Binance Labs, the venture capital and incubation arm of Binance has invested in MilkyWay, a liquid staking protocol for Celestia’s modular blockchain ecosystem.
MilkyWay aims to be the leading provider of modular liquidity “for rollups that rely on Celestia for Data Availability by unlocking TIA tokens’ liquidity, composability, and utility to increase capital efficiency for token holders.”
Yi He, Co-Founder of Binance and Head of Binance Labs, said:
“We are supportive of Labs’ portfolio Celestia’s ecosystem enrichment and this Binance Labs investment supports an innovative project propelling use cases within the Celestia ecosystem. We look forward to MilkyWay’s growth and development within the modularity data availability space.”
Founded by a team of engineers and builders “from Tendermint, Osmosis, Cosmostation, Oak Security, and Composable Finance, MilkyWay has grown to serve over 156,000+ milkTIA holders and has over 2.6 million TIA tokens staked since inception.”
MilkyWay has seamlessly integrated “with more than ten DeFi protocols to offer a holistic user experience that spans trading, leveraging, lending, and borrowing activities, enabling users to earn additional yields on top of the native rewards from staking in the network.”
JayB, Founder and CEO at MilkyWay said:
“MilkyWay is a liquid staking protocol designed specifically for the modular ecosystem. Our goal is to build the most secure and robust modular liquid staking protocol, while continuously innovating to expand the capabilities of our protocol within the modular ecosystem through cutting-edge technology. We are honored and excited to have the support of Binance Labs in realizing this vision.”
As noted in the update, MilkyWay, launched in December 2023, is said to be “a pioneering liquid staking protocol within the modular ecosystem, serving over 150,000 users. Its LST, milkTIA, is integrated into more than 10 DeFi applications across the ecosystem. Currently, MilkyWay is developing a rollup that will serve as a foundational layer, enabling its LST to provide enhanced security services throughout the modular ecosystem.”
As the venture capital arm and accelerator of Binance, Binance Labs has now grown to be worth over $10 billion. Its portfolio covers 250 projects from over 25 countries across six continents and has a return on investment rate of over 14X. Fifty of Binance Labs’ portfolio companies are projects that have gone through our incubation programs. For more information, follow Binance Labs on X.
In other news related to Binance, the exchange’s founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) was sentenced to four months in prison last November after pleading guilty. Zhao was also required to pay a $50 million penalty.
According to WSJ.com, Zhao told the court he was sorry for his behavior and regretted his activities.
“I fully recognize the seriousness of the mistakes I made. I learned an important lesson here I will carry with me.”
Zhao had admitted that he understood that Binance served US users and was thus required to register with FinCEN and implement an effective AML program. The DOJ said that Zhao told employees it was “better to ask for forgiveness than permission” and prioritized Binance’s growth over compliance with US law.
