Theo, a provider of onchain trading infrastructure, recently secured a $20 million funding round from 17 investors to enhance its institutional-grade trading platform targeted at retail investors. The investment was co-led by Hack VC and Anthos Capital, with additional participation from Manifold Trading, Miranda Ventures, Flowdesk, MEXC, and Amber Group. Noteworthy angel investors in the deal included Citadel, Jane Street, IMC, and JPMorgan. Founded by former quant traders, Theo offers retail investors access to sophisticated strategies like high-frequency trading and market making, typically used by professional trading firms. The company’s infrastructure supports centralized exchanges and decentralized financing protocols and currently secures nearly $29 million in total value locked. Theo is part of a broader trend in blockchain protocols seeking to bridge the gap between institutional finance and retail investors, alongside companies like Polygon, Fireblocks, Ondo Finance, Lido, and BloFin. Institutional involvement in digital assets is on the rise, driven by factors such as the launch of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, the tokenization of real-world assets, onchain lending, and the popularity of stablecoins. Moody’s notes that blockchain-based secondary markets can streamline investing by removing inefficiencies and lowering barriers to asset ownership. The majority of institutional investors plan to increase their crypto allocations this year, with three-quarters potentially becoming active DeFi users within two years, according to a survey conducted by Coinbase and EY-Parthenon.