Former Binance Execs Create $100M Fund to Spur Crypto Adoption in Emerging Markets: Report

A group of former executives of cryptocurrency exchange Binance have created a $100 million venture fund with a focus on the metaverse and bringing greater crypto adoption to emerging markets, Tech Crunch reported on Thursday.

• Old Fashion Research was formed by Ling Zhang and Wayne Fu, previously Binance’s vice president of M&A and head of corporate development respectively.
• The fund, which was backed by traditional venture capital funds, family offices and angel investors, will focus on the metaverse and crypto adoption in emerging markets like Latin America and Africa.
• “We are very Southern Hemisphere-focused,” Zhang said. “We’ll go after all of the emerging markets, but it’s our goal and vision to accelerate adoption there.”
• The fund has already invested in over 50 blockchain projects, including a blockchain analytics platform Nansen, trading platform WOO Network and African gaming community Metaverse Magna.
• Old Fashion Research was not available for comment at the time of writing.
• Despite the troubling conditions that have set in in the crypto markets in recent weeks and months, venture capital does not appear to have been overly spooked. This week Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) formed its fourth fund to invest in crypto companies worth $4.5 billion, more than double the size of its third raised nearly a year ago.

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