Chicago DeFi Alliance Cohort #1 Results + New Alliance Members

The Chicago DeFi Alliance launched in April with support from Volt Capital, Jump Trading, CMT Digital, and DRW / Cumberland. The alliance’s mission is to connect traditional proprietary trading firms with rising start-ups in the DeFi space to build long-term, mutually beneficial relationships.

The value prop is two-fold: traditional trading firms guide DeFi platforms on how to navigate liquidity challenges or provide liquidity themselves, and DeFi start-ups help educate traditional trading firms on technical advancements, unique opportunities, and risks associated with this new financial frontier.

Reflections on Cohort #1

Our hypothesis around initial liquidity being the largest pain point for DeFi startups was further validated when over 200 DeFi startups submitted applications to participate in the CDA. What we were pleasantly surprised to discover, however, is that there was also strong demand from institutions to participate and learn more about what DeFi is all about through the CDA. In fact, since our launch, we’ve had over 30 trading firms/market makers join the alliance.

The first CDA cohort completed their six-week program last week. The cohort included: Opyn, 0x, IDEX, DyDx, Token Sets, Synthetix, and Kyber Network.

Over the course of the program, the CDA offered a dual-track program that included both one-on-one and full cohort roundtable discussions. The first track facilitated roundtable discussions with industry leaders Jump Trading, DRW, DV Trading, CMT Digital, and many others. Our second track focused on more personal one-on-one sessions between each DeFi start-up and liquidity providers/trading firms. This allowed startups to build a relationship with trading firms along with getting more direct feedback on their product.

Results

In the spirit of transparency, after each cohort we’ll publish both quantitative and anecdotal results from the program. Now that our first cohort start-ups are actively building products in tandem with major trading firms, we hope to scale our efforts with future cohorts.

Cohort #1 Numbers:

• 20 market makers/trading firms actively engaged with Cohort #1
• 9 market makers/trading firms are providing liquidity to Cohort #1
• 11 market makers/trading firms have deployed proof of concepts as a starting point to actively trade DeFi platforms
• 70 CDA members (and growing daily) that are actively collaborating and sharing insights, including DeFi start-ups, trading firms, and service providers in the legal, tax, accounting, and audit areas

Cohort #1 Anecdotes:

“The Chicago 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.” — Felix Feng of Token Sets

“CDA 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.” — Ming Ng / Loi Luu of Kyber Network

“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.” — Alexis Gauba of Opyn

“We were honored to participate in the inaugural batch of the Chicago DeFi Alliiance. 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.” — Alex Wearn of IDEX

“Working with the Chicago 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!” — Amir Bandeali of 0x

Applications for Cohort #2 are now live. Please apply here to be considered for the August batch.

We would also like to announce new members to the CDA:

• Gauntlet
• QCP Capital
• Three Arrows Capital
• Aave
• Framework Ventures
• ParaFi
• Ledger Prime
• Jon Kol
• Manna Research
• Altonomy
• Fractal Wealth