As part of the investment, Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who recently took an active role in YZi Labs following its rebranding from Binance Labs, has joined Vana as an advisor, YZi Labs announced on Monday.

“This is a strategic investment closed in January 2025,” said Vana co-founder Anna Kazlauskas in a statement to The Block. “YZi Labs is the sole investor. There are no other investors in this round.”

Kazlauskas declined to provide details on the structure of the funding round or the post-investment valuation.

The investment comes shortly after Vana launched its mainnet and token in December 2024. Currently, the VANA token is trading at around $6.25, marking an 82% decline since its launch, according to The Block’s VANA price page. VANA has a market capitalization of approximately $192 million, with a fully diluted valuation of $747 million.

Beyond YZi Labs, Vana‘s previous high-profile investors include Paradigm, Coinbase Ventures, and Polychain Capital, having previously raised $25 million in funding rounds.

What is Vana?

Vana is a San Francisco-based crypto-AI startup founded in 2021 by Anna Kazlauskas and Arthur “Art” Abal. The two met at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a shared goal of accelerating AI while enabling broader user participation in new digital economies.

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Focusing on data ownership, Vana’s Layer 1 blockchain allows users to pool their data into “Data DAOs,” earn rewards, and retain ownership of AI models built from their contributions.

“Data DAOs are central to the Vana protocol’s vision of user-owned AI,” said Kazlauskas. “These entities put groups of users in direct control of their data, aggregating data around specific use cases that can then be monetized to organizations for AI model training.”

With this new funding, Vana plans to expand its DataDAO ecosystem, help launch data tokens for over 16 DataDAOs, attract more data contributors, onboard additional DataDAOs, and extend data financialization beyond crypto into industries such as finance, social media, healthcare, and mobility.

YZi Labs’ AI Focus

This marks YZi Labs‘ first AI investment since its rebranding last month. Before the rebrand, the firm had backed several crypto-AI projects, including Sahara AI and MyShell.

A YZi Labs spokesperson told The Block that the firm’s focus has now expanded beyond Web3 to include AI and biotech. While continuing to explore opportunities at the intersection of these fields, YZi Labs is also open to investing in standalone AI and biotech projects to “capture the full spectrum of innovation.”

Meanwhile, Vana is just one of several projects CZ is actively involved with. According to the spokesperson, CZ is advising multiple YZi Labs portfolio companies and remains open to collaborating with early-stage founders.

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Investment Strategy and Focus

Through its venture capital division, Tether plans to commit at least $1 billion into deals over the next 12 months, Ardoino said in an interview with Bloomberg released on June 11.

The CEO claims that Tether has a 15-person, growing staff that reviews hundreds of pitches monthly. Over the previous two years, Tether’s VC arm has already spent around $2 billion on tech, including artificial intelligence and alternative finance infrastructure.

Tether has already committed more than $1 billion to artificial intelligence, supporting Northern Data Group, a data center operator with a $610 million debt financing facility in 2023. “We can provide all the businesses in which we have invested in artificial intelligence computing,” Ardoino added, noting the importance of disintermediation from conventional finance.

Financial Performance and Investment Approach

Ardoino’s comments on Tether’s VC aspirations follow Tether’s first-quarter 2024 net profit of $4.52 billion. Operating profits added another $1 billion; most profits, $3.52 billion, came from the firm’s financial gains on Bitcoin and gold.

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“You could imagine that the news of Tether’s profitable business traveled the globe,” said Ardoino. Despite the numerous deals available, Tether selects a small percentage for investment. Tether does not mandate businesses to meet specific profitability targets over the next one to two years following funding. “We only invest in projects we find very fascinating,” he stated.

Tether’s Expanding Ventures

Tether runs the largest traded cryptocurrency and stablecoin available on the market. The company restructured in April 2024 into multiple divisions, including Tether Data, Tether Finance, Tether Power, Tether Edu, Tether Evo, and more.

Apart from AI investments, Tether has been progressively active in Bitcoin mining, investing $150 million in Jihan Wu’s crypto mining company Bitdeer in May.

Ardoino’s vision for Tether includes a strong focus on technology that facilitates disintermediation from traditional finance, emphasizing the importance of independence from major tech firms like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft.

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