YZi Labs, the venture capital firm founded by Changpeng “CZ” Zhao and Yi He, has announced a $1 billion Most Valuable Builder (MVB) fund to back projects and founders developing on the BNB Chain (Binance’s decentralized blockchain).
In an official X post, YZi Labs stated that the funding pool aims to attract long-term founders focused on BNB-based innovations across Trading, RWA, AI, DeSci, DeFi, Payments, and Wallets, using the high-performance, low-cost infrastructure of BNB Chain.
To facilitate this, YZi Labs announced that starting October 2025, the Most Valuable Builder (MVB), BNB Chain’s flagship accelerator, will operate under YZi Labs’ EASY Residency as a dedicated track for BNB builders.
$500K Per Team: How YZi Labs’ $1B Fund Will Support BNB Chain Projects
This initiative grants builders and projects access to up to $500,000 in funding and direct connections with the YZi Labs and BNB Chain core teams, alongside YZi Labs’ global network of investors, mentors, partners, and a 460 million+ user ecosystem.
Ella Zhang, Head of YZi Labs, stated that through the $1 billion BNB Builder Fund, “YZi Labs is committed to supporting BNB builders across sectors such as DeFi, AI, RWA, DeSci, and more, those building the next generation of open systems that connect technology back to human progress.“
Since launching in 2018 as Binance Labs before its recent rebrand to YZi Labs, the venture firm has invested in over 270 early-stage projects, prioritizing those with solid fundamentals in Web3, AI, and biotech.
Source: CryptorankThe team has backed projects in the BNB ecosystem, including PancakeSwap, ListaDAO, and Aspecta (from the MVB program).
Notable recent investments include funding rounds in Ethena Labs, over $530 million in StablecoinX, an investment in Plume Network in the RWA sector, a seed round in the viral Aster DEX in the DeFi sector, and a popular biotech project, Bio Protocol.
YZi Labs’ portfolio spans over 25 countries across six continents, with more than 65 portfolio companies having gone through incubation programs and delivering over 270% in ROI post-launch.
Notably, the MVB Track announcement comes as the BNB Chain reaches new milestones, recording 26 million daily transactions, ranking #1 in DEX trading with over $6 billion in volume, and daily active users exceeding 2.5 million, surpassing every other blockchain.
This performance has propelled BNB to become the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, surpassing XRP to reach over $180 billion, with BNB hitting new all-time highs above $1,330 on October 7.
Binance Chain Tops DEX Trading Volume As “BNB Season” Memecoin Frenzy Reaches Record Highs
Since BNB token hit fresh highs this week, meme coins tied to Binance’s brand and its charismatic ex-founder have surged in tandem.
CZ himself acknowledged the trend on X, posting “BNB meme szn!” in response to the explosive price action.
Tokens like 4, Paul (PALU), and Binance Life have seen triple- and quadruple-digit gains, with a combined $335 million in trading volume recorded in 24 hours, according to DEXScreener.
A crypto trader even pulled off one of the year’s most impressive wins, turning $3,500 into $7.9 million in just three days by trading Binance Life (币安人生) meme coin on BNB Chain.
Another trader turned a $120,000 position into $1.4 million, a return exceeding 2,000%.
Bubblemaps data shows that the BNB memecoin season is catching fire with over 100,000 on-chain traders who bought into new memecoins currently in profit.
This represents 70% of all traders, a rarity in memecoin and degen trading activities.
Compared to Solana, where more than 95% of traders are in loss, meme trading on BNB is now posting similar volume to the 2021 bull run season and shows no signs of slowing down.
Similarly, the Maxwell Hardfork in May further improved network performance, cutting block times to 0.75 seconds and lowering transaction fees to 0.05 Gwei, which attracted a large inflow of users and builders to the BNB ecosystem.
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