The company’s investment arm, Binance Labs, has received $500 million for a fund focused to investing in Web3 start-ups.
Web3 is a technological initiative that intends to develop a new internet based on blockchain technology.
Since reaching all-time highs in November, Bitcoin and other digital currencies have plummeted.
Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, has announced the opening of its own venture capital fund.
Binance Labs, the company’s venture arm, announced on Wednesday that it had raised $500 million for its first start-up fund, with support from DST Global and Breyer Capital, as well as undisclosed family offices and organizations. It follows Andreessen Horowitz’s announcement last week of a massive $4.5 billion fund to invest in crypto start-ups.
Binance Labs intends to invest the funds in firms that are developing “Web3.” Web3 is a vague concept that alludes to a potential future version of the internet that is more decentralized than current online platforms and incorporates blockchain, the shared digital ledgers that underpin most major cryptocurrencies.
The debut of Binance’s new fund coincides with a dramatic drop in the price of bitcoin and other digital currencies. Since reaching an all-time high of about $69,000 in November, Bitcoin has lost more than half of its value. This has taken a toll on publicly traded crypto firms like Coinbase, whose stock has dropped 69 percent since the beginning of 2022. Investors are concerned that the downturn will spread to privately held crypto start-ups.
