Institutional Briefing: Credably Neutral raises $5.5m, Binance Labs values AUM at $9bn

The cryptocurrency industry is attracting a growing number of institutional players. This is reflected in new investments in infrastructure and in the increasingly close attention companies are paying to Bitcoin as an asset class. The most important events of the past weeks are in ForkLog’s review.

Crypto-venture firm Credably Neutral raises $5.5m

The new investment company Credably Neutral, focused on Web3, has secured funding of $5.5m.

In the funding round participated Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko and Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, as well as ConsenSys CEO Joseph Lubin.

Credably Neutral was founded by Viktor Bunin, who heads the protocol operations team at Coinbase Cloud, and Lisa Kuesto Bunina — chief operating officer of Aztec Protocol, a startup focused on privacy for the Ethereum network.

Registered in Brooklyn, New York, the fund focuses on Web3 infrastructure and crypto software startups. Initial investments are planned to range from $50,000 to $200,000.

Binance values assets under management of its venture arm at $9bn

The value of assets under management of Binance’s venture unit is estimated at $9 billion as of the end of Q1 2023. This was disclosed by Bo Ling, the business director of the cryptocurrency exchange.

According to him, the SEC’s lawsuit against the Binance group and its founder Changpeng Zhao “does not affect” the work of Binance Labs.

He noted that since August 2022, the unit’s assets under management have grown by 20%. Funds have been invested in more than 200 projects — 50 of which are graduates of the internal incubator.

Ling said that the exchange’s venture business yields substantial profits. He estimates that the average theoretical return on a project is more than ten times the invested capital.

“We buy and hold; that has been the strategy for the last few years. With rare exceptions, we have not exited the business,” he added.

GameFi platform Intella to launch a $10m gaming accelerator

The gaming Web3 platform Intella X and Korean game publisher Neowiz announced a joint grant program worth $10 million.

The initiative, in collaboration with Polygon Labs, extends to gaming Web3 projects on the eponymous blockchain. It aims to develop the Intella X ecosystem and provide financial support to talented developers.

According to the press release, accelerator projects will be selected based on four criteria:

• potential impact;
• innovativeness;
• viability;
• environmental sustainability.

In Q1 2023 venture investors put $2.6bn into crypto startups

For January–March 2023, venture investment in crypto startups across 353 funding rounds totaled $2.6 billion — the lowest since Q4 2020, according to PitchBook.

In monetary terms, this was 11% lower than the previous quarter, and the number of deals was down 12.2%.

Main metrics showed mixed dynamics. Year-on-year, seed rounds’ fundraising rose 33.3%, late-stage rounds by 209.22%, and early-stage fell 16.7%.

Analysts noted a continuing interest from venture investors in Ethereum-layer-2 solutions.

Among notable deals they highlighted Blockstream’s $125m funding for Bitcoin mining infrastructure, Scroll’s $50m for building a ZK-Rollup-based network.

Experts also noted sizable fees from custodial services — Ledger ($493m) and Taurus ($65m).