Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, aka CZ’s industry initiative, which said to allocate $1 billion for crypto market recovery, has deployed less than $30 million since its launch.
The Industry Recovery Initiative (IRI) was announced in November 2022 during the aftermath of FTX collapse which brought a major liquidity crisis into the crypto industry.
However, according to a Bloomberg article, the initiative has only released $30 million into the market since its inception last year.
While announcing, Binance reportedly allocated approximately $1 billion and a number of other prominent firms – including Jump Crypto, DWF Labs, Animoca Brands, Aptos Labs, and others – added a total of $70 million combined.
The initiative was not formed like a fund instead the participant companies would directly help the needy projects either via buying stake or acquiring completely. Binance said that a total of 18 companies participated in this initiative while it only published 9.
However, only Aptos Labs has utilized the funds wholly while Binance spent the highest $15 million but it’s so tiny compared to what the exchange allocated, said the report. Binance’s only disclosed investment is $15 million in purchasing a stake in the GOPAX exchange under the initiative.
Jump Crypto, which was the second largest fund allocator in the initiative, has not made any investments so far. DWF, on the other hand, spent approximately $2 million from its $15 million allocation.
A spokesperson from Binance said that a total of 14 projects were financed under the initiative, without providing further details regarding project names or amounts. The spokesperson further said that Binance has withdrawn the remaining $985 million of funds from the initiative back to its corporate treasury, which it will use for investments.
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