Crypto convict Zhao turns Binance CVC into private wealth fund –

Changpeng Zhao, known by his initials CZ, has announced he is turning Binance Labs, the corporate venture capital arm of his crypto exchange company Binance, into a family office called YZi Labs. The move comes only months after he was released from prison custody in the US, where he served a four-month sentence for a money laundering offence he committed as CEO of Binance. The company paid $4.3bn in fines.

Binance Labs was launched in 2018 to invest in web3 and crypto technology startups. According to Zhao, it had around $10bn of crypto-related assets under management at the time of its rebranding to YZi Labs.

According to GCV’s CVC Funding Round Database, Binance Labs participated in 19 funding rounds in 2024 in blockchain, web3 gaming and crypto startups. Such companies include Sophon, a Chinese maker of blockchain technology designed for layer 2 networks. Another was MilkyWay, a US-based liquid staking protocol operator.

None of the funding rounds Binance Labs participated in last year and in 2023 went beyond the series A stage. In January 2024, the CVC said its portfolio included 250 companies in 25 countries.

As a family office, YZi will be Zhao’s personal wealth management fund, and also that of Binance’s co-founder Yi He, with whom he has had three children. YZi will broaden its investment activities from that of Binance Labs, expanding beyond crypto and web3 to AI and biotech. Zhao has brought in Ella Zhang to manage the fund who helped set up Binance Labs.

Zhao and Yi He founded the Binance crypto exchange in China in 2017. It was the largest crypto exchange in the world by January 2018 and remained so until April 2021.

Reuters reported that the prosecutors in Zhao’s 2024 conviction accused him of lax anti-money laundering standards, which allowed for suspicious transactions carried out by terrorist organisations and criminals, including those profiting from child sex abuse material and ransomware attacks. In addition to his custodial sentence, he also paid a $50m fine. His fortune today is estimated at $69.8bn.