Changpeng Zhao-backed YZi Labs has taken a strategic stake in crypto custodian BitGo as the company made its long-awaited debut on the New York Stock Exchange, underscoring a rising conviction that regulated digital asset infrastructure will sit at the core of the next phase of the crypto industry.
The investment, announced on Jan. 23, positions YZi Labs — the family office of Binance co-founders Changpeng Zhao and Yi He — as one of the prominent institutional supporters behind BitGo’s initial public offering. Financial terms were not made public, but YZi Labs framed the move as a deliberate bet on the future of compliant, institutional-grade crypto services in the United States.
Ella Zhang, head of YZi Labs, highlighted BitGo’s security track record as a key pillar of the decision. She emphasized that the firm has operated for more than ten years without a successful hack, pointing to this history as evidence of a deeply robust technical and operational foundation. According to Zhang, this kind of consistency is becoming a differentiator as more sophisticated investors and corporates enter the space.
Zhang added that as digital assets become more intertwined with traditional finance, regulated infrastructure is evolving from a “nice to have” into a core competitive edge. In her view, custodians that meet stringent U.S. regulatory standards will be crucial as institutional capital increasingly migrates to tokenized assets, on-chain settlement systems, and programmable money.
BitGo, founded in 2013, has long been regarded as one of the elder statesmen of crypto custody. The firm provides a suite of services including institutional custody, wallet infrastructure, staking, and settlement tools. Its client base now spans more than 5,100 organizations across over 100 jurisdictions, ranging from exchanges and asset managers to corporates and fintechs. BitGo reports that it currently safeguards around 82 billion dollars’ worth of digital assets on its platform.
The company’s listing on the NYSE has quickly become one of the most closely watched events in the crypto equity market, marking the first major crypto-related IPO of 2026 and signaling a tentative reopening of public markets to digital asset businesses. BitGo initially marketed its shares at 15 to 17 dollars each but ultimately priced the offering at 18 dollars per share, raising roughly 212.8 million dollars and assigning the company a valuation north of 2 billion dollars.
Market reaction was volatile from the opening bell. Trading under the ticker symbol BTGO, the stock surged as much as 36% in early action, touching an intraday peak of 24.50 dollars before retreating and giving up most of those gains by the close of the session. In after-hours trading, BTGO hovered near 18.35 dollars, only modestly above its offer price, suggesting that investors are still digesting both the company’s growth prospects and the broader regulatory and macro backdrop for the sector.
BitGo’s path to the public markets has been shaped not only by its client base and product set but also by its regulatory ambitions. The firm secured conditional approval last year for a U.S. banking charter that, once fully effective, would allow it to operate as a trust bank. That status would put BitGo in a similar regulatory category to a small but growing cohort of crypto-focused financial institutions seeking to bridge legacy banking rules with digital asset services, alongside names such as Circle and Ripple that are also pursuing or holding banking-related regulatory licenses.
The company’s investor roster reflects its position at the intersection of traditional finance and crypto-native innovation. In addition to YZi Labs, BitGo’s backers include marquee institutions and venture firms such as Goldman Sachs, Valour Equity Partners, Galaxy Digital led by Mike Novogratz, Craft Ventures, DRW, and Redpoint Ventures, among others. Their continued support through BitGo’s transition to a publicly traded company underscores the belief that custody and infrastructure will be key revenue centers in the long-term evolution of the industry.
For YZi Labs, the move into BitGo fits a broader strategy of diversification beyond pure exchange and trading businesses. Formerly known as Binance Labs, the entity now functions as the private family office investment arm of Zhao and Yi He, with a portfolio reportedly spanning more than 300 projects in over 25 countries. Its investments range from early-stage protocols and DeFi platforms to infrastructure, gaming, and now increasingly artificial intelligence.
In October of last year, YZi Labs signaled its interest in the AI–crypto convergence by leading a funding round for VideoTutor, an AI-powered video education startup. That deal hinted at a thesis focused on technologies sitting at the crossroads of digital assets, machine learning, and new forms of content delivery. The BitGo investment extends this thesis into another critical layer of the stack: secure, compliant storage and movement of digital value.
