Binance quietly spun off $10 billion venture arm Binance Labs

Binance, the world’s leading crypto exchange by trading volume, has seemingly spun off its venture capital and incubation arm Binance Labs, according to its website.

“Binance Labs is an independent venture and not part of the Binance Group nor is it involved in any of the businesses operated by the Binance Group (including but not limited to the Binance cryptocurrency exchange),” a disclaimer on the site now reads.

“Binance Labs is licensed by Binance to use its trademark but otherwise have no other relationship with the Binance Group,” the site adds. The change looks to have been made sometime between Feb. 19 and Feb. 24, according to the Internet Archive.

The newly independent entity quietly severed ties with the wider Binance Group earlier this year, Bloomberg first reported on Friday, citing a spokesperson for the former unit. Binance Labs staff contracts are now separate from employees of the crypto exchange, similar to the structure of the Binance-backed BNB Chain project, the spokesperson added, but little will change operationally.

Binance has been closely monitored since the crypto exchange agreed to pay more than $4 billion in fines to U.S. agencies in November — one of the largest corporate settlements in U.S. history.

Binance’s co-founder and now former CEO Changpeng Zhao left his position shortly after, having pleaded guilty to willfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act and is currently awaiting sentencing in the U.S.

Binance’s former Global Head of Regional Markets, Richard Teng, took over as CEO in the same month, with the spin-off one of the biggest changes under his tenure so far.

Over $10 billion in assets

Binance Labs, headed by fellow Binance co-founder Yi He, has invested in over 200 crypto projects since 2018, including Aptos Labs, LayerZero, Polygon and The Sandbox, primarily funded by the crypto exchange’s profits — with its total assets valued at over $10 billion.

Last week, Binance Labs’ incubation season 6 concluded, with investments made in seven startups, including synthetic dollar protocol developer Ethena Labs and zkSync-based decentralized derivatives exchange Derivio. Its season 7 program is set to launch soon. "We're currently looking for forward-thinking founders of early-stage projects to join the program," Binance Labs said at the time.

Binance Labs has ramped up its investment activity recently, backing Bitcoin staking protocol Babylon and Ethereum restaking protocols Renzo and Puffer Finance this year.

Last year, Binance Labs accepted its first external capital when it closed a $500 million fund. However, it later started sending undeployed capital back to Limited Partners over the summer.

The Block reached out to Binance and Binance Labs for comment.