Binance Labs Grants $45,000 to Three Open-Source Projects

Binance Labs, the investment arm of major cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has granted $45,000 to three different projects. The news was announced in a blog post on Friday, April 12.

Per the post, Binance Labs has contributed $15,000 to each of its first three open-source Fellowship projects. The first project is Ironbelly, an open-source mobile wallet for the Grin blockchain that aims to enable customers to hold and transfer Grin cryptocurrency between people.

The second project that received funding is privacy-preserving messaging protocol HOPR. The product reportedly intends to provide privacy by sending messages through several relay nodes to the recipient.

The last project is upgradeable on-chain wallet Kitsune Wallet. As described by its developers Kitsune Wallet is “a smart contract-based account that will hold your crypto assets in a single contract (address) while being able to change appearance depending on your need.”

The Binance Labs Fellowship will reportedly onboard all three projects as the first “Fellows,” with further guidance and resources provided by the Binance Labs network. Flora Sun, Director at Binance Labs, said:

“We have seen firsthand how innovation depends on an engaged community of developers and entrepreneurs who imagine ideas and create new projects to bring products to market. The more talent an industry attracts to the space, the higher chance that it will be successful and Binance Labs hopes to further enable the overwhelming talent and builders of our industry.”

Last month, the government of Argentina agreed to co-invest in blockchain projects that are backed by Binance Labs and Latin American crypto exchange LatamEx. The country’s Ministry of Production committed to match investments of up to $50,000 in each project and will fund up to 10 blockchain projects each year over a four-year term.

Binance Labs released its first batch of blockchain projects from its Incubation Program last December. Following a try-out tour with over 500 applicants, Binance Labs selected only eight projects, each of which received $500,000 in seed funding and access to necessary resources and mentors.