Following the departure of Goldman Sachs and Santander from the much-hyped R3 blockchain consortium, reports have emerged about several other banks considering whether or not to join R3’s ongoing funding round.
Reuters recently reported that R3 is changing the structure of the deal and has cut the amount it seeks to raise from bank members in the first round of equity funding from $200 million to $150 million.
While Morgan Stanley and National Australia Bank are yet to publicly announce their decision about the consortium, leaked documents on PasteBin reveal that J.P. Morgan, Macquarie Group, and U.S. Bancorp have yet to submit a bid as part of the funding. It remains unclear if these three members are out of the consortium officially, CoinDesk reported.
A source close to JPMorgan told CoinDesk that the firm still intends to be a member of R3 and has "no intention of dropping its membership" but it won't participate in the ongoing funding round.
Fortune reports that while Macquarie bank has not expressed interest in investing, it intends to remain a member of the group’s blockchain lab, a division that leads testing of new applications.
PasteBin document further states that the slashing of R3’s funding target was forced by the fact that 21 member banks expressed limited support, committing only to the minimum ticket of $1m. Moreover, the total economic investment of the founder banks has reached $56.5m so far, way below the target. 12 member banks have made a commitment of $2.5m each, along with State Street at $2m and ING peaking at $3.5m investment.
