PANews reported on September 24th that Binance co-founder CZ (Changpeng Zhao) stated in a statement that YZi Labs has not sought any external investment and has not had any contact or discussions with external investors. Earlier media reports, citing YZi Labs head Ella Zhang, suggested that the organization would open up to external funding . CZ denied this and emphasized that YZi Labs has been operating independently since its rebranding.

Ella Zhang later clarified that raising funds for a portfolio company does not necessarily mean raising funds from LPs. She also claimed that the Financial Times article misrepresented public documents and US laws.