Renowned family office YZi Labs has invested tens of millions of dollars in the decentralized trading platform Genius Trading, with Binance co-founder CZ serving as an advisor. Is the on-chain version of Binance about to be born?
(Background: How to trade US stocks with 100x leverage on Perp DEX?)
(Additional context: As the crypto market enters a bear phase, let’s see what major Perp DEXs are up to lately.)

Table of Contents

• One-stop on-chain trading platform
• Focus on privacy
• Fundraising background and team overview

According to The Block, YZi Labs, the family office founded by Binance CEO Zhao Changpeng, has completed a “multi-8-figure” investment in the decentralized trading platform Genius Trading. Zhao Changpeng (CZ) himself has also joined Genius as an advisor.

One-stop on-chain trading platform

Genius Trading claims to be a unified trading terminal that, through self-custodied cross-chain technology, allows users to trade across more than 10 blockchains including BNB Chain, Solana, Ethereum, Avalanche, and Sui, without needing to bridge assets or switch wallets, nor exposing trading strategies publicly. The platform covers spot, perpetual contracts, and copy trading, aiming to become the on-chain version of Binance.

Genius co-founder and COO Ryan Myher stated: “If we were to rebuild Binance today, we wouldn’t choose a centralized exchange, but rather build it on-chain. Genius is our realization of this idea: a single terminal, fully self-custodied, and uncompromising.”

Focus on privacy

Notably, Genius’s technical blueprint places special emphasis on privacy layer design. Users can split large transactions into “hundreds of wallets” to reduce traceability, while still completing transactions on-chain, avoiding reliance on zero-knowledge proofs or off-chain components, thus reducing execution latency. Genius plans to launch a public beta in Q2 2026.

Co-founder and CEO Armaan Kalsi believes that privacy features are a crucial factor for the maturity of on-chain finance:

“Speculative activities do help attract users quickly, but once users understand the underlying technology, they will want to use it long-term. Privacy becomes the key to retaining these users.”

Fundraising background and team overview

Before YZi Labs’s investment, Genius had raised a total of $7 million, including a $6 million Series A in 2024 and a $1 million extension round. Major investors include CMCC, Balaji Srinivasan, Anthony Scaramucci, and Flow Traders.

Genius was built by Shuttle Labs, founded in 2022, with the core team still studying at Yale University at the time. The team initially focused on blockchain data readability and browsing tools, later evolving into a full trading platform, continuously developed by the same core team. The team is headquartered in New York City and currently has 11 members worldwide, with plans to hire an additional 2 to 4 staff soon.