CZ Debunk FT's Accusation That YZi Labs Is Eyeing External Investors

Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao is firing back hard at the Financial Times, blasting its claim that his $10 billion family office YZi Labs is courting outside investors.

In a fiery post on X, Zhao dismissed the report as “completely false,” accusing the outlet of pushing “made-up info and negative narratives.” The clash is the latest battle in CZ’s high-profile attempt to defend his legacy and reshape his empire beyond Binance.

According to the FT, YZi Labs—founded in January to oversee Zhao’s vast fortune—was preparing to invite outside capital once it “matured internally.” The article leaned on comments from CEO Ella Zhang, who acknowledged steady interest from would-be investors and called the responsibility of taking external money “huge.”

But CZ torched the narrative almost immediately. “As far as I know: YZi Labs is not raising external fund. There has been no demo, no requests, no discussions,” he wrote. He also stressed that YZi Labs is not a spin-off of Binance but an independent vehicle managing his wealth and that of longtime ally Yi He.

Zhao’s rebuttal didn’t stop at fundraising. He accused the FT of twisting the facts of his 2023 U.S. legal settlement, where he pled guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act. The case, he emphasized, was about failing to maintain an adequate AML program—not “money laundering violations,” as the newspaper suggested.

Adding a personal jab, CZ revealed he had declined an invitation to an FT lunch interview—an event later attended by Zhang. “It was a trap!” he posted, implying the outlet deliberately spun Zhang’s remarks into a misleading narrative about YZi Labs’ future.

Inside YZi Labs: Billion-Dollar War Chest With Bold Ambitions

YZi Labs has quickly become one of the most closely watched family offices in crypto. Rebranded from Binance Labs earlier this year, the firm operates with a 12-person team and a sweeping investment mandate covering blockchain, AI, and biotech.

Zhao casts YZi Labs as a long-term vehicle, unconcerned with short-term profits. “I’m a long-term investor who cares about impact, not returns,” he said. The message is clear: while Binance was built for trading, YZi Labs is being built for transformative bets that could outlast crypto itself.

So far, YZi Labs has wasted no time flexing its firepower. In May, it poured capital into Avalon Labs, a Bitcoin DeFi platform working on BTC-backed lending and a stablecoin dubbed USDa, with more than $500 million already in total value locked.

In August, the firm backed USD.AI, a project merging AI with on-chain infrastructure finance, offering hardware-backed credit to AI operators. It also expanded its stake in Ethena Labs, the team behind USDe, now the third-largest U.S. dollar stablecoin with over $13 billion locked.

These moves suggest YZi Labs isn’t just passively managing capital—it’s shaping the future rails of Web3 finance.

External Capital? “Not Now, Not Ever,” Says CZ

While YZi Labs briefly accepted $300 million from outsiders back in 2022—before returning much of it—CZ insists there are no plans to reopen that door. The FT speculated that welcoming U.S. investors would invite heavier regulatory scrutiny, but Zhao made clear no such scenario is in motion.

For now, YZi Labs remains firmly in-house, a fortress built around Zhao’s and Yi He’s fortune. But the stakes are bigger than one firm: as regulators circle and mainstream investors eye the sector, every move CZ makes reverberates across the global crypto landscape.