Binance invested $6m in Zecrey Layer 2 protocol

Binance Labs, the venture capital and incubation arm of Binance, announced it made a strategic investment in Zecrey, a scalable zero-knowledge rollup.

A stock photo featuring piles of coins on financial data.

Zecrey, the L2 scaling solution, performs transactions outside of the Layer 1 blockchain network, resulting in higher throughput and lower gas costs. It then sends a record of transactions to the main layer at regular intervals to update the blockchain, as zk-proofs ensure the validity of computation. “While providing transaction privacy, ZK-Rollup significantly reduces handling fees and improves performance,” the company says, pointing out that L2 solutions similar to Zecrey offer an effective way to solve blockchain trilemma of decentralization, security, and scalability at the same time.

Zecrey also offers an all-in-one plug-in wallet, that supports multiple chains like BNB Chain, Ethereum, Near, and Solana, and allows users to manage their assets in one wallet, with privacy enabled in one click.

“Zecrey's vision is to bring scalability, cross-chain, privacy, and assets aggregation to multi-chain networks, as well as bring convenience for current Web3 users and become an entrance for Web2 users. Now Zecrey's Layer 1 mainnet supports multi-chain networks. The next milestone is to launch Layer 2 mainnet and mobile app to facilitate a highly secure cross-chain bridge and private payment solution secured by zero-knowledge proof, along with the upcoming NFT cross-chain functionalities,” said Sher, the co-founder of Zecrey.

The funds received from Binance will be used to expand Zecrey’s team of developers, marketing and branding, and blockchain collaboration.

Bill Qian, Head of Binance Labs, welcomed the collaboration between Binance and Zecrey. “We strongly believe in the Zecrey team’s vision – providing a scalable and private multi-chain network solution for every user. Binance Labs has always been committed to supporting teams who have the potential to positively impact the crypto space, providing users better experience, and help the BNB Chain ecosystem grow,” he said.

Gwendolyn Regina, Investment Director at BNB Chain Fund, expressed her excitement about building the BNB Chain ecosystem together with Zecrey. “We will be working with the Zecrey team to develop the first zk-Rollup-based network on BNB Chain and explore more possibilities to empower the whole industry.”

On May 5, Binance posted it will support 14 early-stage crypto startups. Over 500 projects applied for Season 4 of its global Incubation Program, yet Binance selected only fourteen that “demonstrated the most potential and best fit for the program.” On April 6, Binance also announced its strategic investment in STEPN, a web3 move-to-earn app that incentivizes users with its native token for every step they take.