Alliance

What is Alliance?

The ALL18 Early Application Deadline is 1 Week Away. Apply at alliance.xyz

Congrats to @wormwtf (ALL15) on their new launch. Worm now lets users borrow money to invest in prediction markets.

Apply Early by May 27 at alliance.xyz to: → Receive $500K in Funding → Pitch Tier-1 VCs at Demo Day → Join the Alliance Founder Network

Early applications for Alliance's upcoming ALL18 cohort close in 10 days.

Apply Early by May 28 at alliance.xyz to: → Receive $500K in Funding → Pitch Tier-1 VCs at Demo Day → Join the Alliance Founder Network

The ALL18 Early Application Deadline is 2 Weeks Away

Seismic Testnet is live. We built it alongside 30 financial services companies, from fintech startups, to regulated institutions, to local governments.

New essay from @DangerWillRobin on distribution strategy.

Congrats to @USDai_Official (ALL7) on the launch of $CHIP. USD.AI is a synthetic dollar protocol that generates yield from GPU-backed loans.

Seeing a wave of tweets claiming crypto VCs aren’t deploying. From our side, not much has changed. Alliance runs three batches a year and backs ~75–100 teams annually. What has changed is VC behavior. A small subset of funds remain aggressive, but the majority feel more passive, taking meetings and staying warm without deploying with the same conviction as before. If I had to guess why, crypto as a VC category generated strong and obvious returns in its early and middle cycles, which drove focused attention on finding fund returners. Today, that attention has shifted to AI, which is capturing a disproportionate share of attention, outcomes, and talent. Talent begets liquidity and drives capital inflows, and I believe the talent pendulum is slowly swinging back toward crypto with the success of Hyperliquid, Polymarket, Rain, Fomo, Pump, Aave and many others. My view is that crypto has several broad narratives that make it easier for generalists to understand and invest in, such as prediction markets, stablecoins, tokenization, and fintech infrastructure. This, in my view, means crypto is being absorbed into broader tech, and many previously crypto specific funds will evolve into generalists. Both crypto and AI are becoming layers within startups rather than standalone categories, so focusing on just one may be limiting for larger funds. However, every time it feels like crypto is over, a startup emerges that returns 100x and becomes the golden child of the next cycle. This is why I continue to believe the best domain focused crypto VCs will capture the outliers and not get swayed by public sentiment.

Tobi Lütke (founder of Shopify) on product-first prioritization

Congrats to @ratio_dot_you (ALL16) on their launch. Ratio is the first social prediction market app, allowing users to copy trade, follow others, and share ideas.

@KevGCallahan @panekkkk @Uniblock 🫡

@alliance @panekkkk @Uniblock Thank you for the support 🫡

Congrats to @Uniblock (ALL11) on their $5.2m raise. Uniblock gives access to 300+ blockchains through a single, reliable API.

Whitney Wolfe Herd (founder of Bumble) on building as therapy after trauma

Congratulations to @KairosSwap (ALL15) on their $2.4M seed round. Kairos allows anyone to trade interest rates.

Congratulations to @Inflowpay (ALL14) on their launch. Inflow enables SMBs to sell globally at near-zero fees, without the need for local entities or bank accounts.

Big news for NY startups! QSBS is here to stay. From @politico: the idea now “seems to be moot” following strong, coordinated engagement from across the tech community—including a @TechNYC letter with 1,600+ founders, early employees, and investors. This is a clear example of what’s possible when the ecosystem shows up together. We’re grateful to everyone who spoke out and helped ensure policymakers understood what was at stake. New York remains the best place to build. 🗽