Launched in early 2020 as the Chicago DeFi Alliance, the group provides mentorship and funding for early stage tech teams working in the $49 billion decentralized finance (DeFi) sector. DeFi includes technologies that could one day make centralized exchanges obsolete.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in the firm’s earnings call earlier this week that providing access to DeFi apps would be a priority for Coinbase going forward.
A Coinbase rep said the partnership with the DeFi Alliance involves no investment or financial support.
To date, the crypto exchange’s venture arm has made a number of investments in DeFi startups, with Dharma being chief among them.
The DeFi Alliance is led by staffers from a number of prominent trading firms and platforms in the space, including Volt Capital’s Imran Khan, CMT Digital’s Colleen Sullivan, Compound’s Robert Leshner and Aave’s Stani Kulechov.
“Coinbase has been hugely influential in growing the adoption of crypto globally,” DeFi Alliance partner Jacob Franek told CoinDesk via email. “We share the same mission of creating an open financial system and see DeFi playing a critical role so it was natural to want to work together to educate and support DeFi startups and institutions.”
UPDATE (April 8, 23:22 UTC): Adds comment from DeFi Alliance partner Jacob Franek.