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 madness to contraction.

RootData has compiled 229 investment records from YZi Labs, and after deduplication, it results in 218 independent projects, among which 154 projects have issued tokens:

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

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

Survival Rate and Transparency

Product-Market Fit Projects

From the data characteristics (high FDV + high market cap/FDV ratio + broad exchange coverage), relatively healthy projects account for about 45% (69 projects) of the launched projects. Notable successful 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), STEPN, among others. Most of these projects focus on DeFi infrastructure and L1/L2, rather than gaming or social tracks.

Market Cap and FDV Divergence After Token Launch

A significant divergence between market cap and FDV is relatively common among projects with high FDV issuance, which is also a characteristic of the current cryptocurrency market cycle. Among the 152 projects that can be traded on exchanges, 76 (50%) currently have a market cap that is below 50% of FDV, and 26 projects (17.1%) have a market cap/FDV ratio below 20%.

Projects with Strategic Shifts

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

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

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

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

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

Zombie Projects

There are 22 projects that have been launched but currently have a market cap of less than $500,000 (accounting for 14.3% of launched projects), which can be regarded as 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 nearly no liquidity or community activity.

Projects That Have Ceased Operations

There are 20 projects explicitly stated to have "ceased operations," accounting for 9.2% of YZi Labs' total investment portfolio. In terms of tracks, most ceasing projects are in the gaming sector, with a total of six (BinaryX, SecondLive, Gameta, Meta Apes, Tatsumeeko, Cosmic Guild), followed by DeFi (five), infrastructure (three), CeFi, SocialFi, NFT, and other tracks.

Project Transparency

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

Tracks and Cycles—Win 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 stay in the game during bear markets. The deep bear market of 2022 was in fact the most active period with 49 investments, surpassing the 44 investments made during the bull market of 21. However, in terms of lead investment strategies, the lead investment rate during bull markets was 36%, while it shrank to 16%-27% during bear and recovery periods, indicating that institutions prefer to seize dominance when the market is hot and are more inclined to spread risk by collaborating during cooler times.

In terms of track selection, the most notable change is the decline of gaming—dropping from 10 investments during the bull market to 7 investments in 2023-2024, and nearly disappearing by 2025; meanwhile, DeFi continues to strengthen, becoming the most favored track by YZi Labs in 2025. Infrastructure remains its foundational logic, never absent from either bull or bear markets, with projects like Sui, Aptos, and Movement belonging to this category.

Additionally, 104 investment rounds did not disclose amounts, accounting for 45.6% of total investments, nearly half—this is a key characteristic of YZi Labs.

In terms of time trends, the non-disclosure rate has significantly risen with cycles:

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

This pattern is intriguing; during bear markets, there is more reluctance to disclose amounts, possibly due to sensitivity to valuations, as project parties do not want to expose the challenges of difficult financing; in contrast, the high non-disclosure rate during the peak of the bull market in 2024 may be more about institutions actively suppressing information to prevent competitors from following suit.

Regarding the structure of rounds, non-disclosure is highly concentrated in two categories: rounds with no clear designation (58 rounds) and strategic financing (34 rounds), together accounting for 88% of the undisclosed projects. Only 12 rounds are in the seed and pre-seed stages. This indicates that non-disclosed rounds are mostly non-standardized financing—strategic stakes, OTC, ecosystem cooperation investments, which naturally do not require external disclosure of amounts.

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

Strategic Shift—Can New Narratives Cross the Next Cycle

YZi Labs relies on the Binance ecosystem to form channel and liquidity synergy advantages, which is an important part of its investment model. Its historical layout is highly synchronized with market cycles, amplifying returns in bull markets, and facing pressure for portfolio structure adjustments during cycle switches, with an overall style tilted towards pro-cyclical configurations.

Dana's departure should be understood in the context of the industry. Currently, the overall contraction of crypto VCs and marginal changes in platform ecosystem influence have led institutions to generally be in a phase of strategic reassessment; personnel changes are a normal phenomenon and do not equate 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 for the future lies in whether it can complete portfolio reconstruction and upgrade research frameworks to achieve stable output across cycles.

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