More from the TechCrunch article:

"The addition of another crypto-oriented VC firm may give some Bluesky users pause, however, especially since, so far, the company has not integrated cryptocurrencies into its offering..."

"As Graber once told Wired in an interview, “the term Web3 got very associated with cryptocurrency, so it’s not a good word to use for what we’re doing..."

@mastodonmigration surprise surprise!

a $100M funding round also strongly implies there was a pitch that there was a feasible path to Bluesky being a billion dollar company

presumably the lack of progress on revenue in the last year is why Jay's out

@mastodonmigration I truly can't understand why so many are so willing to trust Bluesky to not be exactly like the things they left for exactly the reasons they left those things...

As far as I could ever see, right from day one it was built to just be the thing that takes people from those so it can do the same thing all over again... Like that was its clear goal...

So it will just hurt them and then something else, say Greensky, will pop up and they'll go to that and it will just do the same thing.

So, now that has been revealed that a secret VC cabal does in fact own Bluesky, let's ask how on earth they plan to recoup an investment of over $125M.

It is simply not possible to do so out of revenue. The company has no revenue and little prospect of earning money.

The only real asset that Bluesky has is their user base comprised of the nation's foremost liberals and progressives...

Mastodon Migration (@mastodonmigration@mastodon.online)

Attached: 1 image @benroyce@mastodon.social @ikuturso@mastodon.social It is an interesting situation. The entire value of #Bluesky is that they have corralled all the libs who are pretty hostile to this administration, and yet it appears that the crypto bro ownership is quite friendly with the oligarchy. So, what is the play? A suspicious mind might think they are up to something...

Mastodon (mastodon.online)

@mastodonmigration there is no way this doesn’t end in some kind of crypto/AI grift

@mastodonmigration Broken telephone –game, driven by machines, of course, all over again.

@suzannealdrich

Feel like it is more likely that influencing the midterms through algorithmic manipulation of their users is more what they are up to.

@mastodonmigration and they'll be so pleased they got an early invite

@mastodonmigration Short of making #BehavioralScience #CoreEducation, the more this K-economy will collapse all but the wealthiest Capitalists.

@suzannealdrich @mastodonmigration well, I'll tell you how it ends for me. I'm out, no telling what info they are harvesting from us so I'm dumping my butterfly account right now. Good luck all!

@mastodonmigration Have they announced this on BS?

@mastodonmigration That reminds me. It's time to donate to my local Mastodon admin. I know who owns it, and it's one pretty nice person.

To understand all this better, consider that the Crypto PAC 'Fairshake' spend over $20M in Illinois and $10M of that on a failed attempt to defeat Julianna Stratton. They have over $220M more to spend on influencing the midterms. For these guys the opportunity to achieve some degree of message control over liberal social media is well worth $100M.

How will they do it? Algorithmic manipulation of social media? Quieting critics, amplifying favorable messaging? Has it already begun?

@JonChevreau

Bluesky's 2025 $100M Series B Lays Foundation for Open Social Web - Bluesky

In April 2025, Bluesky raised $100 million in Series B funding led by Bain Capital Crypto. Since our Series A, we've grown from 13 million to over 43 million global users.

Bluesky (bsky.social)

@mastodonmigration
Who could have possibly predicted?

@mastodonmigration
Yeah!!! Why!!!??

@mastodonmigration Ah, Bain. The stories we could tell.

Anyway, just need Mike Masnick to tell us why this is good actually.

@TheGreatLlama

Funny you should ask. Have literally dozens of posts around this topic. Here is the first one back just after the 2024 election.

Mastodon Migration (@mastodonmigration@mastodon.online)

FICTIONAL DATELINE November 2027: Elon Musk Completes Acquisition of Bluesky LLC Musk announced his intention to fold the upstart liberal social media network into his X Empire, shocking Democrats and the progressive social media community that moved en masse to Bluesky three years ago after the disastrous 2024 election. "No one could have seen this coming," agreed top content creators on Bluesky assuring their millions of followers, they would stay and fight to keep Bluesky blue. #Bluesky

Mastodon (mastodon.online)

But, it would make sense for them to spring the trap this year since the midterms are really critical to the future of democracy in the US.

@tehstu

Well maybe you will have better luck...

Mastodon Migration (@mastodonmigration@mastodon.online)

Who owns Bluesky? Let's ask Mike Masnick @mmasnick@mastodon.social who is on the board of Bluesky PBC. Mike is a famous long time journalism critic and founder of Techdirt. He regularly writes about how Bluesky is decentralized and how you can 'move your digital identity' around the Bluesky network. Mike is a big advocate of open systems, so let's ask him to open up about who owns the company that he promotes so enthusiastically. Mike, who really owns Bluesky? #Bluesky #WhoOwnsBluesky

Mastodon (mastodon.online)

@mastodonmigration
I mean... I'm pretty sure everyone who moved here and DIDN'T go over to Bluesky saw something like this coming. I remember chuckling about the false exclusivity of the invites. Gotta jerk the lure a bit to get the fish to bite.