Alliance DAO is a crypto-native accelerator and founder community based in the United States. It was founded in 2020 by Imran Khan and Qiao Wang with the goal of supporting early-stage web3 startups through capital, mentorship, and peer networks. The program operates in cohorts – similar in structure to Y Combinator – accepting teams at the pre-seed or seed stage, taking equity, and running an intensive program over several weeks.
The organization describes itself as a community first and an accelerator second. Founders who go through the program gain access to a network of over 1,000 alumni, advisors, and investors. Alliance does not publicly disclose its total assets under management. With 23 known portfolio companies and 9 lead investments on record, it is selective by accelerator standards, prioritizing depth of support over deal volume.
Alliance has backed projects across decentralized finance, NFT infrastructure, gaming, and wallets. Its geographic focus is global, though the team and most operations are US-based. The accelerator has been particularly active in backing Ethereum and Solana ecosystem projects.
Notable investments
- dYdX – decentralized perpetuals exchange; one of the highest-volume DeFi trading venues
- Phantom – self-custody wallet for Solana and Ethereum
- Magic Eden – NFT marketplace that expanded from Solana to Bitcoin and Ethereum
- Blur – NFT marketplace and lending protocol, dominant on Ethereum by volume in 2023
- Goldfinch – DeFi credit protocol focused on real-world lending
The portfolio skews toward consumer-facing products and trading infrastructure. Aggregate retail ROI across tracked portfolio tokens stands at approximately 1.19x, reflecting the mixed performance of crypto tokens at public market stages – several projects delivered strong early returns, while others declined with the broader market in 2022–2023.
Team
Imran Khan is a co-founder with a background in product and growth roles across several crypto startups before Alliance. Qiao Wang is a co-founder known in the crypto research community; he previously worked as a quantitative trader and built a significant audience through published research and commentary on DeFi markets. Both are active in the founder community and involved in portfolio support beyond writing checks. Public information about other partners or investment staff beyond the two co-founders is limited.
Recent activity
Alliance continued running cohort programs through 2024 and into 2025, with applications open on a rolling basis. The accelerator has stayed active during the market recovery cycle, with reported interest in projects building on Bitcoin Layer 2 networks, AI-adjacent crypto infrastructure, and onchain consumer applications. No major fund raises or structural changes have been publicly announced in the past 12–18 months.
For authoritative background, see Alliance DAO on Crunchbase and the official Alliance website.
Alliance occupies a distinctive position in the early-stage crypto market. It is neither a pure venture fund nor a traditional accelerator – the community model gives it reach beyond what capital alone provides. For founders building consumer crypto products or DeFi protocols, the peer network and alumni base remain the clearest draw. Whether the 1.19x aggregate retail return improves depends on how current cohort projects perform as markets mature.
