BNB Chain betting on Web3 games

Welcome back to Chain Reaction, a podcast dedicated to the stories, behind the scenes, and breaking news from the biggest names in cryptocurrency.

For this week’s episode, I interviewed Gwendolyn Regina, Chief Investment Officer at Tier 1 blockchain BNB Chain. Prior to her current position, Regina worked at Facebook, or as some now call it Meta, where they started a new business unit for peer-to-peer partnerships.venture capital fueled the growth of start-ups. She is also the founder of several companies and a member of the founding team of a fledgling technology investment company, Thymos Capital.

As Chief Investment Officer, Regina analyzes new projects, talks to developers and leads the BNB Network’s funding program, which selects up to 10 projects per month to help them grow in the network.

Launched in September 2020, BNB Chain was originally launched by Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume.

Since then, BNB Chain has strived to be a separate, decentralized, community entity from Binance, targeting three audiences: retail markets, builders and developers, and connecting Web2.0 businesses to Web3, Regina said. “We are here, number one, to grow blockchain and grow the pie.”

While the past year has been tough for the crypto markets, BNB’s investment strategy is focused on the long term and not primarily influenced by day-to-day market events, Regina explains.

“Our investment thesis doesn’t change, but it changes too,” Regina joked. “We all know that blockchain and cryptocurrency are moving incredibly fast, so we are more accurate in certain areas, but overall nothing has changed.”

In short, we are on the path of the bear market and the “minibulls” “in a phase where everyone is building,” according to Regina. “And we want to enable more features in the BNB chain.”

Web3 games on the BNB chain have also “grown organically through resilience and cheaper rates,” but the blockchain team is now “double-crossing” on this sector to encourage more players and developers to play and build on their chain Regina added. Of the 1 million daily active users, about 40% are gamers, he said.

“Our GameFi infrastructure has always been relatively strong, but with things moving so fast, we’re really trying to find a one-stop shop for GameFi infrastructure,” said Regina. “Going back to our investment thesis, when we look at the different themes, we always wonder what’s missing now and more importantly, […] You have to think about what will be important six months from now.”

For Regina and the BNB investment team, investing is “more than financial capital; there are really a lot of incentives for growth”, among other things.

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