EY Increases Its Investments in The Blockchain Market

One of the Big Four auditing firms, Ernst & Young (EY), has increased its investments in blockchain technology, with a new injection of $100 million in funding.

As announced by the firm, the decision to increase investments is due to the rise in demand for blockchain-based products. The funds will be used to fund blockchain and crypto-asset research, engineering, and services.

For about 5 years now, EY has had its hands full with its engagements in blockchain technology. In that time span, the company has built several unique products including the EY OpsChain Traceability, an infrastructure that helps enhance the global supply chain. The firm is now aiming to dive deeper into the growing decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, through the creation of new products, improve user experience and increase market adoption.

“Over the past five years, we have been investing in blockchain and have developed innovative solutions, establishing EY as a leader in this emerging industry. As blockchain adoption continues to grow and we see more demand from EY clients, we are excited about further EY investment to respond to their challenges and needs,” says EY Global Chairman, Carmine Di Sibio.

Among the proposed products that will be introduced is the DeFi smart contract testing service through the EY Blockchain Analyzer suite of tools. The company said it will build on this platform, first unveiled back in 2019, and has so far supported over 100 ERC-20 compatible smart contracts. EY, in its ongoing effort to carve a niche for itself in the blockchain space, has onboarded Birra Peroni, the Italian beer company part of Asahi Group, the first industrial client to utilize the EY OpsChain Traceability platform. NFTs will be created for every successful batch of beer traced.

EY’s pursuit of digital initiatives is further capped by the move in which the firm led a consortium that placed a bid to develop the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) project for South Korea.