YZi Labs, the investment arm tied to Binance co-founders Changpeng Zhao and Yi He, has made an investment in BitGo as the crypto custodian began trading publicly on the New York Stock Exchange.
According to the official announcement, the investment aligns with the firm’s thesis that infrastructure-level bets will be pivotal as global capital increasingly interfaces with blockchain networks.
Though the size of the investment was not disclosed, YZi Labs joined the IPO as a strategic institutional investor, supporting BitGo as it began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BTGO.
“BitGo has maintained a hack-free security record for over a decade, a testament to the technical foundation,” said Ella Zhang, head of YZi Labs, in a Jan. 23 statement.
Per Zhang, institutional-grade platforms like BitGo represent a meaningful “competitive advantage” in an industry maturing under stricter oversight.
BitGo’s NYSE debut
BitGo, founded in 2013, serves over 5,100 institutional clients across more than 100 countries and currently safeguards around $82 billion in assets.
Its suite of offerings includes crypto custody, staking, wallet infrastructure, and settlement services.
The company’s public debut marked the first crypto IPO of 2026. After marketing its shares between $15 and $17 apiece, BitGo ultimately priced at $18, raising approximately $212.8 million and securing a valuation north of $2 billion.
Shares initially spiked as high as $24.50, up 36%, before retreating to end the session with a modest 2.7% gain.
In after-hours trading, the stock hovered near its listing price.
The offering came after BitGo received conditional approval last year for a US banking charter, alongside Circle and Ripple.
The charter would allow it to operate as a regulated trust bank.
YZi Labs’ multi-sector approach
YZi Labs joins a roster of major BitGo backers that includes Goldman Sachs, Galaxy Digital, Valor Equity Partners, Craft Ventures, DRW, and Redpoint Ventures.
But while many of these investors focus narrowly on financial infrastructure, YZi Labs has been positioning itself across a larger spectrum of frontier technologies.
Originally launched as Binance Labs, the firm now operates as an independent global fund managing over $10 billion in assets across more than 300 projects in 25 countries.
Its portfolio stretches beyond crypto to include ventures in AI, biotech, robotics, and digital cultural preservation.
Last year, YZi Labs backed Funes, a platform building a 3D digital archive of architectural heritage using high-fidelity scanning and advanced rendering tools.
Other portfolio companies include LayerZero, an interoperability protocol supporting cross-chain applications, and ZetaChain, which focuses on unified smart contracts.
YZi Labs was also an early supporter of SpaceID, a decentralised domain protocol, and Twelve Labs, a visual AI firm working on multimodal search.
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