Crypto Firm Mysten Labs Secures $300M to Drive Blockchain Adoption

Blockchain infrastructure provider for Web 3 technology Mysten Labs has raised $300 million in a series B funding round led by FTX Ventures to speed up the adoption of its business offerings. 

The California-based technology firm was established in 2021 by a group of tech experts who served as senior executives at Meta’s Novi Research. The team were also the lead architects of the Diem blockchain and the Move programming language used to execute custom transactions and smart contracts. 

The new capital, which saw participation from existing investors and other prominent firms in the industry such as Binance Labs, a16z crypto, Coinbase Ventures, Circle Ventures, and O’Leary Ventures, has placed the company’s total valuation above $2 billion. 

Develop Innovations to Power Web 3 Technology

According to the official announcement, the $300 million would be used to develop more infrastructure to power the next wave of applications on Web 3. The firm also plans to use the funds to influence the adoption of its soon-to-be-launched flagship product, the Sui blockchain. 

Sui is a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) protocol designed to enable developers from different sectors to build innovative applications that cater for the Web 3 ecosystem. 

The protocol was built to tackle the blockchain trilemma challenges of the first blockchain. It was initially set to launch its testnets in August after asking prospective validators to participate in the pilot phase. However, the team is yet to schedule an official launch date for the product. 

“This new funding will enable Mysten to continue to scale Sui, and we are grateful for the support from blue-chip investors and strategic partners who are aligned in our mission to unlock the ownership economy and bring digital assets to the masses,” said Evan Cheng, the co-founder and CEO at Mysten Labs. 

Sui Blockchain Seeks to Scale Throughput at Low Costs 

Cheng also noted that the Web 3 ecosystem is currently in a dial-up era, slow, expensive and has capacity constraints which the Sui blockchain seeks to improve. It also aims to provide faster transactions at relatively cheap gas fees. 

Speaking on the latest development, Arianna Simpson, the General Partner at a16z crypto, which participated in the funding round, said the company believes that the Sui protocol would offer users improved scalability and lower transaction costs. 

“Building the future of web3 starts with having incredible people building its core infrastructure. We believe that Sui’s novel architecture will meaningfully improve scalability and lower transaction costs, unleashing new web3 applications and experiences for a broader audience.”