Binance announced the launch of its Market Recovery Initiative (IRI) following the collapse of the FTX exchange and pledged to invest $1 billion to help struggling cryptocurrency projects with liquidity problems. However, new information suggests that the program needs to catch up to its projected deployment, with less than $30 million used to date, as reported by Bloomberg.
Several cryptocurrency firms, such as Jump Crypto, DWP Labs, Animoca Brands, Aptos Labs, GSR, Kronos Research, Booker Group, and Polygon Labs, collectively contributed $70 million to the IRI. This was in addition to Binance’s original $1 billion financing of the BUSD stablecoin. However, only one of the nine participants, Aptos Labs, followed through completely on their commitments.
Despite their emphasis on transparency, Binance has been cagey about the details of the IRI funding they got for 14 separate initiatives. Specifically, Binance redirected $985 million of the promised money back to its corporate treasury for other expenditures, reducing the IRI’s available capital to a negligible amount.
Binance’s IRI made a public investment of $15 million into the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange GOPAX. A delay in the acquisition procedure has left this agreement dependent on the approval of South Korea’s financial regulator.
While Aptos Labs went above and beyond its $5 million IRI promise and DWF Labs deployed $2 million of its $15 million commitment, the remaining participants failed to deploy cash or remained unknown.
When asked about the limited deployment, Binance Labs’ business strategy lead Dana Hou said that they did not identify many projects that would meet Binance’s criteria, and that that was the same for the other investors.
According to an unidentified source, crypto market maker GSR reviewed sixty applications but found none that fit their plan. The remaining individuals did not wish to comment or did not return our calls.
A Binance representative commented, “As of February 2023, the Industry Recovery Fund (IRI) got backing from 18 companies that committed $1.1 billion and sponsored 14 projects. Although fewer enterprises need our assistance now that cryptocurrency values are back up to pre-FTX levels, we remain dedicated to the industry.”
The representative added that declining IRI application submissions indicated an improving business climate. In preparation for potential purchases, Binance intends to keep cash available but will retain it in corporate wallets rather than the IRI wallet.
The cryptocurrency industry continues to confront investment hurdles in 2023, despite Binance’s lofty goals with the IRI, many organizations, Binance included, are undergoing significant shrinkage.
