Binance founder Changpeng Zhao is betting that the deals his family office made during the market downturn will become its most profitable ventures.
Speaking at a book club session in Hong Kong on August 28, Zhao expressed high confidence in the recent acquisitions made by YZi Labs, the independent investment firm that manages his and Binance co-founder Yi He’s personal wealth, encompassing various altcoin investments.
How YZi Labs Will Perform Best in Crypto Winter
YZi Labs has been actively deploying capital throughout the period dubbed the “crypto winter.” Zhao attributes his bullish outlook to the precise timing of these investments, executed when digital asset prices were near their lows.
Zhao’s investment philosophy centers on capitalizing during market troughs. While the crypto market experienced significant price shifts, with Bitcoin prices remaining far under their October high, this downturn presented a strategic opportunity for YZi Labs.
He argued that the concurrent influx of capital into artificial intelligence has created a filtering effect within the crypto industry. This process, he noted, helps to weed out short-term oriented crypto teams, thereby leaving behind more robust and dedicated builders for firms like YZi Labs to support.
Zhao believes this capital rotation from AI back into digital assets is already in progress, potentially fueling future growth in various altcoins.
YZi Labs’ Expanding Portfolio in 2026
YZi Labs, managing over $10 billion, operates as a significant entity in the venture capital landscape. The firm officially rebranded from Binance Labs in January 2025, solidifying its operational independence from the Binance exchange. Ella Zhang, previously head of Binance Labs, now leads YZi Labs.
The firm’s 2026 deal-making highlights a broad and diversified investment appetite, reaching well beyond conventional cryptocurrency projects. Its strategic investments encompass robotics, AI payments, prediction markets, and digital asset custody, reflecting a belief in technological convergence.
The largest disclosed investment this year went to RoboForce, a company focused on developing physical AI systems, for which YZi Labs led a $52 million Series B round in March. The firm also invested in digital asset custodian BitGo prior to its January listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
YZi Labs further bolstered its portfolio in April by adding to its position in the prediction market Predict.fun, alongside Susquehanna Crypto. Predict.fun also benefited from additional investment after graduating from YZi Labs’ EASY Residency Season 2, showcasing the firm’s full investment lifecycle approach.
Additionally, YZi Labs announced an investment in Genius in January 2026, aiming to accelerate the development of a private, high-velocity on-chain trading terminal, with CZ serving as an advisor.
The broader YZi Labs portfolio includes a range of established and emerging projects such as Polygon, Injective, SafePal, Dunes Analytics, Sui, Ethena, Aptos, PancakeSwap (CAKE), Curve DAO (CRV), Chiliz (CHZ), SIGN, VANA, EDU, ENA, Aster (BNB Chain’s perpetual contract DEX), and CertiK. These holdings illustrate the diverse scope of YZi Labs’ interests.
A Diversified and Forward-Looking Investment Strategy
YZi Labs’ strategy isn’t solely confined to blockchain. At the ‘Consensus 2026’ conference in Miami, Zhao detailed the fund’s capital allocation across several high-growth sectors. As of May 2026, roughly 70% of the funds were directed toward blockchain, 20% into AI, and 10% toward biotechnology.
This diversified approach underscores a conviction that the future of technology is deeply interconnected, with innovations in one sector often influencing others. The firm’s involvement with projects like Genius, where developer activity is key, highlights this commitment to foundational technological advancements.
Zhao’s market perspective has also evolved, particularly concerning Real-World Assets (RWA). He acknowledged a shift in his view at ‘Consensus 2026,’ stating that while he once considered RWA overvalued, he now perceives it as “real and currently undervalued.” This signals a potential area of increasing focus for the fund.
Fostering Innovation Through Incubation
Beyond direct investments, YZi Labs actively cultivates early-stage companies through its flagship incubation program, the EASY Residency. This global initiative provides capital, mentorship, and essential resources to founders in Web3, AI, and biotech, supporting them from their earliest stages.
The fourth season of the program, announced around August 25, 2026, is currently taking place in Bhutan and involves 24 early-stage projects. YZi Labs has committed individual investments of up to $500,000 for each project, bringing the total for this cohort to approximately $12 million. The 10-week residency aims to rapidly accelerate the growth of these nascent ventures.
The projects selected for Season 4 offer insight into YZi Labs’ future market outlook. They primarily concentrate on stablecoin payments, cross-border settlements, on-chain foreign exchange and credit, institutional liquidity and market-making, and AI agent trading and interfaces. This strategic focus targets the development of robust financial infrastructure necessary for the maturation of the digital asset economy, where altcoin liquidity and accessibility are crucial.
Untested Claims and Market Realities
Despite Changpeng Zhao’s strong confidence, his assertions about the performance of these crypto winter investments remain forward-looking and, as yet, unverified. YZi Labs hasn’t released specific performance data for these recent deals, making independent validation of their success impossible for now.
The firm has also faced scrutiny regarding its operational transparency. The Financial Times reported in September 2025 that YZi Labs was considering opening its doors to outside investors and planned to launch a $10 billion investment portfolio for external capital.
However, CZ vehemently denied this report, calling it “completely false news” and explicitly stating that YZi Labs is not seeking outside capital nor demonstrating any such intent.
The ultimate proof of Zhao’s “smart timing” thesis will hinge on the market’s trajectory in the coming months and years. The performance of YZi Labs’ diverse bets across robotics, AI, and blockchain will ultimately determine whether these strategic crypto winter acquisitions indeed become its most successful.