CZ, the former founder of Binance, will be allocating a greater amount of time to investing and interacting with initiatives.
Binance Labs, the venture capital arm of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has announced its intention to undergo a rebranding process in 2025. The investment initiatives will be led and personally engaged with by Changpeng Zhao (CZ).
Earlier this year, Binance Labs separated from the exchange and established itself as an autonomous entity. Rebranding serves to distinguish itself from the exchange and to reflect its evolving vision.
The investment arm announced that erstwhile Binance founder CZ will allocate more time to investing and actively engaging with initiatives. CZ is perpetually prohibited from participating in Binance leadership; however, they are permitted to concentrate on investments.
The U.S. Bank Secrecy Act and other regulatory violations were the cause of CZ’s four-month imprisonment. Binance Labs has announced that it is broadening its investment strategy to encompass secondary markets, OTC transactions, and other opportunities in addition to investing and actively engaging with projects, as CZ allocates more time to these pursuits.
Binance Labs reported that 2024 was an extraordinary year, as it invested in 46 initiatives. Of these, 14 were obtained through the BNB Chain-focused MVB program and the chain-agnostic Labs Incubation program, while 32 were direct investments. There was a 50/50 divide between infrastructure and application-focused transactions in these investments, which cut across a variety of sectors.
The company disclosed that its portfolio is multifaceted, including investments in DeFi X10 initiatives, AI X7, the Bitcoin ecosystem X7, Re-staking X4, Gaming X3, ZK technologies X2, RWAs X2, and consumer applications X2.
Decentralised science (DeSci) and the “Move” system, which are emerging disciplines, also garnered increased attention. The company invests in significant platforms such as Solana, Ethereum, and Ethereum Layer 2 solutions, as well as Berachain and Monad. 20 percent of these investments were in initiatives within the BNB ecosystem, according to Binance Labs.
Binance Labs expressed its confidence in the opportunities that await as the industry transitions into 2025. The regulatory landscape is anticipated to become more favourable as a result of the pro-crypto posture of the impending Trump administration, which could potentially increase institutional interest and establish the foundation for industry maturation.
Binance Labs has declared that it will concentrate on critical domains, including blockchain/crypto, AI, and biotech, as well as innovations that intersect these fields, in 2025. As they transition from development to production, sectors that have been underperforming, such as gaming and privacy solutions, may experience a resurgence.
