Original Title: "Splurging $500 Million, YZi Labs and CEA Join Forces with 140 Institutions to Bet on BNB Treasury"

Original Author: Ethan, Odaily Planet Daily

Following Bitcoin's lead as a corporate reserve asset benchmark, other mainstream cryptocurrencies are also attracting institutional attention. BNB, the native token of the world's largest exchange Binance, recently achieved another significant breakthrough in its strategic reserve mechanism.

On the evening of July 28, the U.S. publicly traded company CEA Industries Inc. (NASDAQ: VAPE) announced a joint venture with 10 X Capital to complete a massive $500 million PIPE (Private Investment in Public Equity) financing, specifically aimed at establishing a crypto asset reserve treasury centered around BNB. The transaction structure also includes up to $750 million in warrants, bringing the potential total funding size to as much as $1.25 billion.

This collaboration did not come out of nowhere. As early as July 10, YZi Labs had first disclosed its support for 10 X Capital in launching a company named 'The BNB Treasury Company,' aiming to hold BNB in the secondary market and seek listing on major U.S. exchanges. Despite the muted market response at that time, industry insiders already saw it as a carefully orchestrated 'rehearsal'.

According to the latest plan, CEA will officially kick off its BNB treasury strategy: using the funding from this round (comprising cash and crypto assets) to accumulate BNB in the secondary market. The key lies in leveraging a U.S. publicly traded company's compliance framework to provide regulated exposure to BNB for institutional and retail investors. This design logic is conceptually aligned with Strategy's (formerly MicroStrategy) Bitcoin reserve strategy—although there are differences in specific forms, the ultimate goal remains the same: achieving the 'financialization' and compliance-based holding of core crypto assets.

This also raises a new question in the market: Is BNB now witnessing its own Strategy moment?

Entry of Three Key Players: Behind-the-Scenes Driver and Executors

To understand how this BNB treasury plan went from conception to execution in three weeks, one must recognize the three key players: YZi Labs, CEA Industries, and 10 X Capital.

Coming from different fields, their combination may seem "heterogeneous," but it is precisely this cross-role integration that has allowed the project to smoothly bridge the gap between traditional finance, the crypto ecosystem, and US stock companies.

The earliest signal release came from YZi Labs. This institution, formerly known as Binance Labs, completed its brand independence in early 2025, renaming itself YZi Labs with the joint support of CZ and He Yi, focusing on cross-cycle investments in Web 3, AI, Biotech, and other directions. This institution has been frequently involved in infrastructure projects such as TON, Zora, ZKX this year, excelling in designing transparent structural solutions between regulation and capital. Different from traditional venture capital, YZi Labs is more like a "structured bridge": it does not directly operate assets but deeply participates in the underlying design, financing structure, and governance mechanisms of projects, helping emerging assets enter the market in a language understandable to traditional finance.

In this BNB Treasury Plan, YZi Labs was the first to drive the structural setup. On July 10, it officially announced its collaboration with 10 X Capital to establish The BNB Treasury Company, kicking off the BNB Treasury's "official" narrative.

It is worth mentioning that Ella Zhang, Chair of YZi Labs, held leadership positions since the Binance Labs era, having led the Binance's first-generation incubator program and deep involvement in investments in multiple leading projects. Although the institution now operates independently, its historical background and resource system still maintain a high level of consensus with Binance.

For this reason, in the context where Binance itself finds it difficult to directly promote BNB's financialization in the US stock market due to compliance considerations, YZi Labs has become the most suitable "advocate" and "structural agent" — It is not Binance, but it understands Binance and can open up a traditional market-friendly path for BNB.

The entity truly responsible for treasury implementation is CEA Industries. This Nasdaq-listed company (NASDAQ: VAPE) originally focused on indoor agricultural equipment, with its business not venturing out. However, reviewing its public announcement history reveals that CEA has explored "capital transformation" in recent years through PIPE, asset swaps, and executive changes. In this round of the BNB Treasury strategy, it is the latest attempt by CEA to complete a strategic shift using "on-chain assets in a listed platform holding." In other words, it has become the "financial container" carrying BNB.

