Quick Breakdown:
- aPriori raised $20M led by Pantera and HashKey to expand its onchain high-frequency trading infrastructure.
- The platform targets DeFi inefficiencies, including MEV leakage, wide spreads, and toxic order flow.
- Institutional interest in DeFi is growing, with tokenized private credit yielding 9.76% APR and major players like JPMorgan backing blockchain-aligned strategies.
Pantera, HashKey Among Backers in Latest Funding Round
San Francisco–based Web3 startup aPriori has raised $20 million in fresh capital to expand its trading infrastructure platform, designed to bring high-frequency trading (HFT) into decentralized finance (DeFi). The round attracted leading investors including Pantera Capital, HashKey Capital, Primitive Ventures, IMC Trading, and Gate Labs, pushing the company’s total funding to $30 million according to the August 28 press release.
aPriori is excited to announce a $20M fundraise, bringing our total funding to $30M.
We’re building the intelligent order flow coordination layer so traders, liquidity providers, and validators win together.
Thank you to our investors and community. pic.twitter.com/s1Ur1irMQl
— aPriori ⌘ (@apr_labs) August 28, 2025
Founded in 2023 by former quant traders and engineers with experience at Coinbase, Jump Trading, and Citadel Securities, aPriori is aiming to deliver institutional-grade trading infrastructure that can handle the technical and market inefficiencies that currently limit onchain markets.
Tackling MEV and Market Inefficiencies
The company’s platform seeks to address several persistent challenges in DeFi, including wide bid-ask spreads, miner extractable value (MEV) leakage, and toxic order flow. In traditional markets, toxic order flow refers to trades that expose liquidity providers to adverse selection risk, often resulting in higher costs and lower efficiency.
By adapting proven HFT techniques to decentralized markets, aPriori hopes to create a more efficient, liquid, and transparent trading environment that can attract larger institutions.
Rising Demand for Onchain Trading Infrastructure
aPriori’s raise comes amid a broader wave of investment in onchain market infrastructure. Earlier this year, Theo secured $20 million from backers including Citadel, Jane Street, and JPMorgan to explore HFT and market-making strategies onchain. Flying Tulip, a new on-chain trading platform built on the Sonic (S) layer-1 blockchain, recently opened its first public fundraising round, targeting U.S.-based investment funds.
Institutional appetite is being fueled by regulatory tailwinds, blockchain efficiency benefits, and yield opportunities in DeFi. Data from RWA.xyz shows that tokenized private credit markets are currently generating an average annual yield of 9.76%, significantly higher than traditional money markets. This subsector of tokenization has grown into a $15.6 billion market, representing more than half of all tokenized onchain activity.
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