Binance Labs Maintains Dominance in Crypto Funding Despite Regulatory Challenges

Binance Labs, the venture capital arm of the largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, remains an active investor in the crypto space despite its parent company facing regulatory challenges and potential fraud charges. 

Last week, Binance Labs announced four investments through its Most Valuable Builder (MVB) incubator program. 

These investments include AltLayer, a blockchain scaling startup, KiloEx, a decentralized exchange, Kinza, a decentralized finance lending platform, and Sleepless AI, a Web3 gaming company.

While the company did not disclose an exact monetary amount for these investments, last week witnessed a high number of fundraises, making it difficult to determine the overall amount raised accurately. 

However, there were a few disclosed amounts from other companies. 

D8X, a DEX (decentralized exchange) based on the Polygon network and backed by Binance, raised $1.5 million in a pre-seed round. 

ZkPass, a privacy-focused infrastructure provider, raised $2.5 million in a seed round with participation from Sequoia China and Binance Labs. 

Orbital, a CeFi (centralized finance) payments platform, secured $6.4 million, while Solv Protocol, which enables institutions and venture capitalists to sell tokenized financial products, raised $6 million with participation from a subsidiary of banking giant Nomura Securities.

Binance Faces Increasing Scrutiny in the US

The recent investments from Binance Labs come despite the regulatory scrutiny that its parent company, Binance, is currently facing. 

Binance has received increased attention from law enforcement agencies in the United States and abroad.

Back in June, the SEC sued Binance and its CEO for their “blatant disregard of the federal securities laws,” unveiling 13 charges against the platform, including operating an unregistered exchange.

The agency accused Binance of breaking the law by offering unregistered securities to the general public, including its BNB token and BUSD stablecoin.

Other charges levied against Binance by the SEC included the company’s failure to register as a broker as well as its failure to register as an exchange. 

Likewise, French authorities conducted a visit to Binance’s office in France last month. They are investigating allegations of illegal provision of digital-asset services and aggravated money laundering.

The exchange was also ordered to cease operations in Nigeria by the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

It is worth noting that Binance is not the only crypto company that has attracted the ire of US regulators; the SEC has also sued Coinbase, the largest US-based cryptocurrency exchange. 

Moreover, the commission has taken enforcement action against crypto exchanges Kraken and Bittrex, as well as crypto lending platform Nexo so far this year.