Former Binance CEO CZ’s YZi Labs May Open to External Investors

Changpeng “CZ” Zhao’s $10 billion funding agency YZi Labs is weighing plans to open the fund to exterior capital and exterior buyers.

YZi Labs manages Zhao’s private fortune and funds from just a few early Binance insiders, together with co-founder Yi He. The fund accepted about $300 million in exterior funding in 2022, however later returned a part of it, citing the overwhelming scale of capital already below administration.

“There’s all the time plenty of exterior buyers ,” Ella Zhang, who heads the fund, told the Monetary Occasions. “We’ll ultimately contemplate turning it into an external-facing fund. We simply assume it’s not there but.”

YZi Labs’ portfolio consists of outstanding crypto and Web3 tasks reminiscent of Aptos Labs, Polygon, 1inch Community, Sky Mavis, and infrastructure and safety companies like LayerZero, Mysten Labs and CertiK. It has over 230 corporations in its portfolio, according to Dealroom.

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SEC seeks non-public demo of YZi Labs portfolio

Zhang informed the FT the Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) lately requested a personal demo of corporations backed by YZi Labs, after its chair missed the fund’s demo day on the New York Inventory Trade, signaling a extra crypto-friendly stance from US regulators below the Trump administration.

“Paul Atkins and different commissioners, they’re very open-minded,” she mentioned. Atkins has served as chair of the SEC since April 2025.

Zhao resigned from Binance last year after pleading responsible to a US prison cost over failure to implement Anti-Money Laundering (AML) controls.

He served a four-month prison sentence and is now seeking a pardon from US President Donald Trump. Regardless of stepping down, he stays Binance’s largest shareholder.

Cointelegraph reached out to YZi Labs for remark, however had not obtained a response by publication.

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Galaxy Digital’s first exterior fund raises $175 million

YZi Labs’ transfer to contemplate exterior buyers comes amid rising demand for crypto-native funding funds. In June, Galaxy Digital raised $175 million for its first externally backed enterprise fund. The fund exceeded its preliminary $150 million goal.