YZi Labs Investment Insights 2024–2025

YZi Labs, formerly known as Binance Labs, continues to shape the next wave of Web3 infrastructure and applications through its solo and lead investment strategy. With 65% of portfolio rounds where YZi Labs acts as the only or leading backer, the fund is positioned to incubate market leaders across key narratives – from RWAs to AI-powered DeFi.

One of the most notable cases is Aster DEX, where YZi Labs was the sole investor until its recent merger. The project now directly competes with Hyperliquid, backed by CZ. This case illustrates YZi Labs’ model: betting early, taking full conviction, and growing the project into a competitive category leader.

How to Collect the Data on CryptoRank

Our research followed a step-by-step workflow across CryptoRank to ensure consistency and accuracy:

1. We started in the Fundraising → Funds section, where YZi Labs is listed among other venture investors.

2. On the YZi Labs fund page, we switched to the Funding Rounds tab and sorted all deals by date, narrowing the dataset to 2024–2025 rounds only.

3. Finally, by opening individual project pages, we checked the Funding Rounds section to identify round stages, dates, and leadership. This allowed us to determine whether YZi Labs acted as a solo investor or as the round leader.

Solo Investments: Repeating the Aster Strategy

The Aster DEX case showed how YZi Labs is willing to back projects alone, taking on the full risk in exchange for maximum influence. The same approach reappears in 2024–2025 with several projects where YZi Labs is again the only investor:

• Bitway – Bitcoin L1 for RWAs
• OpenEden – tokenized Treasuries for DeFi
• NFPrompt – AI for NFTs
• Vooi – social trading on BNB Chain

These solo rounds mirror the Aster strategy: going all-in on early-stage projects and positioning YZi Labs to potentially “grow its own leader” in high-conviction market segments.

Narratives as the Core Investment Signal

In the current cycle, narratives have become the most important signal for project selection. YZi Labs consistently aligns its investments with trending narratives, actively searching for a future leader in each vertical:

• Prediction Markets – Opinion Labs, a competitor to Polymarket and Kalshi
• RWA – StableStock, tokenizing equities with 20–30% DeFi yields
• AI Agents – Aspecta, an AI network simplifying digital asset trading and developer launches
• Lending – Avalon Labs, decentralized BTC loans with isolated pools, yielding 8–12% APY
• DEX – UXUY, MPC-based cross-chain DEX reducing slippage by 25%
• Stablecoins – Usual Labs, RWA-backed USD0 protocol with governance via USUAL
• GameFi – Cellula, on-chain strategy game with 40% higher user retention
• LRT/LST – StakeStone, omnichain ETH & BTC liquid staking protocol with 6–9% APY
• Modular Infra – Movement Labs, Move-based modular infra targeting <400ms finality and Aptos TVL share

The allocation reflects not just diversification but a strategy to capture leadership within every relevant narrative of the cycle.

Pre-TGE Activities & Airdrop Opportunities

YZi Labs-backed projects are among the most visible in CryptoRank’s Drophunting section, where community activities often precede TGE and airdrop events.

Confirmed: Vooi, Opinion Labs, UXUY, Bracket Labs, Brevis

Potential: Shogun, Infrared, Rango Exchange

These campaigns highlight how projects prepare for token launches and build user bases before listing.

Sub-$100M Market Cap Projects with Positive Dynamics

We analyzed tokenized projects from YZi Labs’ portfolio and focused on those under $100M market cap that showed positive Q3 momentum in financial and economic metrics:

• Solv Protocol – $2.35M revenue (+79% QoQ), rev/mcap ratio 0.038; TVL ~$1.83B
• Renzo Protocol – $36.8M daily volume (+12% MoM), $571K quarterly revenue (+7%); TVL ~$1.5B
• Puffer Finance – TVL up 15% in September to $160M; mcap/TVL ratio 0.23
• Avalon Labs – $3.74M Q3 revenue (+197%), rev/mcap ratio 0.14; TVL ~$812M

This performance set shows that even in the small-cap range, YZi Labs has exposure to projects with improving fundamentals.

Conclusion

With a portfolio where 65% of rounds are solo or lead investments, YZi Labs pursues a conviction-driven strategy aimed at incubating market leaders. By anchoring itself in every major narrative – from RWAs and AI agents to modular infrastructure and LRT protocols – the fund positions itself at the center of crypto’s most competitive verticals.