Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao’s family office is planning to support a new investment company that will give people a way to invest in BNB, the native token of Binance. The goal is to eventually take this company public in the U.S.
On Wednesday, YZi Labs said it will help the investment firm 10X Capital create the new company, which is currently being called the “BNB Treasury Company.” The plan is to list it on a major U.S. stock exchange.
The company will be led by David Namdar, a senior partner at 10X Capital. He’s also one of the co-founders of Galaxy Digital and used to lead its trading division.
10X Capital will manage the assets of the new company that plans to buy and hold large amounts of BNB.
New Crypto Funds Make It Easier for Wall Street to Invest
This company is part of a growing trend where firms buy big amounts of cryptocurrencies to give Wall Street investors an easier way to get into crypto.
BNB, short for Binance Coin, was created by Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange. People who hold BNB get discounts when using Binance, and the token is also used in apps and services on the BNB Chain which is a blockchain Binance launched in 2019.
“BNB Chain is one of the most popular blockchain networks. We believe giving big investors better access to it can help more people benefit from it too.”
Ella Zhang, head of YZi Labs
Zhao and Binance Control Nearly All BNB in Circulation
BNB has gone up by 1.3% in the past 24 hours and is now trading above $670, according to CoinGecko.
A Forbes report from June 2024 said that Changpeng Zhao and Binance together control almost 96% of all BNB tokens currently in circulation.
The report said Zhao owns 94 million BNB tokens, which are now worth about $63 billion. That makes up more than 64% of all BNB in circulation. Binance itself holds around 31.5%.
Even though Zhao is no longer allowed to manage Binance, due to a plea deal with the U.S. over money laundering charges, he still owns the largest share of the company.
At the end of last month, Nano Labs, a Chinese chip design company listed on Nasdaq, announced that it plans to buy up to $1 billion worth of BNB. Earlier this month, it made its first move by purchasing $50 million worth of the token.
Other companies are also joining the trend. Singapore-based Web3 firm Trident Digital and Chinese carmaker Webus have both said they plan to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in XRP and hold it as part of their long-term strategy.