CZ makes a comeback! YZi Labs invests hundreds of millions to build an on-chain Binance with Genius Trading

CZ and He Yi’s YZi Labs have invested tens of millions of dollars into Genius Trading, with CZ serving as an advisor. Genius Trading integrates 10 blockchains to offer spot, perpetual, and copy trading, aiming to become an on-chain Binance. The beta test trading volume has reached 60 million USD, with users being large whales trading hundreds of thousands per month. The privacy layer will disperse large transactions across hundreds of wallets, with a test version expected in Q2 2026.

CZ’s Advisory Role and YZi Labs’ Strategic Bet

Founded by Binance co-founder Zhao Changpeng (CZ) and He Yi, the family office YZi Labs (spun off from Binance Labs) has made a “tens of millions of dollars” investment in Genius Trading, with CZ also joining as an advisor. According to Armaan Kalsi, co-founder and CEO of Genius, YZi Labs invested last month in Genius in a “huge” deal far exceeding 10 million USD. He declined to disclose the specific size or structure of the investment, such as equity, tokens, or both.

CZ’s involvement as an advisor to Genius Trading is highly symbolic. As the founder of Binance, CZ has deep insights into the operation, risk management, and user needs of centralized exchanges. His addition not only provides strategic guidance but also brings resources and networks from the Binance ecosystem. YZi Labs, as a family office spun off from Binance Labs, represents CZ’s latest judgment on industry trends through its investment decisions.

Before securing YZi Labs’ investment, Genius had already accumulated 7 million USD in funding, including a 6 million USD Series A in 2024 and an additional 1 million USD. This round was led by CMCC (China State Construction Engineering), with participation from Balaji Srinivasan, Anthony Scaramucci, Flow Traders, and other investors. The investor lineup includes both traditional finance figures like Scaramucci and crypto-native investors like Balaji Srinivasan, indicating that Genius’s vision has attracted diverse capital.

Key Data on YZi Labs’ Investment in Genius Trading

Investment Size: Tens of millions of USD, well above the 10 million USD threshold

CZ’s Role: Joined as an advisor, providing strategic guidance and Binance ecosystem resources

Previous Funding: Total of 7 million USD, led by CMCC, with Balaji and others participating

Investment Completion: December 2025, during a rising period for privacy DeFi narratives

Valuation: Specifics, structure, and valuation are undisclosed, indicating strategic sensitivity

Genius was developed by Shuttle Labs, founded in 2022, with the core team still attending Yale University at the time. This background is highly unique: a project starting from a university dorm has now received a multi-million dollar investment from Binance’s founder. Kalsi states that Genius is headquartered in New York City, with a globally distributed team of 11 employees, planning cautious hiring, with potential additions of two to four team members soon.

Building a Chain-On Alternative to Binance

Genius Trading is creating a privacy-focused decentralized trading platform that offers spot, perpetual futures, and copy trading through a self-hosted cross-chain terminal, aiming to be an on-chain alternative to Binance. Ryan Myher, co-founder and COO of Genius Trading, said: “If you were to rebuild Binance today, you wouldn’t build it as a centralized exchange—you’d build it on-chain. Genius is our interpretation of that model: a single terminal, fully custodial, and uncompromising.”

Genius positions itself as a unified trading terminal, allowing users to access liquidity across more than 10 blockchains, including BNB Chain, Solana, Ethereum, Hyperliquid, Base, Avalanche, and Sui, without bridging assets, switching wallets, or publicly revealing trading strategies on-chain. This cross-chain integration is technically challenging, as each chain has different wallet standards, transaction formats, and smart contract interfaces.

Since the “beta” launch in October last year, Genius reports a trading volume exceeding 60 million USD, with users mainly being whales trading hundreds of thousands of dollars monthly. This user profile is highly targeted: retail traders may not care about privacy, but for whales managing hundreds of millions or billions of dollars, confidentiality of trading strategies is critical. When they establish large positions on-chain, if other traders discover and copy or front-run, they could suffer significant losses.

The platform employs customized multi-party computation wallets, proprietary cross-chain routing logic, and direct integration with decentralized exchanges. Kalsi states that Genius currently has no plans to launch its own blockchain, focusing instead on integration with existing blockchains and DeFi protocols. This strategy avoids reinventing the wheel and concentrates on providing the best user experience and privacy protections.

Privacy Revolution with Hundreds of Wallets Dispersed

A core part of Genius’s technical roadmap is a privacy layer designed to protect large on-chain trading strategies. Currently in testing, this system allows users to disperse large transactions across “hundreds of wallets,” reducing traceability while ensuring transactions remain on-chain. Genius says this approach avoids reliance on off-chain components or zero-knowledge systems, reducing execution latency. The public beta of this privacy protocol is planned for Q2 2026.

The working principle of this privacy tech is: when a user wants to buy a token worth 10 million USD, Genius automatically splits this order into hundreds of smaller orders executed via hundreds of different wallet addresses. To blockchain observers, this appears as hundreds of unrelated small transactions rather than a single whale’s concentrated buy. This technology both protects user trading strategies and reduces market impact.

Kalsi states that the focus on privacy reflects a long-term outlook on on-chain technology applications. He describes the “terminal war” as a fierce competition among trading platforms like Axiom, GMGN, Photon, and Padre, noting these platforms compete on customer acquisition costs and feature density. He emphasizes that while speculative activity has driven crypto user growth, as users seek to establish lasting financial activities on-chain, privacy will become increasingly important.