Andrew Grant
Capital markets have long tiptoed around trillions in untapped value. Now, with YZi Labs’ backing, Aspecta is laying down the rails for price discovery in the world’s most elusive assets, from locked tokens to legacy equities.
YZi Labs announced on July 10 that it has made a strategic investment in Aspecta, a blockchain infrastructure project focused on unlocking liquidity for illiquid assets like locked tokens, pre-TGE shares, and private equity.
The deal marks a new chapter in YZi’s broader thesis around on-chain transparency and early-stage asset formation. Aspecta’s core product suite, BuildKey and Aspecta ID, offers tools to standardize, attest, and price assets that typically fall outside traditional market infrastructure.
With over 650,000 users already onboarded, Aspecta has emerged as one of the most active players in the on-chain credentialing and asset discovery space.
The infrastructure behind the illiquid asset revolution
According to the announcement, YZi Labs first crossed paths with Aspecta during BNB Chain’s MVB Season 7 in early 2024, when the project was still cementing its reputation as a critical layer for developer identity and credentialing.
Aspecta ID, its AI-powered attestation protocol, had already onboarded tens of thousands of GitHub-verified builders, a signal that the team understood something fundamental about trust in decentralized ecosystems.
But what caught YZi’s attention wasn’t just the traction; it was Aspecta’s pivot toward solving a far thornier problem: the complete lack of price discovery for assets locked behind vesting schedules, private rounds, or regulatory limbo.
Since then, Aspecta’s infrastructure has quietly become the backbone for a new class of asset markets. Its BuildKey framework, which wraps illiquid holdings into tradable ERC-20-like instruments, has facilitated over 50 million trades across 25+ digital assets, proof that demand exists, even for traditionally frozen capital.
YZi Labs said the fresh investment will fuel two immediate priorities for Aspecta. First, deeper integrations with institutional partners, particularly those bridging real-world assets and private equities onto chains. Second, scaling BuildKey’s liquidity mechanisms to handle more complex assets, from pre-TGE startup equity to obscure OTC derivatives.
“We believe transparent, on-chain infrastructure for illiquid assets will be fundamental to the next chapter of blockchain adoption,” said Alex Odagiu, Investment Director at YZi Labs. “Aspecta’s vision for permissionless price discovery and lifecycle liquidity aligns with our belief that open, inclusive markets can drive innovation and accessibility.”
For YZi, the move reflects a broader strategic bet on the next evolution of blockchain infrastructure: one that doesn’t just tokenize assets, but contextualizes them. In a sector still prone to sudden unlock events and illiquid surprises, bringing transparency to the formation and valuation of non-standard assets is a structural pivot that could redefine the industry in many ways.
