Binance Quietly Concludes Binance Labs Spinoff as Part of Developments Under New CEO

Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance has separated its $10 billion venture capital arm from the parent company. Binance Labs is now an independent spinoff, operating without ties to the parent company.

According to a Binance Labs spokesperson, the firm’s staff contracts are now independent, different from contracts that govern employees of the exchange. Since the spinoff was completed discreetly, neither party has explained the move towards autonomy. The decision is likely in line with a new mission envisioned by the newly appointed CEO Richard Teng who replaced Changpeng Zhao late last year. The venture arm’s independence is confirmed by a message on its website added this year. The text, at the bottom of the page, reads:

“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). Binance Labs is licensed by Binance to use its trademark but otherwise has no other relationship with the Binance Group.”

Binance Labs before Spinoff

Since its inception in 2018, Binance Labs has invested in about 250 projects across 25 countries and has seen a 14x return on investment. A few popular blockchain platforms, including Polygon, Sky Mavis (Axie Infinity’s developers), The Sandbox, LayerZero, and Aptos Labs, have enjoyed investments from Binance Labs. The venture outfit now has assets worth more than $10 billion.

Last year alone, Binance Labs made 23 new investments despite the crypto bear market. This activity led to crypto research and data platform Messari recognizing Binance Labs as the most active crypto venture capital investor in the second and third quarters of last year. Most of the firm’s investments for the year were in the web3 gaming and decentralized finance (DeFi) sectors. Binance Labs also supported projects working on advanced DeFi protocols and zero-knowledge proofs.

According to spokesperson Alex Odagiu, Binance Labs’ aim has not changed despite the spinoff. Odagiu said the focus for Binance Labs is still to identify and invest in promising projects.

Last month, Binance Labs announced the first batch of investments for the 6th season of its incubation program. The announcement mentioned three startups, including Ethena Labs – a platform that provides derivative infrastructure that turns Ether (ETH) into a crypto-native stablecoin. The others are an AI-powered content platform for Web3 creators NFPrompt, and Shogun, a service that combines optimized order flow and chain abstraction to improve trader extractable value (TEV).

Binance.US and the SEC

Despite all of the developments with the major exchange, Binance and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are still at loggerheads. Earlier this month, the SEC accused Binance.US of deliberately frustrating its investigation. According to attorneys representing the SEC, Binance.US has refused to offer information required for the ongoing discovery probe. However, both Binance and Binance.US disagree, stating that they have fulfilled the SEC requests. Binance.US argues that additional depositions are unnecessary because the SEC has no evidence of violations after 8 months of discovery.