Original author: Biteye Core contributor Lucky
Original editor: Biteye Core contributor Crush
According to the compilation by overseas KOL Ardizor, among the active VCs in the industry, Binance Labs ranks first in the "Which VCs Love Airdrops More" with a 15.4% airdrop rate, far surpassing a16z, Coinbase, Muticoin, and other major VCs.
In the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry, investment and incubation are key factors driving innovation and development. Binance Labs can be considered one of the important participants in this field.
In order to find Gems in the investment landscape of Binance, this article will delve into various aspects of Binance Labs, including its introduction, advantages, investment layout, and then focus on projects in the Binance investment landscape that have not yet been launched but have certain airdrop expectations.
01 Overview of Binance Labs
Binance Labs was established in April 2018 and is the venture capital business division within Binance. Its main tasks are to identify, invest in, and empower promising blockchain entrepreneurs, startups, and communities. In addition to direct investment, Binance Labs also invests through an 8-10 week incubation program (MVB), providing advisory support, financing, and resources.
Binance's incubation program has held six seasons, and in the latest season, Binance invested in the top-performing projects from the 6th MVB, namely AltLayer, KiloEx, Kinza, and Sleepless AI, covering DeFi, infrastructure, and Web3 games.
In April of this year, Binance Labs stated in an interview with The Block that their investment theory has achieved a return rate of more than 10 times, which is closely related to Binance Labs' advantages and the selection of projects.
Advantages of Binance Labs:
- Global Influence: Binance Labs' investment landscape has covered 25 countries and invested in over 200 projects.
- Financial Support: According to Binance's 2022 year-end report, Binance Labs will provide at least $1-2B in funding for the crypto industry.
- Value Creation Services: In addition to financial support, it also provides general consulting, operational support, and joint development of technology/products.
- Abundance of Resources: As part of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange platform, Binance Labs has rich resources and a vast network, which are key factors in its success in incubating and investing in projects.
Binance Labs considers the following five attributes when selecting projects:
- The first attribute is product innovation. Are you building something new that users will benefit from?
- The second attribute is a sustainable business and token model. In the long run, is your business model profitable, and is your token incentive designed in the right way?
- The third attribute is traction. How many users does the project have at this stage? How much revenue does it generate? If you are in pre-launch stage, we would like to know your actual expectations.
- The fourth attribute is the quality and persistence of the team. Can you and your co-founders commit full-time to the project if needed?
- The last attribute is technology. Is the technology you are building feasible and realistic? We will review the content you have already built and the content that can be built based on your project roadmap.
The investment philosophy of Binance Labs can be summarized into five attributes: product innovation, sustainable business and token models, adoption, team persistence, and technical feasibility.
02 Focus Areas of Binance Labs Investments
Binance Labs has a broad investment focus, covering most of the Web3-related sectors, including public chains, protocols, infrastructure, NFTs, blockchain games, metaverse, DeFi, and CeFi. According to the 2022 year-end report, Binance Labs will provide a funding amount of at least $1-2 billion for the crypto industry recovery plan.
Binance Labs places special emphasis on infrastructure, on-chain applications, data analysis, and security. These areas are not only the core of the cryptocurrency industry's development but also the investment priorities for Binance Labs. The following diagram illustrates the focus areas of Binance's investments:
- Infrastructure: It accounts for the largest proportion in Binance Labs' investment landscape, reaching 39.4%, serving as the foundation for the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry.
- DeFi and Gaming: They account for 19.4% and 18.2% of the investment respectively. These two sectors not only have tremendous market potential but also lead industry innovation.
- Web3-related sectors: Including social entertainment, tools, NFTs, and metaverse, these sectors are considered the next growth points in the cryptocurrency industry.
03 Unlaunched Projects Overview
We will list the projects worth noting in the Binance investment landscape in the four major categories of infrastructure, Web3, DeFi, and gaming that have not yet been launched.
(Risk Warning: The following projects are only investments for projects that have not yet been issued, and the specific project fundamentals cannot be guaranteed. The risks of cryptocurrency projects are high. Users can use the following list as a reference before further DYOR.)
Infrastructure:
1. Polyhedra: Funding $25M
Polyhedra is a startup company focusing on interoperability, scalability, and privacy in full-stack infrastructure based on ZKP technology. It generates SNARK proofs faster in a distributed manner and develops zk stack projects (zkBridge, zk-DID, zk-NFT) based on them. The zkBridge testnet has gone live with an expected airdrop;
2. AltLayer
AltLayer is an open and decentralized protocol for developers to launch custom Rollups for applications.
The protocol provides a no-code Rollups-as-a-Service dashboard built on top of its core Beacon Layer network, allowing for quick customization of Rollups with fraud/zk proofs and security from underlying L1/L2. It has secured funding from Binance MVB Season 6;
3. DappOS
DappOS is an intent-centric operating protocol that aims to make dApps as user-friendly as mobile applications.
As a Web3 unified operating protocol, it builds a layer between users and cryptographic infrastructures such as public chains and cross-chain bridges, enabling users to verify and execute in the decentralized world by interacting only with dappOS. This allows anyone to easily access decentralized applications without complex processes or in-depth knowledge of cryptography;
4. Mind Network: Funding $2.5M
Mind Network is a composable data protocol that enables developers to interoperate data across platforms. The vision of Mind Network is to become the first decentralized knowledge graph that intelligently connects everyone and products on Web3. The roadmap of Mind Network indicates the token launch in Q3 2023;
5. LayerZero: Funding $315M
LayerZero is a protocol for full-chain interoperability, focusing on data message transmission between chains. LayerZero's data transmission method based on oracles and relays makes the protocol more lightweight and provides certain security guarantees. Currently, the protocol has a good network adoption rate and has a potential airdrop.
