DeFi Alliance Becomes ‘Alliance DAO’ After $50M Raise From 300 Web 3 Leaders

A top crypto accelerator is DAOifying itself to the tune of $50 million.

DeFi Alliance, the incubator of platforms ranging from Sushi to Olympus DAO, rebranded itself as “Alliance DAO” Thursday. A who’s who of crypto investors, executives, non-fungible token (NFT) bulls – and also Jake Paul – backed the self-styled “digital startup nation.”

Some 300 contributors provided the funding, according to project founder Imran Khan, ranging from Libra co-creator Morgan Beller to OpenSea’s Devin Finzer.

What the new moniker means for the newly minted decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) is somewhat TBD. Alliance said it will “start to take shape” in the months ahead with governance documents and explanations of “what services it will provide.” Membership details are also forthcoming.

Originally launched as the Chicago DeFi Alliance in March 2020, the consortium of high-powered Windy City trading firms sought to foster projects servicing the then-nascent decentralized finance (DeFi) scene, which at the time held a paltry $500 million or so, according to DeFi Llama.

At press time, decentralized trading platform Sushi, a member of DeFi Alliance’s fourth accelerator cohort, held $5.46 billion across all its multi-chain integrations.

Read more: Chicago’s Trading Firms Look to DeFi With New ‘Alliance’

The alliance, which began calling itself a “Web3 Accelerator” last October, according to archive.org, will retain its ancestor’s billion-user vision for crypto. Getting there required remodeling itself in the form of a founders-focused DAO, said Khan, a crypto VC veteran.

“In order for these founders to build” the types of products that will moonshot crypto, “they need help from Web 1 founders and Web 2 founders,” he said. A smattering of all three comprise Alliance’s 300 initial contributors, he said.

Wen token?

A DAO of founders by founders, and for founders, plans to issue a coin of the realm, according to Khan. He said a liquid token could start trading in “six to 12 months” pending the regulatory scene. Only vetted individuals will have the ability to buy this token at first, he said.

That essentially limits membership in the DAO to a class of approved founders, but keeping things exclusive to the builders is kinda the point.

“Our DAO is ultimately a founders DAO for the best founders in the world that are building for Web 3,” Khan said.