Original Article Title: "Closing Stage of Crypto VC, What Has YZi Invested In"

Original Article Author: Lord Zuo

VC is indeed more or less dead, Web2 venture capital refuses to take risks, only engaging in follow-up financing after government-industry guidance funds, Web3 Seed rounds are more talk than action, VC and FA are further merging in reverse, facing Binance startups has become an industry consensus, all Insights and Memos have turned into Info exchanged for Yap.

From an overall perspective, more and more large VCs are starting to participate in projects by issuing tokens, using a secondary approach to realize a primary dream. This differs from early equity investments, initial token offerings IXO, and stock/coin dual-mode. The market is rapidly entering maturity, it just requires further sacrifices from small VCs.

After CZ's comeback, with a focus on investment, education as a slogan, tweets as the essence, going all-in on BNB Chain Meme as the main business, Binance Labs was renamed YZi Labs on January 23, increasingly resembling a Family Office.

The aversion to risk, the preference for investment stability, extends beyond late-stage investing and mature investing, but also to the increasingly diluted exploratory nature of projects. Taking YZi Labs as an example, observe the investment style transformation from new money to old money after getting rich and learn in advance for all.

Data Source: Decentralised Co., Infographic: @zuoyeweb3

Under normal circumstances, there should be a large number of seed rounds, with subsequent rounds involving larger amounts.

However, looking at the data from the past six months, the number of seed rounds, compared to A/B/C rounds, not only lacks overwhelming quantity but also sees both sides' amounts being highly similar. The disappearance of crypto rounds is now a reality, those who can secure small amounts will continue to do so, while those who cannot will continue to miss out.

Invest in AI in Cold Silence, Speculate on Meme Chains in the Season

Regardless of Web2/3, AI is currently a bit cold, but CZ feels it's not cold enough yet, hoping to chill a bit more before making a move, leaving behind the true Builders, only requiring the most devout disciples.

Image Description: YZi Investment Targets, Image Source: CryptoRank

However, YZi's direction does involve AI. In fact, most projects can be linked to AI in some way, thus can be divided into "Using Crypto for AI," such as Vana and Tensorplex Labs, and "Using AI for Crypto," such as Plume Network, Blum, and Opinion Labs.

Of course, this is just a forced classification and does not have any guiding significance. In the era of AI-enhanced postpartum care for pigs, there is no need to dwell on how necessary AI is.

Following the chronological order, let's individually review the characteristics of each project.

1. Opinion Labs = Kaito + Polymarket

Opinion Labs is what's known as a human opinion-driven prediction market. I boldly speculate that its future direction is based on predicting and trading based on Twitter KOLs. It can leverage the InfoFi concept on the upside and the enduring trading attributes on the downside, allowing it to both attack and defend.

2. Plume Network = Everything is an RWA

RWA is not a new concept, but Plume Network has had a very legendary journey. It not only secured a $30 million investment from top institutions like Galaxy but also surprisingly chose Gate for an IEO in January this year before receiving YZi's investment, causing a price surge.

Remaining calm amid the waves, with a flexible demeanor, is the polished style of the crypto world. Being the first to issue coins and subsequent fundraising are the epochal opportunities that crypto offers.

3. Tensorplex Labs = LSD + AI

Firstly, I believe decentralized AI is a pseudo-concept. Tensorplex Labs aims to use LSDfi to ensure the decentralization of LLM training and datasets, which doesn't have much productivity value. However, in a crypto environment eager to contribute something to AI, it's not uncommon to receive funding from industry investors.

This has significance for future token prices, as the product is one thing and the token price is another. Otherwise, ADA and XRP would be extremely ashamed.

4. Vana = An AI Concept Coin Spanning Cycles

In 2021, it received investment from Polychain, in 2022 from Paradigm, in 2024 from Coinbase, and in 2025 from YZi Labs, successfully launching on Binance Launchpool.

A very typical VC coin from the previous cycle, which has no relevance to current and future projects, can only be admired.

5. Blum = The Only Seed Player + Transaction

This is the most typical investment style of Binance Labs, a transaction-oriented DeFi product, and also a rare seed round player. The most surprising thing is that both OKX and YZi jointly invested, which can be described as going through hardships together, brothers sailing across the sea hand in hand.

Forgive me for not providing much introduction to the project mechanism and tokenomics because it is meaningless. What are the fundamentals of a Meme, the difference between a community and a meme coin pump group, and the role of tokenomics are what I call the three unsolved mysteries of the crypto world.

Embracing the Family Office Aesthetics, Stability Overwhelms Everything

YZi is distinctive enough, and the domestic public is quite familiar with it. However, after the wealth creation wave from 2017 to 2021, Crypto New Money has gradually transformed into family office institutions like this Old Fashion leverage entity, not seeking extremely high returns but caring more about project stability.

Two years prior to CZ, the first-generation contract king Arthur Hayes, founder of BitMEX, established his family office, Maelstrom. The funding comes from Arthur personally. Similar to CZ's recall of Ella Zhang, Maelstrom's daily operations are overseen by Akshat Vaidya, a former senior executive at BitMEX.

Indeed, Arthur Hayes was able to develop perpetual contract products more suitable for the crypto community and had a unique taste in investments. For example, the stablecoin Ethena in the post-UST era formally kicked off the first step in reducing on-chain product fees through trading on the DeFi platform and the cross-era DeFi product Pendle.

A comprehensive story about Arthur Hayes will be presented in a big article later, who is more worthy of learning from than Sun Gu and CZ.

However, similar to YZi, Maelstrom also pursues stability, such as not investing in memes, but more in meme-related tools and infrastructure, such as Time.Fun. They emphasize success not based on ROI but adhere to the principle of stability first.

Yet, YZi's style is far from being fixed. In the track record of Binance Labs, ensuring a listing on the Binance main site is a highly attractive barrier. However, the homeowner has no surplus now. By the end of 2024, they have begun transferring the project's tokens to Gate. Ultimately, Gate has taken on everything.

Unlike Arthur Hayes, who can serve as Ethena's spokesperson, CZ is currently not deeply tied to any project, and YZi has not formed its own investment aesthetic. As mentioned earlier, Binance Labs is very fond of investing in trading-related products. However, in the post-DeFi boom era, Ethena and Pendle will only be a few, while most will be sell-token projects combining Crypto and AI. The remnants of Web2 AI, the pride of Web3 AI.

As YZi increasingly moves away from the Binance ecosystem, its true strength will still need to be tested by the market. This particularly tests CZ's personal investment level, from the time when its AI has not yet cooled down, to the development of the BNB Chain Meme ecosystem after $TRUMP, I personally feel that it is not as clever as guiding Ben Zhou to reject user withdrawals and strategically seize OKX DEX market share.

However, this could also mean that CZ really does not engage in trading but only focuses on trading platforms.

Conclusion

Yesterday's world is gone forever.

Cryptocurrency venture capital truly set sail from the IXO era, reaching its peak before the FTX collapse (I always have to mention SBF, as his single-handed efforts truly changed the industry trend). Today, it is nothing more than completing the final phase of established investment projects, enduring the abuse from retail investors, and striving to distribute all the tokens.

There were originally no cryptocurrency VCs in the world. With more funds invested, risks naturally arise.

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