The formation of this entity was facilitated by the structural design firm 10 X Capital. Founded by finance veteran Hans Thomas, this investment bank specializes in PIPE, SPAC, and De-SPAC transactions, actively participating in the compliant structuring of Web 3 assets in recent years. In this project, 10 X not only orchestrated the PIPE framework and warrant mechanism but also deeply engaged in team building: Galaxy Digital co-founder David Namdar appointed as CEO, former CalPERS CIO Russell Read as CIO, and former Kraken executive Saad Naja also joining as a board member.

With strategic capital allocation, a well-established corporate governance structure, and asset narratives from the Web 3 ecosystem—all combined—transformed the BNB Treasury Plan from a concept into an "auditable, tradable, and transmissible" financial interface.

With 140 Investors Onboard, the "Institutional Anchoring" Logic of BNB is Taking Shape

If the Treasury mechanism represents structural innovation, then the capital participation lineup in this PIPE round has directly injected market significance into its narrative.

As disclosed, the $500 million financing attracted over 140 institutional investors, including cryptocurrency-native funds, family offices, traditional financial players, and even several individual capital representatives. This breadth of subscription is highly unusual in recent Web 3 funding cases. More importantly, it is anchored not in BTC or ETH but in BNB, which has always operated in the gray area of U.S. regulation.

The subscription list is quite representative: Pantera Capital, Arrington Capital, Arche, GSR, dao 5, Kenetic, Protocol Ventures, Hypersphere, Blockchain.com... almost covering half of the cryptocurrency primary market; individual capital players such as BitFury founder, Polychain founder Olaf Carlson-Wee, former SoftBank executive Rajeev Misra also prominently featured; traditional financial contributors mostly participated through structured funds or family trusts.

Of particular note, this PIPE round also included a warrant subscription mechanism of up to $750 million. Investors not only allocated their current positions but also bet on the value unlocking potential in the next 12-24 months. This type of structural design may be gradually exercised at a future valuation stage, further enhancing BNB's "financial pricing model."

From a capital structure perspective, this is a typical "structured long-term bullish" scheme. BNB may not wait for an ETF, but the PIPE treasury is becoming a new avenue for it to reach Wall Street.

Why is capital willing to bet on the BNB treasury? After BTC and ETH, the capital market urgently needs to find the "next class of anchor assets." BNB's user base, on-chain applications, trading volume, NFT and blockchain game activity still lead the pack in the L1 network,

In June of this year, the U.S. publicly listed company Nano Labs Ltd (NA) announced that it has signed a convertible bond subscription agreement (hereinafter referred to as the "Agreement"). Under the Agreement, the company will issue $5 billion in principal amount of convertible promissory notes ("Notes"), subscribed to by multiple investors. The first phase plan is to purchase $1 billion worth of BNB through convertible bonds and private placement; the long-term goal is to hold 5% to 10% of the total circulating supply of BNB. Nano Labs Founder Kong Jianping stated in a post that they have already purchased 120,000 BNB and are still continuing to buy.

In July, the U.S. publicly listed company Windtree (WINT) announced that it has signed a $60 million securities purchase agreement with Build and Build Corp, with future subscriptions potentially receiving up to $140 million in total revenue, and a total subscription amount of $200 million. The proceeds from this fundraising will be mainly used to implement the BNB treasury strategy and acquire BNB. Windtree also expects to become the first Nasdaq-listed company to provide direct exposure to BNB token investments.

Conclusion: BNB's financial narrative officially enters the third stage

This is not the first time BNB has attempted to enter the U.S. capital market.

During Binance's global expansion in 2021, BNB once carried the market's expectations as a "third-pole asset." However, the rapid changes in the regulatory environment quickly marginalized it in the North American market, even becoming a direct subject of SEC scrutiny. The lack of recognition from the "U.S. valuation system" has kept its price logic outside the mainstream financial framework in the long term.

A turning point occurred this year, and BNB's U.S. stock narrative finally landed. This breakthrough reveals a key trend: the financial narrative power of crypto assets is transitioning from Bitcoin's monopoly to diversification. The ensuing question is: will more L1 projects (such as Solana, TON, Sui) follow suit? Do they have similar "containerization" potential?

While the answer remains unknown, the financialization of BNB has clearly entered a new stage: it is no longer just an exchange platform token and a BNB Chain ecosystem token, but has established a new position in the global financial system through reshaping valuation models, accounting frameworks, and regulatory disclosures. This may not be the climax, but it is undoubtedly an important prologue.

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