The funding was intended as the first step towards a future IPO, which Binance still claims is on the cards. Notably, Brooks lost out on the Coinbase IPO when he left to join the OCC. When he took on the OCC role in April 2020, he received $4.6 million for canceling his Coinbase options contract. Just a year later, the stock owned by Paul Grewal, his Coinbase replacement, was worth $300 million when Coinbase was listed.
Squid, which marketed itself as a "play-to-earn cryptocurrency", had seen its price soar in recent days - surging by thousands of per cent.

Binance has recently attracted regulator attention around the world. While Binance.US is a separate legal entity from the main Binance platform, it is 90% owned by Changpeng Zhao, who started and controls Binance.com, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. The NYT said it was regulatory attention in the U.S. over money laundering and tax issues combined with the common ownership that concerned potential investors. GreatPoint Ventures confirmed to the NYT it considered investing and declined.
In the U.S., Binance has been the subject of an investigation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which is probing whether the platform allowed users to trade derivatives, Bloomberg reported in March, citing sources familiar with the matter. The CFTC investigation is directed at Binance, even though Americans must use Binance.US instead. And in May, the Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service commenced money laundering investigations related to the company.