Binance, which claims to be the world’s leading blockchain ecosystem behind the largest cryptocurrency exchange, recently announced the appointment of its Co-Founder Yi He “as the new head of its venture capital (VC) arm and incubator, Binance Labs.”
Binance CEO CZ (Changpeng Zhao) stated:
“As part of the founding team, Yi has been actively involved in Labs since its inception and has played a pivotal role in identifying early-stage projects and founders with the vision and drive to disrupt those global institutions that no longer serve society effectively. This is the perfect moment for Yi to take on a larger role in Labs as this market presents an unparalleled opportunity to identify those projects with the tenacity to thrive in tough market conditions.”
Binance Labs claims it is “the largest crypto VC in the industry by Asset Under Management (AUM) with a Multiple on Invested Capital (MOIC) of 21.0x, a performance metric that is unmatched in the industry.”
Binance Labs “manages total assets of $7.5 billion, consisting of more than 200 portfolio projects.”
Yi will “lead global strategy and the day-to-day operations at Binance Labs.” Part of her focus will be on significantly “supporting infrastructure projects and improving utility in innovative crypto and blockchain projects.”
Her vision is “to drive the future adoption of Web3 and blockchain technology by ‘building the standard for the blockchain industry.'”
Under Yi’s leadership, Binance Labs will “have an additional emphasis on investing in capable, driven founders who will play a role in shaping the future of the industry.”
Yi added:
“Part of the journey of seeing Binance grow, especially through tough market conditions, has been the ability to identify those founders that have the skills and embody the values needed to thrive in an environment where resources are more limited. As a leading player in the space, my goal is to help define the industry standard by identifying and supporting sustainable projects and building an ecosystem of quality blockchain solutions that empowers the entire industry.”
Yi continued:
“It is a foregone conclusion that Web3 will reach one billion new users in the next five years. However, Web3 will only truly become mainstream when its products weave seamlessly into users’ lives. To expedite widespread adoption, we need to focus our resources on supporting those projects that will push the boundaries of Web3 technology and create products that provide solutions to real-world problems.”
Since its inception, Binance Labs’ investment strategy has “focused on early stage projects in key verticals.”
This strategy has seen Binance Labs “incubate some of the industry’s most successful projects, including Polygon, FTX, Certik, Nym, and Dune Analytics.”
The team recently “closed a $500 million investment fund which includes participation from global institutional investors such as DST Global Partners and Breyer Capital.” Some of the latest portfolio companies and key projects “include pStake and Ultiverse.”
Yi will continue “leading and supporting the organization’s key business initiatives and units including customer support, institutional business, marketing, Binance P2P and EarnContact.”
In another update, it was noted that Binance is introducing BUSD Monthly Reserves Holding reports.
The firm claims that BUSD “is 100% backed by cash and cash equivalents.’ They work with their partner Paxos “to provide full transparency to our BUSD holders.” Now they’re excited to introduce their BUSD monthly reserves holding reports “to increase public transparency.”
BUSD is “a stablecoin pegged to the US Dollar (USD), issued by Paxos with branding support from Binance.”
Approved by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), BUSD is “available for purchase and redemption at a rate of 1 BUSD to 1 USD.”
As explained in a blog post, stablecoins “are digital units of value that rely on stabilization tools and financial reserves to maintain their value relative to another currency or commodity. Not all stablecoins are safe, and there are risks to consider.”
If a stablecoin fails to maintain its value relative to the reference asset, “the consequences might be devastating for users.” The primary risk of reserve-backed stablecoins is that “some of them can be not fully backed by reserves.” This makes reserves transparency “fundamental to determining how reliable a particular stablecoin is.”
Binance and Paxos have partnered “to offer our customers the most trustworthy and fully regulated reserve-backed stablecoin, BUSD, which comes with the highest standards of security and transparency.”
According to Binance, here’s why BUSD is one of the safest regulated stablecoins available in the market:
- BUSD is issued by Paxos. Both the token and the company are fully regulated by the NYDFS.
- BUSD is fully backed by cash and cash equivalents. As BUSD is regulated by a primary prudential regulator, It is and always will be backed only by cash & cash equivalents. BUSD’s cash-equivalents reserves include (1) US Treasury bills with a maturity of less than 90 days and (2) overnight loans secured only by US Treasury securities.
- The reserves backing BUSD are held in fully segregated, bankruptcy-remote accounts. As the New York Banking Law states, in the unlikely event that Paxos Trust became insolvent, it would not go through standard bankruptcy procedures like other companies. Instead, the Superintendent of NYDFS would return assets held in custody by Paxos
- Trust to their rightful owners. Paxos Trust holds customer assets safely separate from any corporate funds as a qualified custodian.
On top of all that, Paxos is “taking another step to increase the public’s trust in BUSD and lead the market in transparency.”
For more details, check here.