Microsoft Joins Other Investors In Raising Funds For This Blockchain Start-up

Blockchain start-up ConsenSys raised $450 million in a new round of funding that more than doubled its valuation to $7 billion, CNBC reports.
Joseph Lubin founded ConsenSys. Lubin was also the co-founder of Ethereum, the blockchain platform behind ether, the second-biggest cryptocurrency.
ConsenSys' most popular products include the MetaMask cryptocurrency wallet and Infura, which help developers create Ethereum apps.
MetaMask topped 30 million monthly active users in January, up 42% in the last four months. Infura recently topped $1 trillion in annualized transaction volumes.
ConsenSys would convert the funding proceeds into the ether.
The funds will help hire 600 more employees, redesign MetaMask slated for release later this year, and build out ConsenSys' growing NFT business.
ParaFi Capital led the funding round with Microsoft Corp MSFT, Japan's SoftBank Group Corp SFTBF SFTBY, and Singapore's Temasek joining as new investors.
Microsoft previously led an early-stage investment in start-up Palm NFT Studio co-founded by Lubin.
Microsoft's involvement highlights growing interest from the world's largest tech firms in Web3, which refers to efforts to create a decentralized version of the internet based on blockchain technology.
Price Action: MSFT shares traded higher by 2.88% at $284.82 on the last check Tuesday.