KuCoin Labs first announced a $50 million fund in April
KuCoin currently sits as the sixth-largest crypto exchange by volume, according to CoinMarketCap

KuCoin Labs, an investment arm of global cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin, announced the launch of a $100 million fund devoted to early-stage metaverse projects on Wednesday. The capital will also go towards blockchain-based games, non-fungible token (NFT) projects and other decentralized apps, according to the Seychelles-based company.

“The metaverse space has just started with infrastructures and underlying technologies still under development. Therefore, we’ll focus on building metaverse infrastructure and accelerating the overall ecosystem at the initial stage by supporting diversified start-up projects in the metaverse field,” Lou Yu, head of KuCoin Labs, told Blockworks.

KuCoin Labs first announced a $50 million fund in April, advertising the investment arm as an incubation program for emerging crypto projects.

Some could be wary of using KuCoin’s network following a $280 million hack on its crypto exchange last year. However, a majority of the stolen funds have since been returned.

According to Yu, the newly-launched fund should “establish a more private and secure Metaverse ecosystem.”

“We think that the security and privacy issue is one of the obstacles for its further development, and we hope to address the problem by supporting the construction of more secure and privacy-protecting Metaverse ecosystem based on Web 3.0,” Yu said.

KuCoin Labs’ portfolio consists of over 50 projects, including Ankr, MultiVAC, Arweave, CertiK, OneLedger and LUKSO. KuCoin currently sits as the sixth-largest crypto exchange by volume, according to CoinMarketCap.

“As the next chapter of the Internet, [the] metaverse is poised to change the way we work, connect, shop, entertain and have social interactions,” Johnny Lyu, CEO of KuCoin, said in a statement.

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