Who funds them, what they fund and how to apply.
An $80 million equity-first ecosystem fund managed by Draper Dragon for high-growth companies building on or integrating with Cardano. It focuses on real-world assets, institutional DeFi, and links between Cardano and Bitcoin, with the Cardano Foundation serving as constitutional administrator rather than fund manager.
A $20M ecosystem grant program for builders on Pharos Network (RWA tokenization, decentralized payments, DeFi, tooling/infrastructure), applied for at pharos.xyz/ecosystem; run alongside a separate $10M RealFi/RWA incubator (Builder Base Camp, with HackQuest).
PL Genesis is Protocol Labs' global builder series: hackathons surface promising projects in decentralized infrastructure, AI, and internet primitives, top teams can move into the Founders Forge accelerator, and the wider Protocol Labs ecosystem supports long-term founders. Across two completed seasons it counts 4,300+ builders, 744+ projects submitted, and $400k+ distributed in prizes; listed seasons include the Modular Worlds global hackathon (Summer 2025) and Frontiers of Collaboration (Spring 2026).
Polkadot Treasury Proposals accepts rolling community-governed funding requests from its network treasury for projects that benefit the Polkadot ecosystem. Any DOT holder can submit a proposal at any time. There is no fixed funding cap or deadline. Full details and submission process are available at the Polkadot wiki.
$25k/week rewards + Builder fees, 10+ active grants
Community funding platform on NEAR for public-goods and impact projects, running discovery listings and periodic quadratic-style community funding rounds.
Project Catalyst is Cardano's community-driven, on-chain innovation funding process; the Cardano Foundation has adjusted its strategy across rounds, most recently limiting voting power and increasing focus on community-led governance in round F14.
Ethereum Foundation program embedding strategic advisors with a small set of prior grantees for 12 months of sustainability planning and execution. The two-year objective is to help critical open-source teams diversify funding and reduce dependency on a single grant source.
$3M fund backing EVM-compatible app builders via Builder Grants ($3K-$5K) and Growth Grants (up to $10K); rolling, global.
Retro Funding Mission rewarding developer tooling that has already delivered measurable impact to the Optimism Collective and Superchain ecosystem, distributing up to 8M OP in H1 2025. Builders join via rolling application windows with metrics-driven evaluation; the Season 8 Measurement Period 11 results list 26 rewarded projects.
Retro Funding Mission rewarding onchain applications that have already delivered measurable, provable impact to the Optimism Collective and Superchain, with demonstrated significant adoption. Builders join via rolling application windows and rewards in OP are computed with metrics-driven evaluation; the Season 8 Measurement Period 11 results list 123 rewarded projects.
https://vote.zknation.io/dao/proposal/19993014537746296636853362219247192671631735482612670856590540039176244970638 [TPP-8] ZKsync Community Activation Pilot Program (2025–2026 ) allocates a total of 13.6M ZK (approximately USD $680,000 at $0.05 per token) to an RFP Pool that aims to support in-p...
A Grants Management Committee framework for smaller contributions across the Rocket Pool ecosystem. It provides a lower-cost route for recognizing completed or scoped work while the committee operates under tighter treasury constraints.
The Solana Foundation Grants program funds projects that generate public goods for the Solana ecosystem via milestone-based traditional grants, convertible grants (which convert to investment on hitting milestones), and RFPs, across DeFi, DePIN, games, NFTs, and core open-source infrastructure. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis (review ~1 week, decision ~3 weeks).
Solana Foundation funding for teams building fully onchain perpetuals, derivatives, and related trading infrastructure on Solana. The Foundation prioritizes Solana-first teams, real onchain price discovery, open-source work, and applications whose revenue is structurally routed back to the network; standard grant applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.
Solana Mobile Builder Grants offers rolling funding for developers building apps, tools, and Saga Seeker-integrated products on the Solana Mobile ecosystem. The program provides grants, technical guidance, and marketing support to help selected teams launch on the dApp Store. It operates through two tracks: open Builder Grants and targeted RFPs. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis with no fixed deadline.
The Stacks Endowment's active early-stage track supports pre-product-market-fit teams with concepts or prototypes. The program site lists Getting Started Grants as active, names Q2 grantees, and says Q3 grants open in August 2026.
Later-stage grants from the Starknet Foundation of up to $1M for traction-stage projects on Starknet, alongside gas sponsorships, accelerator support, and follow-on investor introductions.
Status describes whether a program is running. Application methods are recorded separately. Read the funder’s terms before applying.