Binance Labs Flourishes Despite Market Challenges

Despite facing a tough market and growing skepticism toward centralized crypto entities, Binance Labs showed resilience in 2023, revealing 25 new investments.

Binance Labs Flourishes Despite Market Challenges

In their latest report, Binance Labs concentrated on decentralized finance (DeFi), Web3 gaming, tooling, and infrastructure. Within the DeFi space, Binance Labs invested in the lending and borrowing protocol Radiant Capital, with an undisclosed amount. They also earmarked $5 million to back Curve DAO Token (CRV) for its integration with the BNB Chain. Another significant investment of $10 million went to Helio Protocol, a decentralized platform for stablecoin lending and borrowing on the BNB Chain, offering multi-chain StaaS (Stablecoins as a Service) and LS (Liquidity Services).

Binance Labs, the venture capital and incubation arm of Binance, didn’t shy away from the gaming industry either. A hefty $15 million was announced for Xterioled, a Web3 game platform and publisher. Additionally, seed funding was provided to GOMBLE, a South Korean developer of blockchain-based casual games and an affiliate of the game publisher, 111Percent.

In the tooling and infrastructure domain, Binance Labs supported Arkham Token (ARKM), the native token of the Arkham blockchain platform, aiming to enhance “on-chain insights at scale across the blockchain ecosystem.“

While Binance encountered regulatory hurdles in 2023, including a $4.3 billion settlement with U.S. regulators and the resignation of CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, Binance Labs maintained its activity. Despite a 5% decrease in market shares, with OKX and Bybit taking the lead, Binance Labs continued its strategic investments, reflecting a market share drop from 54.2% to 48.7% in 2023, according to TokenInsights’ findings.