Binance Labs is the venture arm and innovation incubator of Binance — the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. This organization is actively involved in identifying, funding, and promotes the development of budding entrepreneurs, startups, and communities with the goal of supporting outstanding projects that contribute to the advancement of Web3 and blockchain innovations. Binance Labs views Web3 as the next generation of the Internet, where digital data is decentralized and owned by the public, achieved through the use of blockchain.

Binance Labs acts as an accelerator for developers and their teams, providing financial support and guidance throughout the project creation journey. Through active engagement and mentorship, Binance Labs fosters the development of blockchain and cryptocurrency initiatives, deepening the application of cryptocurrencies and accelerating the integration of Web3 and blockchain technologies.

The strength and diversity of the Binance Labs ecosystem make it one of the leading platforms for blockchain projects and startups seeking a unique market position and aiming to stand out among competitors. To date, Binance Labs has supported more than 100 projects in over 25 countries around the world.

• The Creation of Binance Labs
• Project Portfolio
• Investment Strategy of Binance Labs
• Binance Labs Approach to Supporting Innovations

The Creation of Binance Labs

Founded in April 2018, Binance Labs quickly achieved unicorn status, becoming a symbol of rapid success within the same year. Binance's goal was to strengthen the blockchain ecosystem through investments, incubation programs, and expanding functionality. The company believes that increasing the number of blockchain unicorns will benefit the entire crypto community, especially users.

From the beginning, Binance has been convinced of the immense potential of blockchain technology to change the concept of financial freedom for people around the world. However, for the ecosystem to serve the first billion users, a deep modernization of blockchain infrastructure is necessary. This includes creating more scalable protocols, improving the reliability of smart contracts, and developing more intuitive blockchain applications with a wide range of uses. Binance Labs plays a key role in this process by providing funding to leading blockchain projects to stimulate their development, which, in turn, helps more people join the blockchain revolution.

Project Portfolio

Binance Labs stands out for its effectiveness in investment strategies and deep analysis, which has allowed it to form a portfolio of outstanding and widely recognized blockchain projects in the growth stage. Examples of such projects include Axie Infinity, Polygon, and CertiK.

• Axie Infinity

Axie Infinity stands out as a leading game in the NFT segment. Inspired by Pokémon, this digital pet game was a pioneer in the play-to-earn concept, allowing players to earn real money. Powered by Axie Infinity Shard (AXS) tokens, this game demonstrates how games can contribute to the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies. In October 2020, Binance Labs invested in AXS, which debuted on Binance Launchpad.

• Polygon

Polygon (formerly Matic Network) offers a solution for scaling Ethereum through a sidechain, accelerating transactions and reducing gas costs. Today, Polygon supports over 3000 decentralized applications (DApps). Polygon's support from Binance Labs began with the second season of their incubation program, leading to token sales on Binance Launchpad and further collaboration.

• CertiK

CertiK, specializing in smart contract and blockchain platform audits, became one of Binance's first investments. Since 2018, Binance Labs has actively supported the development of CertiK, turning the initial team into a large organization with more than 100 employees. Binance Labs not only provided CertiK access to its portfolio companies as clients but also invested funds at an early stage when the company was valued at just $17.5 million. Today, CertiK is a leading audit firm in the market, serving over 3200 corporate clients and valued at $2 billion.

Binance Labs Investment Strategy

In recent years, Binance Labs has invested in a number of projects across diverse fields, many of which have gained international recognition. Binance Labs is confident in its investment strategy, developed and successfully applied over the past years, and intends to continue following it.

1. Investments within the Binance Ecosystem

As the venture arm within the Binance ecosystem, Binance Labs searches for and invests in the most promising projects and entrepreneurs around the world, capable of making a significant impact on the industry. Selected projects receive initial funding.

Projects selected by Binance Labs may be featured on Binance Launchpad and Binance Launchpool for further integration and distribution on these platforms.

Binance Launchpad has been a pioneer in initial exchange offerings (IEO), akin to IPOs for the blockchain sphere. Binance Launchpool offers a unique opportunity for users to participate in farming new assets and earning new tokens without investment through staking. This allows projects from the Binance Labs portfolio to demonstrate their reliability and attractiveness to the wide Binance audience. Startups and entrepreneurs, in turn, receive the support and advice needed for effective token launch and promotion.

Furthermore, it's crucial for projects in the development stage to have access to platforms and a community where they can test their decentralized applications (DApps) among potential users.

2. Strategic investment of resources in projects and effective teamwork

Binance Labs not only invests funds in promising projects as a strategic investor but also values these projects as key "allies". Labs realizes that many projects are just starting out and developing their products at the time of receiving investments. In this regard, Labs provides extensive support to founders and developers in various business aspects, including legal issues, finance, marketing, and networking.

