,000 BTC in a post-Silk Road USMS auction for ~$19m. Today, that purchase is valued at roughly $279m.