According to Bloomberg, Binance‘s Industry Recovery Initiative (IRI), which was announced after FTX’s bankruptcy, has raised over $1 billion in funds but has only provided less than $30 million so far. Despite having strong and prominent supporters, the cryptocurrency sector has been struggling to attract investments this year, leading many companies to resort to layoffs in order to survive.
Transparency Issues in Binance’s Industry Recovery Initiative
A striking claim has been made regarding Binance’s Industry Recovery Initiative (IRI), which was announced to assist cryptocurrency projects that were in a difficult situation, especially after FTX’s collapse and liquidity crisis. According to Bloomberg, the initiative has provided less than $30 million in funds to projects so far.
While Binance allocated approximately $1 billion from the BUSD stablecoin to the fund, other crypto companies such as Jump Crypto, DWP Labs, Animoca Brands, Aptos Labs, GSR, Kronos Research, Booker Group, and Polygon Labs have committed to providing $70 million in funds to the initiative. Bloomberg stated that only one of the nine public participants, Aptos Labs, has used the committed funds for investments. Binance had announced the participation of a total of 18 companies in the initiative.
A spokesperson for Binance told Bloomberg that IRI has funded 14 projects, but did not disclose the names of these projects or the amount of funds allocated to them. The spokesperson also added that Binance has transferred $985 million of the funds committed to the initiative to its corporate treasury for other investments. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao had stated in an interview with Bloomberg in November 2022 that IRI is a transparent initiative.
Investments Made by IRI
Binance’s only public investment was the acquisition of a $15 million stake in South Korean cryptocurrency exchange GOPAX. Although the deal was announced in February, it has been awaiting approval from South Korea’s financial regulator since the postponement in July.
The original wallet address used for the initiative shows two withdrawals, one of approximately $15 million and another of $985 million, following Binance’s transfer of $1 billion from BUSD to the wallet address. The funds currently have a balance of around $1,500 in Ethereum (ETH) and other cryptocurrencies.
Apart from Binance, it has been reported that DWF Labs distributed more than $2 million for the $15 million commitment made to IRI, and Aptos Labs distributed more than $5 million of the committed $5 million. Bloomberg stated that other participants either did not make any fund distributions or their identities could not be determined.
Dana Hou, the Business Strategy Leader of Binance Labs, said in a statement to Bloomberg, “We couldn’t find many projects that meet our criteria, and the same applies to other investors.” GSR, a cryptocurrency market maker, evaluated 60 applications but did not make any investments as none of them fit its investment strategy. Other participants either refused to comment or did not respond to the comment request from Bloomberg. However, it can be seen that the Google Forms application submitted to apply for IRI is still active.
