Top Crypto Exchange Binance Seeks 20 Major Partners for Giant $1 Bln Fund

Binance, currently the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trade volume, plans to create a $1 bln cryptocurrency-based fund, an executive confirmed June 1.

Using only Binance's BNB tokens as an investment vehicle, the fund will be administered through the exchange's incubator spin-off Binance Labs.

Binance, which in April relocated to Malta, has already supported four blockchain projects through the incubator, among which was a $30 mln funding round for privacy-focused altcoin MobileCoin the same month.

"Investment is all one level, and it is held on a long-term basis," Ella Zhang, head of Binance Labs said in an online conference quoted by local news media outlet PANews.

"We do proper asset management. We like to lock in long-term projects. Investors and entrepreneurs are locked together. Not believers do not enter."

The fund seeks to onboard only significant heavyweights as partners, members requiring at least $100 mln under asset management.

The news follows a smaller move this week by Japanese developer Gumi, which announced it launched its own blockchain investment fund worth $30 million to attract international projects.

Known as Gumi Cryptos, the fund has already attracted four proteges.

"We like early stage. We invest in equity or tokens. We like financial services. We like game technologies, and we believe there is a strong connection between gaming and crypto," co-founder Miko Matsumura told VentureBeat.