Join the Accelerator
Accelerate DeFi is an eight-week, intensive program designed to give DeFi startups the resources to build, deploy, and grow their platforms. We connect founders to some of the largest traditional trading firms in the world, successful founders in DeFi, VCs, and legal/compliance experts, and help them build product, growth, and regulatory strategies.
Apply NowProgram Benefits
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Ideation
Validate product offerings and go to market strategies with seasoned mentors.
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Liquidity
Pitch your platform to world-class trading firms and to attract institutional liquidity.
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Capital
Optionally receive seed capital from us and develop ongoing fundraising strategies.
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Events
Optionally receive seed capital from us and develop ongoing fundraising strategies.
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Network
Connect with successful founders trading firms, venture capitalists, and legal/accounting experts.
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Regulation
Receive strategic guidance on current regulatory best practices while keeping growth top of mind.
Our Mentors
Imran Khan
General Partner at Volt Capital
Peter Johnson
Partner at Jump Capital
Colleen Sullivan
Partner and CEO at CMT Digital
Brian Melville
Director of Strategy at Cumberland DRW
Robert Leshner
Founder at Compound
Loi Luu
Cofounder and CEO at Kyber Network
Stani Kulechov
Founder and CEO at Aave
Kain Warwick
Founder at Synthetix
Jake Chervinsky
General Counsel at Compound
Tarun Chitra
Founder at Gauntlet
Tushar Jain
Managing Partner at Multicoin Capital
Jinglan Wang
Cofounder at Optimism
Michael Anderson
Cofounder at Framework Ventures
Anatoly Yakovenko
Cofounder at Solana
Michael Rabkin
Head of Institutional Sales at DV Chain
Founding Members







Testimonials
Loi Luu of Kyber Network
The DeFi Alliance has been incredibly helpful for Kyber in terms of understanding and connecting with top market makers in Chicago and beyond. We have set up collaborations with a number of market makers, and look forward to keeping in touch with the alliance. in addition, Imran and the CDA team have been going far and beyond in terms of coordinating all the parties involved, and we cannot be more impressed with their enthusiasm and purpose.
Amir Bandeali of 0x
Working with the DeFi Alliance has been an incredible experience. It has been an excellent venue for collaborating, ideating, and learning from some of the best and most active firms in both trading and Defi. We want to thank Imran for the huge amount of effort that went into putting a program of this quality together. 0x Labs is honored to continue our involvement going forward!
Alex Wearn of IDEX
We were honored to participate in the inaugural batch of the DeFi Alliance. Imran and team have done an impressive job assembling some of the largest and most influential trading firms, investors, and other crypto industry participants. Getting access to these firms through both the weekly group sessions and 1–1 breakouts gave us an opportunity to better understand the needs of our future customers. We’ve gained invaluable contacts that will undoubtedly help us accelerate the growth of our business.
Alexis Gauba of Opyn
The DeFi Alliance provided us a unique opportunity to connect with traditional trading firms and understand their needs and pain points. This is invaluable feedback as we build out the protocol. We’re excited to continue to be a part of the DeFi Alliance and expand DeFi adoption.
Felix Feng of Token Sets
The DeFi Alliance experience provided a wealth of context around how market-making firms think and direct connections to some of the most active trading firms in crypto. This experience has helped us create a liquidity provider outbound strategy and shaped our product roadmap to include trading firm integrations.