Binance has invested in the PancakeSwap decentralized exchange through its Binance Labs investment arm in a bid to grow global tech adoption.
Binance Labs, the venture capital arm of crypto exchange Binance, has invested in decentralized exchange (DEX) PancakeSwap. This development caused a 10% surge in the exchange’s native crypto CAKE, pushing it to $4.77 as of press time. However, despite the rally, the current figure is still 36% below the $7.46 level seen in early May.
Driving Factor Behind Binance Labs and PancakeSwap Investment
Binance Labs is investing in PancakeSwap to facilitate the next wave of global technology adoption. The venture capital outfit will do this by providing PancakeSwap with channels for technology development, marketing, and community support. In addition, Binance Labs’ vision will also further drive enterprise solutions for Web3 transformation. Speaking on the development, Binance Labs Head Bill Qian said:
“PancakeSwap has been leading the development and mass adoption of BNB Chain. Given that PancakeSwap is the most widely used dApp and the DeFi project with the highest TVL on BNB Chain, we have and will continue to provide strong support for the project.”
However, more details on Binance Labs’ investment, such as size and scale, were not available as of press time.
PancakeSwap is one of more than 1,300 active dApps across multiple categories built on Binance’s blockchain network BNB Chain. Launched in September 2020, the platform is currently the largest decentralized app (dApp) on the BNB Chain. PancakeSwap provides an automated market maker (AMM) that allows users to trade and swap decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens. The platform now has more than 400,000 users.
Other categories of dApps that reside on the BNB Chain comprise decentralized finance (DeFi), metaverse, blockchain games and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Furthermore, since its launch in 2020, the BNB Chain has processed more than 3 billion transactions from 163 million unique addresses.
Other Notable Recent Binance Labs Moves
Since the turn of the year, Binance Labs has made some key investment moves in the blockchain and metaverse space. Back in January, Binance’s innovation and investment arm injected sizable fresh capital into the Oasis Foundation’s $200M Ecosystem Fund. This ecosystem fund exists to help developers and entrepreneurs build on the Oasis network, essentially powering the next upsurge in Oasis applications. These include DeFi, metaverse, data tokenization, NFTs, data governance, and data decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), to name a few.
In April of 2022, Binance Labs also announced participation in the $30 million fundraiser of Gold House Ventures, the debut fund of Asian and Pacific Islander (API) leaders, Gold House. At the time, Binance Labs Investment Director Ken Li said Binance has always wanted to partner with stakeholders, including builders and founders, and their earliest stages. He said Binance was looking to participate via the Incubation Program as well as venture investing practices.
In May, immersive metaverse gaming platform AlterVerse announced its participation in the ongoing Binance Labs Incubation Program.
Tolu is a cryptocurrency and blockchain enthusiast based in Lagos. He likes to demystify crypto stories to the bare basics so that anyone anywhere can understand without too much background knowledge.
When he’s not neck-deep in crypto stories, Tolu enjoys music, loves to sing and is an avid movie lover.