The strategic rationale from YZi Labs’ perspective appears to rest on three main pillars: regulation, institutionalization, and infrastructure defensibility. First, U.S.-regulated platforms are seen as central to unlocking major pools of capital, from pension funds and insurance companies to large corporates. Second, as the market shifts from speculative trading to real-world use cases — such as tokenized securities, stablecoin-based settlements, and on-chain treasury management — the demand for industrial-strength custody is expected to rise. Third, infrastructure providers like BitGo can benefit from strong network effects and long-term client relationships that are difficult to dislodge once established.
BitGo’s role in the institutional crypto ecosystem goes beyond simply holding private keys. The firm offers multi-signature technology, policy controls, and workflow tools designed to match the compliance requirements of regulated financial institutions. It also supports staking services for various proof-of-stake networks, enabling clients to earn yield while maintaining custody within a controlled environment. Settlement and liquidity tools further integrate BitGo into the operational backbone of exchanges, market makers, and asset managers.
For many institutional players, one of the biggest barriers to entering the digital asset market has been operational risk — from hacks and internal fraud to lost keys and unclear accountability. A decade-long hack-free record, as emphasized by Zhang, gives BitGo a narrative advantage at a time when risk committees and regulators are scrutinizing every detail of crypto operations. That history, combined with its push toward banking-style oversight, makes the custodian an attractive partner for traditional finance firms experimenting with tokenization and blockchain-based products.
The IPO also arrives at a critical moment for the broader crypto sector. After cycles of exuberance and drawdowns, investors have become more selective, favoring companies with recurring revenue, regulatory clarity, and established clients over purely speculative plays. BitGo’s listing is therefore seen by many analysts as a bellwether: if infrastructure players can successfully tap public markets and sustain valuations, it could pave the way for more crypto-native enterprises to follow.
However, the choppy first-day trading in BTGO also reflects ongoing uncertainty. Regulatory policies remain in flux across major jurisdictions, macroeconomic conditions continue to pressure risk assets, and competition in custody — from banks launching their own services to new blockchain-native challengers — is intensifying. BitGo will need to prove that its scale, regulatory progress, and technology stack can translate into durable earnings growth in a more mature, slower-growing industry environment.
From an industry-structure perspective, the combination of traditional financial investors, crypto veterans, and family offices like YZi Labs backing custodial infrastructure points to a consolidation of power around key chokepoints. Entities that control secure access, transaction flows, and compliance rails could end up occupying roles similar to clearing houses and central securities depositories in traditional markets. For startups and DeFi protocols, this may mean that integration with firms like BitGo becomes a prerequisite for accessing institutional liquidity.
There is also a geopolitical dimension to YZi Labs’ backing of a U.S.-regulated custodian. With regulatory regimes diverging across regions, global crypto players are increasingly forced to choose where to anchor their most sensitive operations. Supporting an American-regulated infrastructure provider allows YZi Labs to hedge against jurisdictional risk while still maintaining exposure to global growth. It also signals that even investors with roots in less-regulated environments view U.S. compliance frameworks as strategically important.
Looking ahead, BitGo’s performance as a public company will likely be judged on several fronts: its ability to grow assets under custody, expand its product suite, deepen relationships with large financial institutions, and successfully transition into a full trust bank. If it can deliver on those fronts, the company may help define what a mature, regulated crypto infrastructure provider looks like in practice — and validate the thesis that attracted YZi Labs and other heavyweight backers.
For investors observing the sector, the BitGo–YZi Labs partnership serves as a case study in how the digital asset narrative has shifted. The story is no longer only about tokens and price charts; it is increasingly about the pipes, vaults, and compliance engines that make large-scale adoption possible. In that context, YZi Labs’ strategic investment can be seen less as a short-term bet on a single IPO and more as a long-horizon wager on the architecture of tomorrow’s financial system.