Despite what seems like a protracted crypto winter, Changpeng Zhao, founder, and CEO of Binance Holdings Ltd stated that the world’s largest digital-asset exchange may commit more than $1 billion on acquisitions and investments this year.
Binance’s Billion-Dollar DeFi Bet
Compared to 2021, when Binance invested $140 million in 73 initiatives, this year they have already committed $325 million. That doesn’t include Elon Musk’s rescheduled acquisition of Twitter Inc., which may not be finalized until next year, and the more than $200 million that the Forbes media company may receive in funding.
In an interview with Bloomberg last week, Zhao revealed, “We did look at a lot of lenders in recent months because that’s where all the issues are.”
“Many of them, they just take a user’s money and give it to somebody else,” Zhao said, stating that there isn’t a whole lot of “intrinsic value” in such acquisitions.
“In that case, what’s to acquire? We want to see real products that people use,” he added.
While fellow crypto millionaire Sam Bankman-Fried has been labeled the “new John Pierpont Morgan” for acquiring assets from high-profile troubled lenders and brokers such as Voyager Digital Ltd., Zhao seems to have adopted a more reserved approach, focusing on sectors such as decentralized finance (Defi).
NFT market in focus
As per Zhao, Binance has also been investing in traditional payment service providers and the ecosystem for NFTs and fan tokens. Without providing details, Zhao claimed Binance has been profitable this year despite the fact that the value of most cryptocurrencies has dropped by more than 50%.
“DeFi works,” Zhao continued.
NFTs are a lot more than selling pictures of monkeys. NFT use cases have not largely been well built — NFTs for tickets, for university degrees. I think the technology will stay.
Binance to enter Gaming
Zhao also mentioned that in the subsequent months, Binance might be looking to buy minority holdings in traditional e-commerce and gaming firms.
He stated that Binance has a staff of around 30 people working on mergers and acquisitions and a whopping $7 billion fund that has been investing in acquisitions.
