Binance Labs backs Polkadot ecosystem with $2.4m investment in Plasm Network

Binance has mobilized nearly one-quarter of its Polkadot ecosystem fund to lead Plasm Network’s Series A funding round.

Binance Labs has led a $2.4 million Series A funding round for Polkadot-based smart contract platform, Plasm Network.

Plasm Network’s funding round is the first investment made using Binance Labs’ $10 million fund to support projects in the Polkadot ecosystem. Plasm is a leading parachain candidate on Polkadot supporting Ethereum and Layer-2 scaling solutions.

Binance Labs is the venture capital and incubator arm of crypto exchange giant Binance. In December 2020, Binance Labs led a $12 million funding round for MATH, a multi-chain assets hub behind MathWallet. In August of the same year it made a strategic investment in decentralized streaming protocol Audius.

According to the announcement, Binance Labs investment will enable Plasm Network to develop on-chain governance, build a bridge between the Polkadot and Ethereum networks, and accelerate research and development.

Plasm also raised money from notable crypto-notables HashKey, LongHash, Digital Finance Group, and PAKA Ventures.

Polkadot is a high-throughput blockchain network that uses a multi-chain approach to achieve greater scalability than networks built on top of a single blockchain.

Wei Zhou, head of Binance Labs, praised the network for its recent achievements, stating;

“We have been very impressed by Plasm Network’s growth since its launch. The first parachain connected to the Rococo-V1 Parachains Testnet is one of the most promising parachain candidates for Polkadot mainnet. By investing and supporting Plasm, we are demonstrating our commitment to supporting the growth and development of [the] Polkadot ecosystem.”

Plasm recently won the first Polkadot testnet parachain slot, deploying the first-ever smart contract on Polkadot’s “Rococo” testnet.

The news likely boosted Polkadot’s native token, DOT, which had just hit an all-time high of $23.90 at the time of writing after gaining 20% in 24 hours.