Binance Labs Dominates Recent Crypto Fundraising

Binance Labs, the venture capital and incubator arm of Binance, continues to aggressively make bets across the crypto ecosystem. Over the last six months, Binance Labs has been the most active investor by deal count. Notably, Binance Labs has been a lead investor in 14 of the 17 deals it has participated in during this time period. This figure is nearly double the next closest competitor (DWF Labs with eight), indicating that Binance is playing a more active role in shaping the early stage crypto landscape during the bear market compared to its competitors.

Examining Binance Labs’ recent investments sheds light on how Binance is strategically positioning itself ahead of a (hopeful) market-wide rebound. After funding follow-on rounds for Maverick Protocol and Radiant Capital earlier this summer, Binance Labs announced a private investment in Pendle Finance this week. These three DeFi protocols have all made a name for themselves on Arbitrum (Radiant and Pendle) and zkSync (Maverick) over the last year. After disappointing attempts to build its own native DeFi ecosystem on the BNB Smart Chain, these moves reflect Binance’s shifting strategy to incentivize proven DeFi projects to expand to the BNB Smart Chain network.

Another area of interest for Binance Labs has been zero-knowledge and privacy technology. This trend has been highlighted by its investments in Mind Network and zkPass (both data privacy projects), as well as infrastructure providers Delphinus Lab (zkWASM virtual machine) and Polyhedra (bridging, identity, and scaling solutions).

Finally, the recent fundraising activity displays Binance’s continued commitment to supporting Web3 gaming projects. Its largest move was a $15 million investment into Xterio, a publisher for free-to-play games. Other smaller bets from Binance Labs in the Web3 gaming category include Fusionist (a sci-fi game trilogy), GOMBLE (mobile gaming), Gameta (gaming ecosystem), and Sleepless AI (AI virtual companion games).

To stay up to date on the latest fundraising activities across the crypto industry, be sure to use Messari’s proprietary Fundraising Database.