Bluesky Reveals Massive Hidden Investment

[mastodonmigration@mastodon.online]

Bluesky Reveals Massive Hidden Investment

Today #Bluesky revealed that in April 2025 they received a whopping $100M venture capital investment and that they KEPT IT A SECRET.

https://bsky.social/about/blog/03-19-2026-series-b

So the answer to the big mystery Who Owns Bluesky? (https://mastodon.online/@mastodonmigration/116025246450023071) is finally out.

Now, we should be asking why did this company that prides itself on transparency and "decentralization" decide they needed to hide who owned the company?

[mastodonmigration@mastodon.online]

Here is the TechCruch article on the announcement:

"Social network Bluesky is gearing up for big changes with today’s news that the company raised $100 million in Series B funding. The round, led by Bain Capital Crypto, was closed in April 2025 but had not been disclosed until now."

https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/19/bluesky-announces-100m-series-b-after-ceo-transition/

[mastodonmigration@mastodon.online]

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..."

[cold@gunbark.dev]

@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

[nazokiyoubinbou@urusai.social]

@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.

[mastodonmigration@mastodon.online]

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...

https://mastodon.online/@mastodonmigration/116201871821753838

[suzannealdrich@hachyderm.io]

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

[thematic@mastodon.green]

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

[mastodonmigration@mastodon.online]

@suzannealdrich

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

[elleaster@ohai.social]

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

[numodular@c.im]

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

[pg1958@mastodon.sdf.org]

@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!

[jonchevreau@mstdn.ca]

@mastodonmigration Have they announced this on BS?

[mastodonmigration@mastodon.online]

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?

[mastodonmigration@mastodon.online]

@JonChevreau

https://bsky.social/about/blog/03-19-2026-series-b

[thegreatllama@kolektiva.social]

@mastodonmigration
Who could have possibly predicted? 😆

[scharfezunge@nrw.social]

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

[tehstu@hachyderm.io]

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

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

[mastodonmigration@mastodon.online]

@TheGreatLlama

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

https://mastodon.online/@mastodonmigration/113460350142869916

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.

[mastodonmigration@mastodon.online]

@tehstu

Well maybe you will have better luck...

https://mastodon.online/@mastodonmigration/116018929963186579