A new report shows Binance’s $1B Industry Recovery Initiative (IRI) fund, a project to support the crypto industry during the FTX collapse, may not have been as effective as anticipated as the exchange has still not disclosed projects funded by the initiative.
After announcing the IRI in November 2022, Binance spent $15 million in its BUSD (BUSD) stablecoins out of its total commitments of $1 billion in BUSD, Bloomberg reported on October 10.
Subsequently, Binance returned the remaining $985 million of the pledged BUSD to its corporate treasury, intending to invest it. In March, Binance converted these BUSD funds into Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, citing rising regulatory concerns surrounding stablecoins.
In addition to Binance, the IRI had received $100 million in contributions from 18 organizations, including Animoca Brands, Aptos Labs, Jump Crypto, Polygon Ventures, and others, by the end of February 2023.
Three months after its launch, the IRI funded fourteen initiatives, Binance claimed, without disclosing the names of the receiving companies. The only publicly disclosed expense from Binance’s $1 billion IRI commitment was the acquisition of the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Gopax, announced in early February.
Bloomberg’s wallet data indicates that the IRI has invested less than $30 million since its inception a year ago. Only DWF Labs and Aptos, sponsored by Binance, had spent at least a portion of the committed funds out of the nine named participants.
It is still being determined whether the IRI supports cryptocurrency initiatives, given that its Google Docs application form remains active.
The IRI’s significant capital commitments relative to its actual contributions occur during a funding scramble in the cryptocurrency industry.
Messari, a blockchain analytics firm, reported on October 5 that the quarterly quantity of cryptocurrency-related venture funding has decreased by up to 70% since Q3 2022.
According to the report, crypto venture capital volumes in the third quarter of 2023 amounted to roughly $2 billion, down from the all-time peak of $17 billion in the first quarter of 2021.
