Recently, Binance Labs, the $9 billion venture capital arm of the leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance, unexpectedly announced that it has completed the process of returning funds to investors who backed the “Binance Labs Fund II” development fund for Web3.
This investment fund was established in June 2022 with a value of $500 million, focusing on the Web3 space, with backing from DST Global, Breyer Capital, and several other undisclosed companies and conglomerates. It marked the first time the company officially raised funds with sponsorship from external investors.
Notably, “Binance Labs Fund II” was launched despite the market being in a difficult phase, just one month after the Terra debacle. At the time, Binance Labs stated its hope to capitalize on market volatility to explore new opportunities, particularly among potential developers in the Web3 space.
However, since then, there has been relatively little information about the fund’s activities. According to insiders, Binance Labs has quietly returned half of the invested capital, approximately $150 million, to investors since Q2 2023, and the remaining funds have remained untouched.
Currently, it’s unclear why the venture capital firm has decided to return funds to investors.
Binance Labs is a well-known name in the crypto market, established in 2018. Since its inception, Binance Labs has continuously grown to become a leading investment branch in the market, managing assets worth $9 billion. Binance Labs has supported over 200 projects and achieved more than a tenfold return on its investments.
Recently, Binance Labs has been actively participating in crypto company fundraising rounds, such as Sleek, CyberConnect, Arkham Intelligence, Neutron, Radiant Capital, Helio Protocol, Delphinus Lab, Pendle Finance, Initia, and Curve.
Starting from April this year, there have been signs indicating that Binance Labs is gradually withdrawing from the US market. Since then, the legal storm has increasingly affected the parent company, Binance.
Most recently, on November 22, Changpeng Zhao, the co-founder and CEO of Binance, announced his resignation and agreed to pay a $4.3 billion fine to the US government to settle a longstanding criminal investigation. Immediately following this, Richard Teng was appointed as the successor to CZ, becoming the new CEO of the exchange. With the new CEO in place, Binance announced its efforts to chart a bright future for the next 50 years.