The largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, Binance, has just announced a new investment fund dedicated to crypto and blockchain startups. The exchange will contribute $1 billion for funding new firms willing to explore the technology and its applications.
Binance invests once again
The new investment fund called ‘Community Influence Fund’ will be one of the largest dedicated to helping startups in the field of blockchain and crypto technologies. The fund is offered by Binance, the world’s largest exchange for cryptocurrencies, and will be paid in the exchange’s own BNB coin. This new announcement came via online broadcast by the head of Binance Lab’s division, Ella Zhang.
According to Zhang, Binance’s goal is to help create other funds and work with various fund managers who have at least $100 million in assets. She commented on this via Twitter and stated that Binance is looking for small funds that have experienced investors as part of their management team.
Corr: we’d like to partner w/ fund managers who have managed >$100m AUM accumulatively, not that we only invest in crypto funds w/ >$100m AUM. Instead, we like small funds managed by experienced investors. Thanks @TechCrunch. We’ll do an EN AMA this Thur! https://t.co/HJxx0CtLbc
— Ella Zhang (@ellazhang516) June 1, 2018
The exchange’s plans include the launch of a Binance Ecosystem Fund, which is expected to have at least 20 partners. So far, the details of these projects have not been revealed, but a spokesperson for Binance made assurances that additional information will be released in due time.
According to the CoinMarketCap, Binance is the biggest crypto exchange in the world, and their daily crypto trades often exceed $5 billion. The exchange is currently based in Hong Kong, but it plans to change that in the near future with some reports claiming that the process of relocation has already started and that the company will be moving to Malta, where crypto regulations are friendlier and more open to this kind of business.
Welcome to #Malta 🇲🇹 @binance. We aim to be the global trailblazers in the regulation of blockchain-based businesses and the jurisdiction of quality and choice for world class fintech companies -JM @SilvioSchembri https://t.co/3qtAQjOpuQ
— Joseph Muscat (@JosephMuscat_JM) March 23, 2018
Binance’s previous investment projects
Binance has been known for investment and the exchange has already made several deals with its own Labs division. Zhang has described these dealings as social impact funds, and one of the best-known is an investment in MobileCoin which saw Binance give $30 million to this startup, advised by Moxie Marlinspike who is also the founder of the messaging apps Open Whisper Systems and Signal.
An incubator was also established for the purpose of helping various young projects and ideas grow, without the need to worry about the lack of mentorship or finances. The first project to come out of the incubator will be Dache Chain, a new service based on the blockchain technology. It will be based in China, and one of its co-founders is Chen Weixing, CEO of Funcity, a startup dedicated to app development. He is also the founder of Kuaidi Dache, the Chinese startup that eventually became Didi Chuxing. This is the very same ride-hailing service that forced Uber to leave China.
According to Binance’s statement, Dache Chain will be focused towards establishing a community ecosystem that will value anchoring. Its efforts are expected to achieve a shared ecosystem with the utmost purity to help solve various problems, with the main one being the unfair distribution of wealth and productivity.
Binance states that the exchange has also invested in a startup called Oasis Labs, dedicated to smart contracts. Other important investments include a crowdfunding platform called Republic, and Certik, which is a verification service.
Many have seen this as a very noble act, where the large corporation is using its resources to help develop new projects and grow smaller platforms. This is how progress is made, and every new development like this is helping with an improvement of business, technology, and other aspects of the modern world.