6. Celestia: Funding $56.5M
Celestia is the first modular blockchain network that advocates for dividing the functions of consensus, settlement, and execution of a single public chain into different layer areas, and then improving performance by optimizing the functional layer areas. It also allows specialized blockchain hosting applications to be deployed on top of it and has been optimized for scalability, flexibility, and interoperability.
7. Web3 Go: Funding $4M
Web3 Go is a data intelligence network that provides a set of native artificial intelligence digital asset tools and real-time data infrastructure.
This network allows users to produce various native artificial intelligence digital assets, including transaction information flows, trading strategies, trading robots, entertainment, education, and social intelligent assistants. It verifies asset ownership through blockchain and provides creators with a fair, self-hosted, trustless ecosystem.
Web3
1. Paragraph
Paragraph is an on-chain creator platform that helps creators publish, share, and build businesses around their content, using permissionless protocols to enhance growth and profit potential.
Paragraph is leveraging novel on-chain mechanisms such as turning posts into collectibles, sending newsletters to wallet addresses, earning recurring memberships, and building and nurturing communities with decentralized social protocols like Farcaster, Lens, and XMTP.
In addition to receiving investments from Binance Labs in October 2022, it also received investments from the Base Phase One Ecological Fund in September this year.
2. Tabi: Funding $10M
Tabi is a cross-chain NFT platform that offers NFT issuance, trading, auction, and personalized in-store services. It aims to connect creators and users in a decentralized manner. Tabi has already confirmed that it will conduct airdrops and will convert users' on-chain activities into "experience points" that can be used to redeem future airdrop rewards and earnings.
3. Lifeform
Lifeform is a decentralized visual digital identity (DID) solution provider. Its core technologies include a hyper-realistic 3D avatar creation tool, visual DID protocol, secure and innovative contract solutions, Web3 native decentralized identity systems, and a metaverse engine software development kit (SDK). It has completed three rounds of funding, with the latest funding round reaching a valuation of 300 million.
4, Playbux: Financing $2 M
Playbux is an ecommerce metaverse platform based on blockchain network. The project was a finalist in Binance Labs' 4th season incubation program. Its product aims to be an easily accessible Shop&Earn metaverse platform. It allows users to spend and earn cashback from over 20,000 global merchants.
Games
1, Xterio: Financing $55 M
Xterio is a global cross-platform instant play and earn developer and publisher, dedicated to connecting millions of people worldwide through deep engagement in the gaming world with digital ownership. Xterio's focus is on developing a web3 native universe that can expand on all media and platforms.
2, Fusionist: Financing $6.6 M
Fusionist is a gaming world with collectible NFTs, consisting of three types of games: colonization, conquest, and unity. Players will manage their own planets, collect rare resources, upgrade technology, scan blueprints to manufacture mechs, and establish production pipelines. Engage in PvP and PvE battles, build a fleet of starships for interstellar warfare, and conquer the galaxy.
The founding team consists of senior personnel from Tencent Games, EA, and Morden Game. Participating players will receive token airdrop rewards.
3, Ultiverse: Financing $4.5 M
Ultiverse is a social gaming metaverse that connects web3 with AAA-quality immersive fully VR-compatible virtual worlds. By empowering players with different economic abilities, Ultiverse aims to create MetaFi, with anticipated airdrop.
4, Tatsumeeko: Financing $7.5 M
Tatsumeeko is an MMORPG playable on Discord. It combines casual gaming, Japanese RPGs, creative building games, with social elements and user-generated content, creating a platform-independent, community-driven modern fantasy MMORPG-lite.
5, Heroes of Mavia: Financing $5.5 M
Heroes of Mavia is an MMO strategy game that draws fantasy elements from the popular mobile strategy base-building game Clash of Clans.
Players build and develop their bases on the island of Mavia, train armies, and engage in battles with other players. As they grow their base and army, they can attack more challenging opponents and receive tokens as rewards, which can be used to upgrade the base itself and create special super troops called heroes. Land NFTs have already been issued, with anticipated airdrop.
6. Sleepless AI: Financing
is a virtual companion game based on AI blockchain. It uses AIGC and LLM to create rich story-based gameplay and can interact organically with characters. The project is currently developing three games, with the first game being "HIM".
DeFi
1. Helio: Financing $10M
Helio is an open-source liquidity protocol for borrowing and earning on the HAY—a new BNB-backed, over-collateralized, and a novel class of cryptographic assets called "destablecoins" (with "de" representing decentralization). The Helio protocol is built on the BNB chain and consists of a dual token model and mechanisms that support instant swaps, asset collateralization, borrowing, yield farming, and staking.
2. Bracket Labs
Bracket Labs has launched the Bracket Protocol options market, aiming to simplify traditional options and structured products, enabling buyers to trade multi-currency contracts on the platform. The innovation of this platform lies in that users can interact directly on a decentralized, permissionless, non-custodial platform without the need for a margin account; there are no forced liquidations, and buyers always receive their full claim value, etc. Currently, BracketX is live on the Arbitrum testnet.
04 Summary
In summary, Binance Labs, as the risk investment and incubation department of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency trading platform, has become an indispensable participant in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry.
Its global influence, funding support, value creation services, and abundant resources enable it to successfully incubate and invest in projects.
For users, the bear market can be regarded as the best time to discover potential projects, with fewer FOMO and false APY-driven TVLs compared to the bull market, making it easier to filter out projects with serious intentions. Players can prepare for the bull market by tracking the data growth of favored projects.
The above project list can serve as a research and interaction reference, but it is essential to note that in the crypto market, projects that truly meet user needs and succeed are rare. Most projects carry high risks compared to potential, so when participating in projects, it is important to manage risks and ensure the safety of funds.
