Binance Labs Invests in Blum, a Decentralized Crypto Exchange Founded by Former Binance Executives

Binance Labs, Binance’s venture capital and incubator investment firm, has invested in Blum, a decentralized exchange (DEX) founded by former Binance executives Gleb Kostarev and Vladimir Smerkis.

Blum offers its users access to tokens on both centralized and decentralized exchanges, while providing a simplified derivatives trading experience via Telegram.

“We are grateful to Binance Labs for their work on Blum’s transaction infrastructure and their support, which will accelerate development and help us expand into new markets. This investment is a major milestone in our mission to develop our platform in the Telegram ecosystem, providing users with a seamless experience and ease of use in traditional and decentralized finance,” said Gleb Kostarev, CEO of Blum.

Blum launched on April 19, 2024, and has joined Binance’s developer accelerator program, the Most Valuable Developer (MVB) Program. Within 24 hours of its launch, over 100,000 users signed up for Blum’s Telegram mini-app.

“Blum is the first Telegram mini-app based on ‘click-to-earn’ mechanics, complementing Binance Labs’ MVB incubation program. This is a development that shows the largest crypto exchange’s growing interest in this space. Unlike other popular ‘click-to-earn’ projects, Blum is not a game, but a new decentralized exchange that uses game mechanics to expand its audience,” said Vladimir Smerkis, Blum’s co-founder and chief marketing officer.

Blum currently operates as a gamified mini-app on Telegram, with a full release planned by the end of the year.