YZi Labs, the venture capital firm established by Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, is intensifying its focus on prediction markets. This strategic move comes as one of its portfolio companies, Predict.fun, experiences an unusual surge in trading volumes.
CZ officially announced on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday the launch of Predict.fun, a new prediction market platform operating on the BNB Chain, and welcomed it as a YZi-backed venture. He highlighted that funds used for predictions on the platform do not remain idle but actively generate yield. CZ clarified that his tweet did not constitute an endorsement.
This announcement followed closely behind a period where Opinion, another prediction market supported by YZi, briefly surpassed the trading volumes of major industry players like Kalshi and Polymarket.
Understanding Opinion and Its Rapid Growth
Opinion is a decentralized prediction market platform developed by Opinion Labs, a Hong Kong-based entity founded in 2023 by Forrest Liu. Tracxn.com data indicates the company's establishment date and founder.
In 2024, Opinion Labs announced its first O.LAB Prediction Closed Beta Tradathon, noting its backing from YZi Labs, which was then recognized as Binance Labs.
By March 2025, Opinion Labs successfully raised $5 million in seed funding. The round was led by YZi and included participation from other notable investors such as Echo, Animoca Ventures, Manifold Trading, and Amber Group.
The platform officially launched exclusively on the BNB Chain in October. Following the launch, CZ confirmed that YZi Labs holds a minority stake in Opinion. He reportedly stated that while YZi is a minority investor, the firm aims to provide strategic value to the platform.
Opinion's Record-Breaking Trading Volume Weeks After Launch
Opinion had been a relatively less prominent prediction market until a recent surge in its trading activity, which saw it overtake established competitors like Kalshi and Polymarket.
Data compiled by Dunedata on Dune Analytics reveals that just four weeks after its launch, Opinion's weekly trading volume reached nearly $1.5 billion. This figure compares to $1.2 billion for Kalshi and approximately $1 billion for Polymarket during the same period.
With $1.5 billion in weekly volume, Opinion captured 40% of the total $3.7 billion prediction market share, setting a new record that surpassed previous peaks, including Polymarket's volume during the US presidential elections in November 2024.
Some market observers have described Opinion's rapid volume increase as unusual. Cais Manai, co-founder of TEN Protocol, commented that Opinion's volume surge is extreme by typical prediction market standards. He suggested that such rapid growth from modest activity to leading numbers often indicates significant underlying support, rather than purely organic user adoption. Manai further observed that a considerable portion of current prediction market volume appears to be inflated, driven by engineered activity rather than a sudden influx of new users.
"When you zoom in, the pattern looks more like engineered activity than a sudden mass onboarding... A lot of the volume across prediction markets right now is inflated. Everyone sees it, even if nobody wants to say it outright."
Prediction Markets Reach $13 Billion Record Amidst Binance's Absence
This development occurs during a period of significant growth for prediction markets, which achieved a new trading volume high in November, despite a general downturn in broader crypto markets. Dunedata reports that the cumulative trading volume across prediction markets exceeded $13 billion in November.
On Wednesday, sports merchandise company Fanatics launched Fanatics Markets, its own prediction market platform, making it accessible in 24 US states, including California, Texas, Florida, and Washington.
This trend has encouraged major crypto platforms to enter the prediction market sector. Coinbase, a prominent US cryptocurrency exchange, launched a new prediction market site backed by Kalshi in mid-November. In October, MetaMask integrated with Polymarket, allowing users to trade predictions directly from its self-custodial wallet.
Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, has not yet announced any plans to enter the prediction market space. This comes even as CZ-owned Trust Wallet recently introduced "Predictions," a new feature designed to consolidate various prediction markets, initially including Myriad and planning to integrate Kalshi and Polymarket in the future.
Cointelegraph sought comment from Binance regarding their future plans for prediction markets but had not received a response by the time of publication.