Binance Labs backs $200M Oasis Ecosystem Fund

Binance Labs, the venture capital (VC) arm of the Binance cryptocurrency exchange, announced Tuesday that it will contribute to Oasis Foundation’s $200 million ecosystem development fund, sending a strong signal that major investors were still keen to back emerging projects on alternative blockchain networks. 

With the investment, Binance Labs joins other prominent VC firms in supporting the Oasis Network, an alternative smart contract platform that intends to compete with Ethereum. As Cointelegraph reported in November, Oasis Foundation initially launched a $160 million development fund to lure promising startups to its blockchain. In addition to Binance Labs, other notable VC firms to support the ecosystem development fund include Hashed, Jump Capital, Dragonfly Capital and Draper Dragon.

Bill Chin, who heads the Binance Labs fund, touted the Oasis Network’s “scalability and privacy-preserving features,” as well as its ability to advance Web3 development, as reasons for backing the project.

Binance Labs has invested in several blockchain projects over the past 12 months. As Cointelegraph reported, in December, the VC firm led a $60 million investment round into cross-chain protocol Multichain. A few weeks later, Binance Labs announced that it had participated in Woo Network’s $12 million Series A funding round.

Related: OpenSea raises $300M for encrypted digital marketplace

Venture capital made a huge splash in the blockchain industry in 2021, with investment firms pumping over $17 billion into crypto-focused projects through the first 10 months of the year. The investment flows were steady throughout the year even as Bitcoin (BTC) and the broader cryptocurrency market experienced turbulent price action. 

Market turbulence has resurfaced at the start of 2022, with Bitcoin briefly falling below $40,000 and the broader crypto markets bleeding heavily.