Huobi Group, one of the largest blockchain companies in the world, announced earlier this week that it would launch Huobi Ventures, a new subsidiary that will focus on Huobi’s investment portfolio in the blockchain space. With a $100 million portfolio, the Chinese subsidiary group will look to invest in early-stage blockchain and decentralized finance (DeFi) projects over three year periods. 

This initiative will be led by Huobi Group’s CFO Lily Zhang, with Huobi Ventures consolidating past investment funds Huobi Eco Fund, Huobi Capital, and Huobi DeFi labs into one investment portfolio. 

“While we’ve made significant progress in our investments already, the formation of Huobi Ventures is a more concerted effort to accelerate our growth at a pivotal point for Huobi,” said Zhang. 

“We have had separate teams focus on different investment strategies, but by bringing everyone together under a single entity, we can create a more cohesive strategy and continue to invest in and support the most innovative projects that are shaping the blockchain and DeFi spaces.”

With investments across “hundreds of projects” in the blockchain and stablecoin space,  Huobi has invested over $69 million to date — its portfolio balance reaching approximately $215 million. 

Some of Huobi’s investments include Ampleforth, Terra, Oasis Network, and Optimism, among others. Most notably, DeFi protocol Terra, which specializes in combining the price stability of fiat currencies with Bitcoin for efficient transactions, saw its governance token reach an impressive $6 billion in market capitalization.

Huobi Set to Venture into NFT Space with $10 Million

On top of its “flagship” $100 million fund focusing on venture capital and mergers & acquisitions, Huobi Ventures will also create a $10 million non-fungible token (NFT) fund. Despite the recent slowdown in the NFT space, many investors remain keen on tapping into the potential of major marketplaces such as NBA Top Shot, Opensea, and Rarible. Despite its focus in NFT projects, the fund is also open to investing directly into collectibles. 

“NFTs are the future of art and collectibles, but they’re also giving creators like musicians and artists a new way to engage with fans and introducing blockchain to the mainstream audience. While NFTs have already become a growing part of the internet culture, what we’ll see in the market today is only a fraction of what’s actually possible with NFTs. As an immutable way to prove authenticity and ownership of digital files, we’ll see an increased usage across gaming, media, enterprise, and more in the near future.”

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