Brendan Blumer (born August 8, 1986) is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Block.one^[6], the tech company behind the EOSIO blockchain platform and the EOS coin. He also founded other companies including ii5^[15] - a real estate company, and Okay.com^[14] - Hong Kong's Trusted Property Agency. ^[4][5]

Early Life

Blumer was born and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. At 15, he developed a website to sell virtual assets such as avatars in the multiplayer online gaming space. His website, known as Gamecliff (stylized as GaMeCliff), displayed different characters, weapons, and houses for MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game) games including EverQuest and World of Warcraft. ^[7]

Career

In 2001, Brendan Blumer created Gamecliff, a virtual assets-selling site that was acquired by Brock Pierce's IGE (Internet Gaming Entertainment) in 2005. After the acquisition, the company moved to its new headquarters in Hong Kong to head Gamecliff's operations. ^[7][8]

In 2007, Blumer founded The Accounts Network, a company that sold in-game MMORPG avatars and reached more than $1 million a month in revenues. ^[8]

In 2009, Brendan Blumer launched Okay.com, an enterprise data-sharing platform for real estate brokers in Asia. In 2011, Okay.com merged with the real estate company Asia Pacific Properties, an established leader in residential brokerage. ^[8][9]

In 2013, Brendan founded ii5, a company also focused on real estate and dedicated to real estate listings in India. ^[4][15]

Block.one

In 2016, Brendan Blumer met Dan Larimer and the duo started working on Block.one. Block.one is a publisher of decentralized applications as well as open source software where decentralized applications can be built on top of EOS blockchain. The company began offering EOS tokens in June 2017 to the public, raising over $4 billion during its ICO. ^[4][6]

As the CEO of Block.one, Brendan is responsible for developing the company's core technology, building strategic partnerships, and expanding into new markets. He also oversees the development of products and services for Block.one. ^[6]

Silvergate Purchase

Brendan Blumer bought 9.3% of cryptocurrency bank Silvergate Capital (SI)^[10], while Block.one bought an additional 7.5%, according to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) documents filed on November 23, 2022. The purchase makes Blumer the largest shareholder of Silvergate. ^[12][13]

"We believe Silvergate’s current equity prices do not accurately reflect their strong balance sheet, their strategic positioning, or their market-defiant growth trajectory, and therefore offers a unique investment opportunity. We are excited to be a new passive shareholder," - Block.one wrote in a press release. ^[11]