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 Binance-initiated IRI fund has only spent some 2.7% of the total of $1.1 billion committed to saving crypto in the aftermath of the FTX collapse, and has still not explained which entities benefited.
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<div class="cointelegraph">
 Binance-spearheaded Industry Recovery Initiative (IRI), a co-investment project aiming to support the cryptocurrency industry in the aftermath of the FTX collapse, may not have been as effective as desired, a new report suggests.
 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 Oct. 10.
 Binance subsequently moved the remaining $985 million of the pledged BUSD back to its corporate treasury, planning to use it for investments. In March, Binance converted these funds from BUSD to <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" title="crypto" href="https://thebittimes.com/tag/crypto.html">crypto</a>currencies like Bitcoin (BTC), citing growing regulatory concerns around stablecoins.
 Apart from Binance, the IRI had collected&nbsp;an additional $100 million in contributions from 18 organizations by the end of February 2023, including Animoca Brands, Aptos Labs, Jump Crypto, Polygon Ventures and others.
 Three months after launch, the IRI <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" title="funded" href="https://thebittimes.com/tag/funded.html">funded</a> 14 <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" title="project" href="https://thebittimes.com/tag/project.html">project</a>s, Binance claimed, without disclosing the names of the companies that received funding. The only publicly declared expense from Binance’s $1 billion IRI commitment was the exchange’s acquisition of the South Korean <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" title="crypto" href="https://thebittimes.com/tag/crypto.html">crypto</a> exchange Gopax, announced in early February.
 According to wallet data collected by Bloomberg, the IRI has invested less than $30 million since its inception last year. Among nine named participants, only DWF Labs and Binance-backed Aptos had spent at least some of the committed funds.
 Related: New book reveals Binance CEO CZ rejected SBF’s $40M request for futures exchange
 It's unclear whether the IRI is still working to support <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" title="crypto" href="https://thebittimes.com/tag/crypto.html">crypto</a>currency <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" title="project" href="https://thebittimes.com/tag/project.html">project</a>s, as its Google Docs applicant form is still active.
 Binance did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.
 <figure><img src="https://cdn.thebittimes.com/images/2023/10/10/bfeafca823834d0b870a62608fdb13db.webp">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">Transactions associated with Binance-spearheaded Industry Recovery Initiative as of Oct. 9, 2023. Source: Bloomberg
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 The IRI’s high capital commitments versus its actual contributions come as the cryptocurrency industry scrambles for funding.
 The quarterly amount of cryptocurrency-related venture funding has plummeted as much as 70% from Q3 2022, the blockchain analytics firm Messari reported on Oct. 5. According to the report, crypto VC volumes in Q3 2023 amounted to just around $2 billion, down from the all-time high $17 billion in Q1 2021.
 Magazine: Deposit risk: What do crypto exchanges really do with your money?
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Source: <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://thebittimes.com/binance-tight-lipped-on-projects-funded-by-1b-crypto-recovery-fund-tbt65759.html">https://thebittimes.com/binance-tight-lipped-on-projects-funded-by-1b-crypto-recovery-fund-tbt65759.html</a>

Binance tight-lipped on projects funded by $1B crypto recovery fund

TheBitTimes

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