Welcome again to Chain Reaction, a podcast diving deep into tales, backgrounds and newest information with the largest names in crypto.
For this week’s episode, I interviewed Gwendolyn Regina, funding director at layer-1 blockchain BNB Chain. Previous to her present position, Regina labored at Fb — or, as some name it now, Meta — constructing a brand new enterprise unit for enterprise capital partnerships and startup development. She’s additionally a founder of some totally different companies and a founding crew member for an early-stage tech funding agency, Thymos Capital.
As funding director, Regina appears at new initiatives, talks to builders and runs BNB Chain’s grant program, which picks as much as 10 initiatives a month to assist them develop on the chain.
BNB Chain was launched in September 2020 and was initially kicked off by Binance, the world’s largest crypto change by buying and selling quantity.
Since then, BNB Chain has aimed to be a decentralized, community-owned separate entity from Binance with a concentrate on three audiences: retail markets, builders and builders, and bridging Web2.0 companies to web3, Regina stated. “We’re right here to, primary, develop the blockchain and develop the pie.”
Though the previous yr has been shaky for crypto markets, BNB’s funding technique takes a long-term view and is principally not affected by day-to-day market occasions, Regina defined.
“Our funding thesis doesn’t change and but it additionally adjustments,” Regina joked. “Everyone knows blockchain and crypto transfer extremely quick, so we’re extra exact in sure areas however largely talking it has not modified.”
All in all, via the bear market and “mini bulls” alongside the way in which, “we’re in a part the place everyone seems to be constructing,” Regina stated. “And we wish to allow extra capabilities on BNB Chain.”
Web3 gaming on BNB Chain additionally has grown “organically via robustness and cheaper charges,” however the blockchain’s crew is now “doubling down” in that sector to encourage extra avid gamers and builders to play and construct on its chain, Regina added. Out of its 1 million day by day lively customers, about 40% are avid gamers, she shared.
“Our GameFi infrastructure has all the time been comparatively robust however as a result of issues evolve a lot we’re actually looking for one-stop store GameFi infrastructure,” Regina stated. “Going again to our funding thesis, after we take a look at the totally different themes, we all the time ask ourselves what’s lacking now and extra importantly […] it’s important to take into consideration what shall be essential in six months.”
For Regina and the BNB funding crew, investments are “greater than monetary capital; it’s actually quite a lot of development incentives,” amongst different parts.
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