The Binance cryptocurrency exchange has announced a $1 billion accelerator fund to expand the capabilities of the Binance Smart Chain ecosystem and advance mainstream adoption across the financial technology sector.
The exchange showcased the eight-figure fund in a tiered development model across four specialist areas: Talent Development, Liquidity Incentive Program, Builder Program and Investment & Incubation Program. The announcement suggested that they will allocate $100M, $100M, $300M and $500M to each segment, respectively.
The largest benefactor of the pot, the investment & incubation program, will focus on multi-chain expansion of the already burgeoning areas of the technological sphere. This includes various metaverses, gaming, virtual reality and artificial intelligence.
Maverick founder of Binance, Changpeng Zhao — otherwise known as CZ on Twitter — shared a simple, yet effective perspective on the news:
A billion reasons to #buidl on #BSC https://t.co/DHeUktfj84
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) October 12, 2021
In the statement, the platform outlined high expectations for the advancement of interoperability between traditional and Web 3.0 infrastructures:
“With collaborations from industry-leading organizations, the investment fund will target scaling blockchain technology for real-life use cases and will bridge the gap between crypto-blockchain and the current technical-financial sectors.”
Related: Globe-trotting Binance looks to Ireland for ‘centralized’ headquarters
Binance Smart Chain was introduced to the market in September 2020 as a foundational launchpad to foster the development of decentralized applications, or dApps, compatible with the Ethereum blockchain through the Ethereum Virtual Machine.
Since inception, the platform has grown in stature to service in excess of 1 million daily active users across a wide range of more than 900 dApps. One of the most notable decentralized exchanges, or DEX’s, built upon BSC is PancakeSwap which currently has a total value locked, or TVL, of 9.8 billion according to data from Defistation.
Amid the insidious rise of hacks and breaches in the decentralized finance, or DeFi, space, Binance Smart Chain partnered with blockchain security firm ImmuneFi to offer bug bounties and other reward incentives to ethically-focused whitehat hackers and developers.