Uncovering YZi Labs 229 Investment: Over 18% of the portfolio is already inactive, with an average project transparency score of 78

Author: RootData

In March 2026, Dana Hou, investment partner at YZi Labs, announced her departure. Over four years, she experienced the brand transformation of the institution and witnessed the complete cycle of the crypto VC industry from frenzy to contraction.

RootData has compiled 229 investment records from YZi Labs, resulting in 218 independent projects after deduplication, of which 154 projects have issued tokens:

• 150 projects have been listed on at least one exchange;
• 95 projects are listed on Binance;
• 22 projects have a market cap of less than $500,000;
• 20 projects have ceased operations;

This is not just Dana's story: when the platform's dividends fade, true investment judgment is the only thing that remains. At this juncture, we conduct a systematic data review of the YZi Labs investment portfolio.

Survival Rate and Transparency

Product-Market Fit Projects

From the data characteristics (high FDV + high market cap/FDV ratio + extensive exchange coverage), relatively healthy projects account for about 45% (69 projects) of the listed projects. Notable success cases include: Ethena (ENA, market cap $920 million), Aster (market cap $1.73 billion), Lombard (market cap $240 million), Pendle (market cap $210 million), Sui (market cap $3.54 billion), Celestia (market cap $290 million), Aptos (market cap $790 million), and STEPN. Most of these projects focus on DeFi infrastructure, L1/L2, rather than gaming or social tracks.

Market Cap and FDV Divergence After Listing

Significant divergence between market cap and FDV is common among projects with high FDV issuance, which is a characteristic phenomenon of this cycle in the crypto market. Among 152 projects that can be traded on exchanges, 76 projects (50%) currently have a market cap below 50% of their FDV, and 26 projects (17.1%) have a market cap/FDV below 20%.

Projects with Strategic Shifts

Considering the characteristics of the tracks, here are examples of projects that have undergone significant changes in business/product direction after receiving investment from YZi Labs:

• STEPN: Transitioned from a Move-to-Earn game to a lifestyle application platform

• MyShell: Evolved from an AI content generation tool to AI Agent infrastructure

• Open Campus (EDU): Expanded from an educational NFT platform to an educational solutions ecosystem

• Vana: Transitioned from a social data project to the foundational layer of the AI data economy

Zombie Projects

There are 22 projects that have been listed but currently have a market cap of less than $500,000 (accounting for 14.3% of listed projects), which can be considered de facto zombie projects. These include Cellula (market cap only $570), StarSharks ($36K), Pentagon Games ($17K), pSTAKE Finance ($11K), DIN ($441K), etc., all in a state of having tokens but almost no liquidity or community activity.

Projects Ceased Operations

There are 20 projects that have clearly "ceased operations," accounting for 9.2% of YZi Labs' total investment portfolio. In terms of tracks, the majority of ceased operations projects are in the gaming sector, totaling six (BinaryX, SecondLive, Gameta, Meta Apes, Tatsumeeko, Cosmic Guild), followed by DeFi (5), infrastructure (3), CeFi, SocialFi, NFT, and other tracks.

Project Transparency

In terms of project information disclosure, the average transparency score of projects invested by YZi Labs reaches 78 points, with 123 projects achieving an A grade (above 80 points), accounting for 56.4%.

Tracks and Cycles ------ Winning Rate Changes Under Bull and Bear Rhythms

Based on the bull and bear rhythm to delineate cycles, the data performance of YZi Labs is as follows:

YZi Labs tends to remain active during bear markets. The deep bear market of 2022 was actually the most active period, with 49 deals exceeding the 44 deals in the bull market of 2021. However, in terms of leading investment strategy, the leading rate during bull markets is 36%, while it shrinks to 16%-27% during bear and recovery periods, indicating that institutions are more willing to seize dominance during market heat and prefer to spread risks through co-investment networks during cooler times.

In terms of track selection, the most notable change is the decline of gaming—dropping from 10 deals during the bull market to 7 deals in 2023-2024, and then virtually disappearing by 2025; DeFi, on the other hand, continues to strengthen, becoming YZi Labs' most favored track for the first time in 2025. Infrastructure remains a foundational logic, never absent regardless of bull or bear, with projects like Sui, Aptos, and Movement falling into this category.

Additionally, 104 financing amounts remain undisclosed, accounting for 45.6% of total investments, nearly half—this is a key characteristic of YZi Labs.

In terms of time trends, the rate of undisclosed amounts has significantly increased with the cycles:

• In the early period (2018-2021), the undisclosed rate remained between 11%-35%;
• In the bear market of 2022, it surged to 57%;
• In 2024, it reached 58% again, the highest point in history.

This pattern is intriguing; during bear markets, there is a greater reluctance to disclose amounts, possibly due to sensitivity to valuations, as project parties do not want to expose difficulties in fundraising; while in the peak of the bull market in 2024, the high undisclosed rate is more about institutions actively suppressing information to prevent competitors from following suit.

In terms of round structure, undisclosed amounts are highly concentrated in two categories: rounds without clear designation (58 deals) and strategic financing (34 deals), together accounting for 88% of undisclosed amounts. Seed rounds and pre-seed rounds only account for 12 deals. This indicates that most undisclosed amounts are non-standardized financing—strategic equity, OTC, ecosystem cooperation investments, which naturally do not require external disclosure of amounts.

YZi Labs has a leading rate of only 11% in undisclosed financing, while the leading rate for disclosed projects is as high as 36%. This indicates that most undisclosed financing events are co-investments or ecosystem collaborations by YZi Labs, with relatively limited influence.

Strategic Shift ------ Can New Narratives Cross the Next Cycle

YZi Labs has long relied on the Binance ecosystem to form channel and liquidity synergies, which is an important part of its investment model. Its historical layout is highly synchronized with market cycles, amplifying returns during bull phases and facing pressure for portfolio structural adjustments during cycle switches, with an overall style leaning towards pro-cyclical allocation.

Dana's departure should be understood in the context of the industry. The overall contraction of crypto VC, the marginal changes in platform ecosystem influence, and the general strategic reassessment phase of institutions make personnel changes a normal phenomenon, not equivalent to a denial of the industry.

In terms of strategic direction, YZi Labs has begun to extend into areas such as AI and stablecoins, but overall it is still in the layout and validation stage. The key to the future lies in whether it can complete portfolio reconstruction and upgrade its research framework to achieve stable output across cycles.