Binance Labs, the blockchain incubator arm of the major cryptocurrency exchange Binance, announced on May 31 that it will launch a $1 billion Binance Ecosystem Fund, according a report from Sina Finance. All investments of this fund will be given in the form of BNB, a coin issued by Binance.

The news drives huge price gains for BNB over the last 24 hours.According to coinmarketcap, BNB shows a positive surge of 15% , rising to $14.41.

Ella Zhang, head of Binance Labs, stated at yesterday’s online meeting that they will select 20 partners as the fund members.Binance will provide financial support as a limited partners for these fund members, as well as share incubation projects from Binance Labs with them.

Besides,fund members will be privileged to recommend projects to Binance Labs. It’s reported that the fund is not guided by high returns on investment.

Regarding the qualification of the fund members, Ella said that applicants are required to provide proof of qualifications, fund size, team members , investment cases,among other things.

It’s noteworthy that the blockchain-based ride hailing platform, launched by Chen Weixing and Yang Jun, will be the first project incubated by Binance Labs.

So far, Binance Labs has invested in four projects, including the cryptocurrency MobileCoin, the high-performance public blockchain Oasis Labs, CertiK, a formal verification platform for smart contracts,and Republic, a blockchain financing and investment platform. And in the future, it will focus on investing in five areas: public blockchain, decentralized exchange ( DEX ), custody/payments/wallet,stable digital currency, compliant alternative trading system/security token platforms.

In addition, Binance Labs also unveiled a plan to establish a self-regulatory organization for cryptocurrency , dubbed Cryptocurrency Governance Initiatives, along with over 600 investment firms. The purpose of this autonomous body is to boycott “air coins” and scam coins which  are not back by legally registered business entities and to promote a long-term positive development of the industry.

This initiative shows Binance’s ambition to extend its business to blockchain venture investment.