The Binance cryptocurrency exchange is making leaps and bounds in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector. Its latest foray is the sponsorship of a new DeFi accelerator.
The latest expansion into the DeFi space by Binance has been in partnership with an Israeli public blockchain infrastructure firm called Orbs.
The accelerator, announced on Jan. 11, focuses on supporting research and development of open-source software and community development in the DeFi sector.
It will be using the defi.org domain name in order to bootstrap startups in the emerging financial landscape.
Accelerating DeFi
The new initiative has started by scoping out projects that meet its criteria which is based on the ‘principles of fair distribution, community ownership, innovation, responsible approach to risk, sustainable economics and composability with the broader ecosystem,’ according to the blog post.
Participants will receive mentorship benefits including the opportunity for funding to the tune of ‘tens of thousands of dollars.’ These projects will also get exposure to the market and DeFi community which is likely to come from Binance.
Defi.org also promises;
“Liquidity injection opportunity for promising projects, of multi-million dollar TVL on launch.”
It added that further ‘special consideration’ will be offered if participants apply for inclusion in Binance’s seed fund for Bridging DeFi and CeFi, or receive a grant under the Orbs Grant Program.
It’s likely that the projects approved and supported will be ‘Binance centric,’ running on its own blockchain as opposed to rivals such as Ethereum or Polkadot.
Binance DeFi Offerings Expanding
In its effort to promote its own Smart Chain, Binance is constantly releasing new staking and earning incentives for new projects based upon it. It operates a system called Launchpool which takes new projects and offers short term token farming initiatives to Binance users.
The latest to be launched was called the Bitcoin Standard Hashrate Token (BTCST), a project aiming to create an efficient market for Bitcoin’s mining power by performing as a leveraged Bitcoin token free from liquidation risk.
The new token will be collateralized by 0.1 TH/s of actual Bitcoin hash power, and has been launched in three liquidity pools of BNB, BUSD, and BTC which can be deposited in order to farm BTCST for thirty days.
Binance’s native token, BNB, is currently trading down 14% from its all-time high over the weekend at $39.50 at the time of press.