Trust Wallet is a prime example of a project that received strategic investment and targeted support from Binance. When Binance invested in Trust Wallet, the project had no revenue and was competing with more established wallets in the market. After the acquisition by Binance in August 2018, Trust Wallet received significant support in product development and business management while maintaining its operational independence. As a result, Trust Wallet has become one of the market leaders with more than 5 million users, and its app supports 53 blockchains and over 1 million assets.

3. Supporting talented entrepreneurs worldwide through the Binance Labs incubation program

Binance Labs launches seasonal incubation programs to identify and support the most promising blockchain projects and entrepreneurs worldwide. The program, lasting from 8 to 10 weeks, is aimed at discovering innovative solutions that can contribute to the global spread of cryptocurrencies. The first three editions of the program attracted significant industry attention and were successful. The fourth season was recently launched, featuring 14 promising projects.

As part of its incubation program, Binance Labs provides entrepreneurs with access to unique resources, supporting them at various stages of project development.

These support measures are aimed at ensuring a successful start and development of startups in the blockchain industry, contributing to their innovative growth and scaling.

Participating in the Binance Labs incubation program represents an important opportunity for startups and teams in the blockchain field. It gives them a perspective on attracting investments from venture funds working in partnership with Binance Labs, thanks to open access to demo day, which invites numerous well-known investors from around the world.

Product launches and significant financial injections into projects that have grown from the Binance Labs incubation program have made a noticeable impact on the development of the global blockchain ecosystem. Among the successful graduates of the program are projects such as Cere Network, Perpetual Protocol, and Dune Analytics.

4. Analysis, Forecasting, and Influencing Market Dynamics

In the realm of cryptocurrencies and blockchain, where changes occur at a breathtaking pace, it's challenging to predict which direction will become the next "hit" or "trend." It is for this reason that Binance Labs does not limit itself to investments in a specific sector but instead actively searches for blockchain projects capable of promoting the popularization and widespread application of cryptocurrencies worldwide. The Labs team believes that focusing on projects with the potential for mass adoption gives Binance an advantage in forecasting and staying ahead of market trends. This investment strategy of Binance Labs has proven to be highly effective.

Over the past year, decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFT) have become the most noticeable trends, generating immense interest within the crypto community. Analyzing the Binance Labs portfolio, it's evident that many projects have significantly influenced the development of DeFi and NFT, highlighting the Labs team's ability to accurately assess projects and anticipate market trends. Recently, Binance Labs has also increased its investments in metaverses, becoming a strategic partner for projects such as Community Gaming, Ultiverse, Mythical Games, and others.

5. Developing Sustainable Partnership Relations and Intensive Interaction with Investors

In the world of venture investments, there's no strategy where only one wins. What might seem like competition in the industry often turns out to be collaboration. Many so-called "competitors" are actually colleagues and allies working towards a common goal and investment ventures aimed at strengthening and developing the ecosystem. Binance Labs highly values and aims to maintain strong, positive, and long-term relationships with key financial and strategic investors in the industry, seeking to jointly leverage our strengths for attracting, identifying, and providing investments.

Binance Labs ambitiously aims to further develop and strengthen relationships with investors in the sector, to ensure investments and effective partnership ties in the long term.

Binance Labs Approach to Supporting Innovation

As one of the pioneers of venture capitalism in the cryptocurrency space, Binance Labs aims to support projects within the blockchain industry by facilitating their growth and securing funding. This effort is aligned with Binance's overall mission to increase financial freedom for people worldwide, regardless of their social status and geographical location. As more people begin to use and trust this initiative, Binance Labs anticipates an increase in its value over time.

In addition to investment strategies, the Labs team faces a number of frequently asked questions, such as "How do you decide which projects to invest in?" or "How can I make a decisive investment?". Given Binance Labs' significant achievements in recent years, many are eager for more information.

Here are the criteria the team considers when evaluating each project:

• How much does the world need this project? Does the new solution outperform existing alternatives by tenfold?

• What will be the audience's reaction to the project launch? Will it resonate with the community and be utilized?

• What is the project's business model, and can it remain viable over the next ten years? Have there been successful examples of such business models in the past?

• The scalability of the project.

• Who is behind the founding of the project and what is its mission? What does the team believe in?

• What projects can it be compared to and what is its market value?

In conclusion, Binance Labs aims to strengthen decentralized networks through investments. Currently, Binance Labs has invested in more than 100 projects from over 25 countries. But this is just the beginning of their journey. In the future, Labs plans to make even more investments that could radically change the industry.