Venture capital firms continue to put money into web3 despite crypto market volatility in recent weeks. The latest example is Binance Labs, which recently announced the closing of a new $500 million investment fund led by high-profile firms such as DST Global Partners, Breyer Capital, and Whampoa Group.
Binance Labs is the investment arm of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume. Since 2018, Binance Labs has invested in and incubated more than 100 projects from over 25 countries. Its portfolio includes industry-leading projects such as decentralized music platform Audius, play-to-earn game Axie Infinity, Ethereum scaling solution Polygon, and move-to-earn app Stepn.
Binance Labs makes investments across three different stages: incubation, early-stage venture, and late-stage growth. This new $500 million investment fund is expected to be allocated to projects spanning all three stages. In particular, Binance Labs is looking for projects that can extend the use cases of cryptocurrencies, as well as drive the adoption of web3 and blockchain technologies.
Changpeng Zhao, founder and CEO of Binance, commented on the announcement: “In a web3 environment, the connection between values, people, and economies is essential, and if these three elements come together to build an ecosystem, that will accelerate the mass adoption of the blockchain technology and crypto.
“The goal of the newly closed investment fund is to discover and support projects and founder with the potential to build and to lead web3 across DeFi, NFTs, gaming, metaverse, social, and more,” he continued.
The timing of the announcement is interesting as the crypto market continues to experience a downturn. However, Binance Labs isn’t the only one raising a massive amount of money in order to invest in web3 projects. Just last week, big-time VC firm Andreessen Horowitz launched its fourth crypto-dedicated fund, with a staggering amount of $4.5 billion. The company believes that times like these actually let people direct their focus and attention to building technology with minimal distraction.
