What did YZi vote for in the final stage of encrypted VC?

Author:Zuo Ye Waiboshan

VC is probably dead. Web2 venture capital is unwilling to take risks and only follows the government industry guidance fund. The Web3 Seed round is very popular but not popular. VC and FA are further reversely integrated, and entrepreneurship towards Binance has become an industry consensus. All Insight and Memo are turned into Info in exchange for Yap.

From the overall perspective, more and more large VCs are beginning to enter the project to issue coins, and the second-level method is to build the dream of first-level, which is different from the early equity investment, IXO for I token issuance, and stock/coin dual models. The market is rapidly entering a mature stage, but it only needs to further sacrifice small VCs.

After CZ's comeback, it is investment-oriented, education as the slogan, and tweeting as the main body. Soha BNB Chain Meme as its main business. Binance Labs was renamed YZi Labs on January 23, making it increasingly Family Office.

The rejection of risks and the preference for investment stability are not only the later stage of investment and the mature investment, but also the increasingly light color of the project exploration. Taking YZi Labs as an example, take YZi Labs as an example to see the investment style of new money becoming older, so that you can learn in advance after you get rich.

Data source: Decentralised Co., mapping: @zuoyeweb3

Under normal conditions, the number of seed rounds should be extremely large, and the amount of subsequent rounds should be large.

However, according to the data in the past six months, compared with A/B/C, the number of seed rounds is not only not in a crushing situation, but also the amounts of both parties are very close. The disappearance of the encryption round is a reality. Those who can get small money will continue to get small money, while those who can't get the money will never get it.

Invest in AI when it is cold and quiet, and hype in Meme on the season

Whether Web2/3, AI is a little cold at the moment, but CZ feels it is not enough. I hope it can continue to cool down before taking action, leaving behind a real Buidler, only the most devout believers.

Image description: YZi Investment target, Image source: CryptoRank

However, YZi does have AI in its direction. In fact, most projects can be linked to AI, so they can be divided into "using Crypto for AI", such as Vana, Tensorplex Labs, and "using AI for Crypto", such as Plume Network, Blum and Opinion Labs.

Of course, this is just a forced classification and has no guiding significance. In the era of postpartum care for AI to bless sows, there is no need to worry about how much AI is necessary.

In chronological order, let’s evaluate the characteristics of each project one by one.

1. Opinion Labs = Kaito + Polymarket

Opinion Labs is the so-called human opinion-driven prediction market. I boldly guess that the future development direction is based on Twitter KOL's prediction and trading. You can take advantage of the InfoFi concept on the top and the enduring trading attributes on the bottom. You can take advantage of the advancement and attack and retreat or defend.

2. Plume Network = Everything is RWA

RWA is not a new concept, but Plume Network has a very legendary experience. It has received US$30 million in financing from top institutions such as Galaxy, but it actually chose Gate for IEO in January this year, and then obtained YZi's investment. The price of the currency has risen a lot.

The calm and soft figure is the style of dealing with things after polishing the currency circle. The first issuance of coins, and subsequent financing is the opportunity given by Crypto.

3. Tensorplex Labs = LSD + AI

First of all, I think decentralized AI is a pseudo-concept. Tensorplex Labs wants to use LSDfi to ensure the decentralization of LLM training and data sets. This is of no productivity significance, but when Crypto is eager to do something for AI, it is not uncommon to get money from investment institutions in the circle.

This is meaningful to the future currency price. After all, the product is the product, and the currency price is the currency price. Otherwise, ADA and XRP will be extremely ashamed.

4. Vana = AI concept coin spanning cycles

I won Polychain in 2021, Paradigm in 2022, Coinbase in 2024, and YZi Labs in 2025. I have successfully logged into Binance Launchpool.

The VC coins from the previous cycle have no reference value for current and future projects, so I can only say that I am very envious.

5. Blum = Only Seed Player + Trade

This is the most typical Binance Labs investment style, a trading-oriented DeFi product, and a rare seed rounder. The most surprising thing is that OKX and YZi jointly invested, which can be said to be the brothers who have passed the disaster and go abroad without any separation.

Please forgive me for not introducing too much about the project mechanism and token economics, because it has no meaning. What is the fundamentals of Meme, what is the difference between the community and the currency speculation group, and the role of token economics, I call it the three unsolved mysteries in the currency circle.

Welcome home aesthetics, stability overwhelms everything

YZi is typical enough, and domestic people are familiar with it, but after the wave of wealth creation on 217-21, Crypto New Money has gradually transformed into a home-based funding agency, which does not expect a high return rate and is more concerned about project stability.

Two years ago, Arthur Hayes, founder of the first-generation contract king BitMEX, established his own home office Maelstrom. The funds came from Arthur personally. Similar to CZ's recall of Ella Zhang, Maelstrom's daily operations are led by Akshat Vaidya, former BitMEX executive.

Facts have proved that Arthur Hayes can develop a sustainable contract product that is more suitable for the physical fitness of babies in the currency circle, and its investment aesthetic is unique. For example, Ethena, a stablecoin in the post-UST era, officially started the first step in the on-chain product reverse trading platform rates, and DeFi cross-generation product Pendle.

The complete story about Arthur Hayes will be published in the future. This is an OG that is more worthy of learning than Sun Che and CZ.

However, similar to YZi, Maelstrom also pursues stability, such as not investing in Meme, and investing in Meme-related tools and infrastructure, such as Time.Fun, highlighting not judging success or failure by ROI, and implementing the first place in the stable style.

However, YZi's style is far from fixed. In Binance Labs' past record, the introduction of Binance main site is an attractive barrier, but now the landlords have no surplus food. At the end of 2024, they have begun to transfer to the tokens invested in the project tokens, and Gate finally takes over it.

Unlike Arthur Hayes, who can be the spokesperson of Ethena, CZ has not yet been deeply bound to a project, and YZi has not formed its own investment aesthetic. As mentioned above, Binance Labs likes to invest in trading products very much, but in the era of huge profits in DeFi, Ethena and Pendle will only be a minority, most of which are Crypto+AI coin selling projects. The scraps of Web2 AI, the little pride of Web3 AI.

In addition to becoming increasingly out of the Binance ecosystem, YZi's true strength also needs to be tested by the market, which especially tests CZ's personal investment level. From the development of the BNB Chain Meme ecosystem after its AI has not yet cooled down and $TRUMP, I personally feel that it is not as exquisite as it guides Ben Zhou to refuse users to withdraw coins and accurately seize the OKX DEX market share.

But this may also be related to CZ really not doing trading, it is only about working on trading platforms.

Conclusion

The world of yesterday is gone forever.

Crypto venture capital has truly set sail since the IXO era, reaching its peak before the FTX collapsed (I always mention SBF, and I really changed the industry trend by myself). Now it is just a completion of the finalization process of the established investment project, able to withstand the scolding of retail investors, and strive to issue the coins.

There are no encrypted VCs in the world, and if you invest more, you will have risks.