Changpeng Zhao expects the bets YZi Labs made over the past few months to become its best performers. The Binance founder credits the timing, because the firm invested while crypto prices sat near their lows.
His optimism is directly tied to the deployment of his private billions. In fact, YZi Labs is the family office that manages his personal wealth.
Why CZ Thinks His Firms Timing Works
His comment sat on top of a summary of an August 28 book club session in Hong Kong. Zhao told the audience that money rushing into artificial intelligence (AI) is filtering out short-term crypto teams.
He has also argued that AI money rotating back into digital assets is already underway.
I strongly believe the YziLabs investments over the last few months will be some of the best performing because those investments were done during the depth of the crypto winter.
— CZ ???? BNB (@cz_binance) September 4, 2026
The winter framing has support. Bitcoin had fallen 47% from its peak by early June, a slide that fueled a coldest crypto winter debate. Prices have since clawed back ground, yet they remain far under the October high.
What YZi Labs Has Backed This Year
YZi Labs runs more than $10 billion for Zhao and Binance co-founder Yi He. It grew out of Binance Labs, the exchanges former venture arm, and now invests independently. Its 2026 deals stretch well past crypto, into robotics, AI payments, and custody.
YZi Labs investments made during the 2026 crypto winter. Source: BeInCrypto
The biggest disclosed check went to robotics. YZi Labs led a $52 million round in RoboForce in March, a company building physical AI systems. It also bought into digital asset custodian BitGo before the January NYSE listing.
Smaller bets followed. In April, the firm added to its position in prediction market Predict.fun alongside Susquehanna Crypto. It then led an $8 million pre-seed round for the payments protocol AEON in May, and it backed the fixed-rate lender TermMax in August.
Zhao published no returns data, however. The claim therefore stays untested. Meanwhile, YZi Labs spent much of the year fighting for control of BNB treasury firm CEA Industries. A director resigned in March, and both sides reached a settlement in June.
Bitcoins next leg will decide whether the timing looks smart. Zhao has separately said that a $1 million bitcoin could arrive sooner than most expect. Current Bitcoin price levels leave him a long way from that mark.