YZi Labs (formerly known as Binance Labs) has announced a substantial $1 billion fund called the Builder Fund, aimed at supporting creators within the BNB Ecosystem. The fund focuses on ventures working specifically on the BNB Chain, providing capital, tools, integrations, and access to over 460 million users. Target areas include DeFi, artificial intelligence, tokenization of real-world assets, DeSci, payments, and wallets. This announcement came during a period of improved network performance for BNB Chain, where the BNB coin surpassed $1,330 on October 7, securing its position as the third-largest by market capitalization.
Scope of the Builder Fund
The Builder Fund aims to expedite the commercialization of products built on BNB Chain’s high-efficiency and low-cost infrastructure. This initiative benefits creators by offering direct collaboration with core teams, technical integration, ecosystem-wide distribution, and access to funding. Key objectives include enhancing liquidity depth in DeFi, improving user experience through artificial intelligence, boosting institutional participation in tokenized real-world assets, and supporting verifiable data flows in DeSci projects.
YZi Labs emphasizes a framework prioritizing ownership in web3, human capacity in artificial intelligence, and quality of life in biotechnology under the theme of “new scale laws for humanity.” Pursuant to its strategic goals, YZi Labs integrates incubation, direct investment, and partnership models to establish a unified support line from ideation to scaling. The ecosystem amplifies its reach by leveraging a user base of 460 million, strengthening distribution and feedback loops.
Structure, Network Impact, and Timeline
BNB Chain network indicators bolster the timing of the fund. Recent momentum has propelled daily transactions to 26 million on the network. Additionally, the network has ascended to the top in decentralized exchange volume and daily active users. The Maxwell hard fork in May reduced block times to 0.75 seconds and lowered the average fee to 0.05 Gwei. These enhancements have increased interest from developers and boosted user engagement within the BNB Chain.
As of October, BNB Chain’s flagship accelerator, MVB, will operate under YZi Labs’ EASY Residency as a dedicated BNB unit. Selected teams will gain up to $500,000 in funding, direct access to YZi Labs and BNB Chain core teams, alongside a global network of investors and mentors. Historical support for projects like PancakeSwap, ListaDAO, Aster, and Aspecta has established a robust operational foundation for this new fund focused on RWA and yield-driven institutional ventures.
Ella Zhang, President of YZi Labs, noted that the network’s global reach and depth within the Blockchain facilitates the emergence of products that enable permanent use cases.
