Btrust Developer Grants
BtrustBitcoinAlways open
Monthly BTC pay for Global South developers on open-source Bitcoin: six-month starter grants or renewable one-year grants.
Time left to apply
Anytime
Rolling: reviewed as applications arrive
Apply to Btrust Developer Grants
Applications go through btrust.homerun.co. Expect a decision in about 10 weeks.
Grant stats
- Grant size
- Undisclosed
- Largest grant
- Not published
- Paid in
- BTC, monthly
- Payout
- One payment
- Funding model
- Rolling
- Apply any time. Reviewed as applications arrive.
- Typical decision
- 10 weeks
- From submission to an answer
- Round budget
- 2025: about $0.8M to developers
- Ecosystem
- Bitcoin
Checked Oct 1 against 10 sources. Confirm amounts and dates on btrust.tech before you apply.
About Btrust Developer Grants
Btrust was set up in 2021 with a 500 BTC donation from Jack Dorsey and Jay-Z to grow the number of Bitcoin open-source developers in Africa and the wider Global South. Its developer grants pay you monthly in BTC to work full-time on open-source Bitcoin projects such as Bitcoin Core, LDK, BDK, rust-bitcoin and Stratum V2.
There are two tracks. The Starter Grant gives newer contributors six months of full-time funding, mentoring and help writing a proposal for longer-term support. The Btrust Open-Source Cohort (long-term grants) contracts experienced contributors for a year, renewable for a second, and adds a mentor, a manager, daily team standups, hardware stipends and travel support.
Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis and recipients are announced every quarter. Btrust does not publish grant amounts. In 2025 it awarded more than $2 million in grants, with 39.7% going directly to developers, and 18 grantees contributed to 15 open-source projects.
Funded before
- plebhash (Stratum V2)
- Rita Anene (LDK Node)
- Leonardo Souza (BDK)
What they fund
- Bitcoin protocol and Bitcoin Core development and review
- Lightning and other layer-two work, such as LDK Node and LDK Server
- Wallet libraries and developer tooling, such as BDK and rust-bitcoin
- Mining infrastructure, such as Stratum V2 and Braidpool
- Security and privacy work, such as ecash wallets
Who can apply
Tick what applies to you. Saved on this device only.
How applying works
- 1
Choose a track
Apply for the six-month Starter Grant if you are new to Bitcoin open source, or the Open-Source Cohort if you already contribute steadily.
- 2
Apply on Homerun
Submit the form for your track; the cohort form asks for a proposal PDF with deliverables, timelines and three references.
- 3
Rolling review
Btrust reviews applications as they arrive and checks your contributions and references.
- 4
Quarterly announcement
New recipients are announced each quarter, for example the Q3 2026 cohort on Sep 23, 2026.
- 5
Work and get paid
You work full-time on your chosen project, are paid monthly in BTC, and get mentoring and peer support.
Similar programs
More in InfrastructureFAQ
- When does Btrust Developer Grants close?
- Btrust Developer Grants has no deadline. Applications are reviewed as they arrive, so you can apply whenever your proposal is ready.
- How much can I get?
- The program doesn't publish a range; amounts are set per proposal.
- How long until I hear back?
- About 10 weeks from submission to a decision, going by the program's own process or past rounds.
- Where do I apply?
- On the official site, btrust.homerun.co. web3grant links there directly and never takes applications itself.
Sources
Checked on Oct 1 against these pages. Programs change often, so confirm the details on btrust.tech before you apply.
- btrust.tech
- btrust.tech/grants
- btrust.tech/grants/developer
- btrust.homerun.co/starter-grants/en
- btrust.homerun.co/open-source-cohort/en/apply
- blog.btrust.tech/rss
- blog.btrust.tech/announcing-q3-2026-btrust-developer-grant-recipients
- blog.btrust.tech/expanding-btrusts-long-term-developer-grants-across-the-global-majority
- blog.btrust.tech/how-bitcoin-developers-can-get-funding-for-open-source-work
- blog.btrust.tech/btrust-2025-year-in-review