Bluesky Raises $100 Million Series B as CEO Jay Graber Transitions to Chief Innovation Officer

Decentralized social network Bluesky announced on March 19, 2026, that it has raised $100 million in Series B funding led by Bain Capital Crypto, a round that closed in April 2025 but was only disclosed this week following founder Jay Graber’s transition from CEO to chief innovation officer.

The round includes participation from existing investors Alumni Ventures and True Ventures, alongside Anthos Capital, Bloomberg Beta, and the Knight Foundation, following Bluesky’s $15 million Series A in October 2024 and $8 million seed round in 2023. Former Automattic CEO Toni Schneider has assumed the role of interim CEO as the board conducts a permanent search.

The funding disclosure comes as Bluesky has grown from 13 million users at its Series A to over 43 million global users currently, with its AT Protocol ecosystem now supporting more than a thousand apps and approximately 400,000 monthly downloads of developer tools.

Leadership Transition and Strategic Pivot

Founder’s Role Evolution

Jay Graber, who was hired by Jack Dorsey in August 2021 to lead what was then a Twitter-funded research initiative into decentralized social media, has stepped aside as CEO to become chief innovation officer. In a statement, Graber framed the move as a natural evolution: “As Bluesky matures, the company needs a seasoned operator focused on scaling and execution, while I return to what I do best: building new things.” Her new role focuses on developing the AT Protocol, the open social infrastructure underpinning Bluesky’s decentralized architecture.

Interim CEO Appointment

Toni Schneider, former CEO of Automattic (the company behind WordPress.com) and a partner at True Ventures, has been appointed interim CEO. Schneider had been advising Graber and the company for over a year before agreeing to step into the leadership role during the executive search. His experience building a sustainable commercial layer on top of WordPress’s open-source ecosystem provides a relevant template for Bluesky’s monetization challenges.

Series B Funding Details

Investment Round Composition

The $100 million Series B round was led by Bain Capital Crypto, a firm investing across crypto and web infrastructure. The round closed in April 2025 but remained undisclosed until now, a decision that reflects the company’s focus on building rather than performing momentum. Participants include:

Existing investors: Alumni Ventures, True Ventures

New investors: Anthos Capital, Bloomberg Beta, Knight Foundation

Knight Foundation’s involvement signals continued support from press freedom and open-internet communities that view Bluesky as infrastructure worth backing.

Capital Allocation

The funds have been used to scale Bluesky’s team and continue development of both the Bluesky application and the underlying AT Protocol that powers it. The protocol now supports a growing ecosystem of apps built on what the company calls the Atmosphere network, which contains approximately 20 billion public records including posts, likes, comments, and other interactions.

Growth and Ecosystem Development

User Base Expansion

Since its Series A, Bluesky has experienced rapid growth from 13 million to over 43 million users globally. This expansion reflects increasing demand for alternatives to centralized social platforms following changes at X (formerly Twitter).

AT Protocol Adoption

The open social infrastructure has attracted significant developer interest:

• Over 400,000 monthly downloads of developer tools (SDK)

• More than a thousand apps built on AT Protocol used weekly

• Growing ecosystem includes video app Skylight, Instagram alternative Flashes, and larger companies like Flipboard building open social apps such as Surf

• Community-led initiatives including Blacksky, which supports Black social media users

Decentralized Architecture

Bluesky is not built on blockchain technology, but the AT Protocol shares structural similarities with blockchain-era promises of user ownership. The protocol separates a user’s identity, data, and social graph from any single application, enabling portability across services. Graber previously explained: “The term Web3 got very associated with cryptocurrency, so it’s not a good word to use for what we’re doing. But if you think about Web3 as evolving the social Web 2.0, that kind of is what we’re doing. We’re evolving social media that was based in centralized companies into something that is open and distributed.”

Monetization and Competitive Landscape

Business Model Challenges

Bluesky has not yet demonstrated a scalable revenue model. The company’s stated approach involves subscription services and domain registration fees—functional but modest relative to its ambitions. The platform has built its identity around rejecting surveillance advertising and algorithmic manipulation, limiting traditional social media monetization paths.

Schneider’s Strategic Mandate

Schneider’s appointment signals a focus on solving this challenge. Automattic successfully built a sustainable commercial layer around WordPress’s massive open-source ecosystem through premium hosting and business services. Whether a similar approach can work for social networking, with its shorter attention spans and higher churn, remains to be tested.

Competitive Context

Bluesky operates in an increasingly competitive landscape:

Threads: Meta’s platform, using the rival ActivityPub protocol, has grown into a formidable alternative with a user base an order of magnitude larger

X: Remains the dominant venue for real-time public discourse despite persistent predictions of decline

Mastodon/Fediverse: Offers federated alternatives with different technical trade-offs

Bluesky’s differentiator remains structural: the AT Protocol’s architecture, where identity and social graphs are portable across servers, offers a meaningfully different model from both X’s centralization and Mastodon’s technically demanding federation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did Bluesky wait nearly a year to announce its Series B funding?

The round closed in April 2025, but Bluesky chose to delay announcement until after its leadership transition. The decision reflects a focus on building rather than performing momentum, allowing the company to surface the funding in conjunction with strategic changes rather than as a standalone milestone.

What is the AT Protocol and how does it differ from blockchain?

The AT Protocol is an open, decentralized infrastructure that separates user identity, data, and social graphs from any single application, enabling portability across services. While it shares structural similarities with blockchain-era promises of user ownership, Bluesky is not built on blockchain technology and does not integrate cryptocurrencies. Graber’s earlier work with Zcash inspired aspects of the decentralized design, but the protocol itself does not require crypto elements.

Who is Toni Schneider and why was he chosen as interim CEO?

Schneider is the former CEO of Automattic (WordPress.com) and a partner at True Ventures who had been advising Bluesky for over a year. His experience building a sustainable commercial layer on top of WordPress’s open-source ecosystem provides relevant expertise for Bluesky’s monetization challenges. The board is conducting a permanent CEO search while Schneider leads the company.