YZi Labs invests 'multi-8-figure' in Genius Trading, with CZ joining as advisor

YZi Labs, the family office of Binance co-founders Changpeng “CZ” Zhao and Yi He that spun out of Binance Labs, has made a “multi-8-figure” investment in Genius Trading, with Zhao joining as an advisor.

Genius Trading is building a privacy-focused, decentralized trading platform that offers spot, perpetual futures, and copy trading features through a self-custodial, cross-chain terminal, aiming to become an onchain alternative to Binance.

“If you were rebuilding Binance today, you wouldn’t do it as a centralized exchange — you’d build it onchain,” said Ryan Myher, co-founder and COO of Genius Trading. “Genius is our answer to what that looks like: one terminal, full custody, no compromises.”

YZi Labs invested in Genius last month, with the “multi-8-figure” investment being well above $10 million, Armaan Kalsi, co-founder and chief executive officer of Genius, told The Block. He declined to disclose the exact size or structure of the investment, whether equity, tokens, or a mix, and also declined to comment when asked if Genius is planning to issue its own token.

What is Genius Trading?

Genius is positioning itself as a unified trading terminal that allows users to access liquidity across more than 10 blockchains, including BNB Chain, Solana, Ethereum, Hyperliquid, Base, Avalanche, and Sui, without bridging assets, switching wallets, or publicly signaling trading strategies onchain.

“We’re building a privacy-specific trading suite that is still in beta,” Kalsi told The Block. “We’re taking our time. Our bet is that the current degeneracy meta in crypto is a great way to acquire users (speculation), but that once they realize the power of the underlying technology, they will want to stay. At which point, privacy becomes an incredibly important feature for crypto to mature and retain users who want to actually build their financial lives onchain.”

Since its "soft" launch last October, Genius says it has processed more than $60 million in trading volume, with usage concentrated among onchain whales managing millions of dollars in monthly trading activity. Behind the interface, the platform uses a custom multi-party computation wallet, proprietary cross-chain routing logic, and direct integrations with decentralized exchanges. Kalsi said Genius has no plans to launch its own blockchain and intends to integrate only with existing chains and DeFi protocols.

Privacy layer 

A central part of Genius’ technical roadmap is a privacy layer designed to shield large trading strategies onchain. The system, currently in beta, enables users to split large trades across “hundreds of wallets” to reduce traceability while keeping transactions onchain. Genius said the approach avoids relying on offchain components or zero-knowledge systems that can introduce execution delays. A public beta of the privacy protocol is planned for the second quarter of 2026.

Kalsi said the focus on privacy reflects a longer-term view of onchain adoption. He described the trading “terminal wars” as a period of aggressive competition among trading platforms such as Axiom, GMGN, Photon, and Padre, which he said have been competing on customer acquisition costs and feature density. While speculative activity has helped drive user growth across crypto, Kalsi said privacy will become increasingly important as users seek to build lasting financial activity onchain.

Before the YZi Labs investment, Genius raised a total of $7 million in prior funding, including a $6 million round in 2024 and a $1 million extension, Kalsi said. That round was led by CMCC, with participation from Balaji Srinivasan, Anthony Scaramucci, Flow Traders, and other investors.

Genius, built by Shuttle Labs, was founded in 2022, when the core team was still in college at Yale University, Kalsi said. The project initially began as a block data legibility and explorer tool before evolving into a trading platform, he added, noting that the same core team has continued building together since inception. Besides Kalsi and Myher, Genius’ third co-founder and chief technology officer is Brihu Sundararaman.

Genius is headquartered in New York City and operates with a globally distributed team of 11 people, Kalsi said. He added that the startup plans to hire cautiously, potentially adding two to four additional employees in the near future.

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