After the crypto markets crashed in 2018, venture capitals and other investment firms moved their attention to blockchain start-ups. This saw the finance companies investing over $5 billion in the blockchain space, a significant rise from the preceding year’s $1.5 billion.
The trend has carried forward this year too, as the market has already witnessed huge money being poured in, especially from giant business corporations and investment firms. A similar move was made on Friday by Binance Labs, a venture investment subsidiary of world’s largest crypto trading platform, Binance Exchange.
Binance Labs announced on Friday that it has rewarded grants of $45,000 to three blockchain based start-ups developing open source blockchain solutions. These start-ups are Ironbelly, HOPR, and Kitsune Wallet, and each of them will receive $15,000 each. Till date, Binance Labs has incubated about 10 start-ups under CEO Ella Zhang, including Contentos, DeCore, and SafePal.
Running on the React-Native UI, Ironbelly is a mobile wallet for the Mimblewimble Blockchain platform. HOPR is Validity Labs’ privacy-focused messaging protocol, while Kitsune is an upgradeable on-chain wallet. These three start-ups are now also the first beneficiaries of the Binance Labs’s Fellowship Program. Through the program, Binance Labs funds and supports early-stage open source development projects.
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Commenting on the latest investments, Binance Labs Director, Flora Sun said,
“We have seen first-hand how innovation depends on an engaged community of developers and entrepreneurs who imagine ideas and create new projects to bring products to market.
The more talent an industry attracts to space, the higher chance that it will be successful and Binance Labs hopes to further enable the overwhelming talent and builders of our industry. Thus, our part is to support early-stage projects that are helping to create the building blocks and infrastructure for larger utility and enabling growth in the blockchain market.”
The announcement was made via a blog post on their official website. Binance Lab has been taking big strides forward in the crypto and DLT game, as it expanded its presence to five new cities including Berlin, Buenos, Aires, and Hong Kong. Adoption of Binance Labs backed blockchain start-ups like.
Teck Chia, Partner at Binance Labs said,
“The Binance Labs Fellowship supports developers and researchers in creating free and open-source projects, enabling new innovations and businesses in the cryptocurrency economy.
Through the Fellowship, we want to support early-stage projects by passionate developers who want to create the key building blocks for the entire blockchain industry. On behalf of the Binance community, we would like to thank these projects for their contribution to the blockchain ecosystem.”
As per the post, Binance Labs aims to optimize the potential of blockchain technology by supporting, early-stage blockchain projects through the Incubation Program, top entrepreneurs through strategic direct investments, and open-source developers through the Fellowship.
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The Argentine government announced earlier this year that it would be investing in local blockchain based start-up, who shall be created in collaboration with Binance Labs and LatamEX Founders Lab.
