Changpeng “CZ” Zhao’s YZi Labs has announced a $1 billion Builder Fund to accelerate the growth of the BNB ecosystem as Binance Coin (BNB) hits new all-time highs. The decision is a confident step toward increasing innovation in DeFi, AI, and blockchain infrastructure, which has strengthened BNB’s dominance since it has surpassed both XRP and Tether to be the third-largest cryptocurrency in the world by market capitalization.

YZi Labs Fuels BNB Ecosystem with $1 Billion Builder Fund

On October 8, YZi Labs revealed the $1 billion Builder Fund aimed at supporting developers and projects within the BNB ecosystem, especially those on the BNB Chain. The fund focuses on accelerating real-world blockchain adoption through financial backing, mentorship, and ecosystem access. According to YZi Labs head Ella Zhang, this initiative signals a commitment to building the next wave of decentralized infrastructure that blends scalability, security, and on-chain innovation.

https://t.co/A81Xgj0550

— YZi Labs (@yzilabs) October 8, 2025

The program will invest in projects developing decentralized finance (DeFi), artificial intelligence (AI), real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, decentralized science (DeSci), payments, and wallets. Founders are required to join the Most Valuable Builder (MVB) accelerator under YZi Labs’ EASY Residency program this October. With this model, startups will get up to 500,000 dollars, direct integrations, and access to more than 460 million potential users in the BNB ecosystem.

YZi Labs, which was formerly Binance Labs, has already invested in a number of successful projects such as PancakeSwap, ListaDAO, Aster, and Aspecta. These investments have made the BNB Chain one of the leaders in blockchain activity. To underscore its scalability and massive adoption, the chain had registered 26 million transactions within one day in the recent past.

BNB Surges Past XRP as Investors Flock to the Ecosystem

The momentum of the BNB is growing with the token, as it has surged over XRP, Tether (USDT), and Solana (SOL), to become the third biggest in terms of market capitalization. BNB price rose to an all-time high of more than $1,330 and trades around $1,314, with the volume increasing more than 100% a day. It was significantly contributed to by the Maxwell Hard Fork upgrade in early 2021 that made the network more user-friendly, with block times taking 0.75 seconds and transaction costs being reduced to only 0.05 Gwei.

The increase is an indicator of the confidence of investors, as well as their involvement in the BNB ecosystem, on an institutional level. The 105 percent increase in the volume of trade in 24 hours indicates that the traders are even betting further on the further growth of BNB. Analysts believe that the next stage of adoption is the launch of the fund and improvements in the network, which could elevate BNB to become the foundation of Web3 innovation.

As the 1 billion Builder Fund is now underway, YZi Labs is establishing itself as the force behind the expansion of the BNB Chain. The most recent action by CZ solidifies his long-term vision of creating a blockchain economy that is much bigger than crypto trading, as BNB keeps increasing in both market value and activity in the ecosystem.