Bitcoin layer 2 grants: Stacks, Rootstock and Lightning

Stacks Endowment Grants

Stacks Endowment Grants are the main grant program for building on Stacks and sBTC, the Bitcoin-backed asset on Stacks. Each quarter opens a short application window with its own themes; the Q3 2026 themes were Bitcoin Staking and sBTC utility, distribution and integrations, and market efficiency and risk.

There are two main tracks:

• Getting Started: $2,500 to $10,000 in STX, paid in two tranches, for early founders and small teams with a prototype, technical spec, user research or real traction.
• Builder: typically $10,000 to $50,000 in STX over four milestones, for teams live on Stacks for at least six months with public metrics, no unremediated major security breaches, and KYB through the Endowment.

A separate, community-run DeGrants track funds education and culture projects of up to $5,000 in STX in cohorts.

Status: the Q3 2026 cycle ran from August 31 to September 23, 2026. The Endowment's Q3 report on October 20 named no Q4 cycle, and none was announced when we rechecked on October 29, 2026; the Endowment has $300,000 reserved for the next round. Watch the Stacks Endowment blog for the Q4 dates.

Competition is tight. The first cycle drew 325 applications and funded 18 teams; the second, narrower cycle funded 10. The Endowment asks you to check its public grants tracker first so you do not propose work it has already funded.

RootstockCollective Grants

RootstockCollective Grants fund projects on Rootstock, the EVM-compatible Bitcoin sidechain. Holders of staked RIF (stRIF) vote on each grant, and the program is open year-round.

Grants come in three tiers, paid in USDRIF:

Money is released milestone by milestone, starting with a 20% to 30% first tranche, and since September 2026 about 30% is held back until a review after the work is complete.

The process has five steps: a pre-screening and KYB form with Persona verification, a forum post with one to three weeks of community feedback, a live public AMA, an onchain proposal with 1,000 stRIF staked, and a seven-day stakers' vote. Proposals need evidence of demand and targets for onchain metrics such as TVL, transactions and active wallets. Events, conferences, hackathons, pure marketing and content-only proposals are not funded.

Who funds Lightning and other layer-two protocol work?

Open-source Bitcoin funders pay developers to work on Lightning implementations, libraries such as LDK, and other layer-two protocols. They fund people and public code, not companies or tokens. These are open as of October 31, 2026:

• Spiral GrantsSpiralUndisclosedAnytime
• Brink Grants and FellowshipBrinkUndisclosedAnytime
• Btrust Developer GrantsBtrustUndisclosedAnytime
• Vinteum GrantsVinteumUndisclosedAnytime
• OpenSats General FundOpenSatsUndisclosed29 days
• Bitshala FellowshipBitshala$3K–$6KAnytime
• Bitcoin Design Foundation GrantsBitcoin Design FoundationUndisclosedAnytime
• Bitcoin Development FundHuman Rights FoundationUndisclosedAnytime
• Maelstrom Bitcoin GrantsMaelstrom$50K–$150KAnytime

• Spiral, Block's open-source group, builds LDK and funds open-source Bitcoin software, including wallets, libraries and Lightning. There is no form or deadline: you email a detailed proposal, and Spiral publishes no grant sizes.
• Brink gives year-long, full-time grants to established Bitcoin protocol developers; its focus is the base protocol, but it also funds Lightning and other layer-two technology. In 2025 it spent $1,749,927 on eight engineers and two research interns.
• Btrust Developer Grants pay Global South developers monthly in BTC, including for Lightning and other layer-two work such as LDK Node and LDK Server. The Starter Grant asks for at least one merged, non-trivial code PR.
• Vinteum, a Bitcoin R&D center in São Paulo, funds experienced contributors on Lightning implementations and tooling; its grantees include developers on LND.
• OpenSats funds Lightning implementations, ecash and developer libraries. Its Q4 2026 window runs from October 1 to November 30, 2026, and we estimate decisions take about 13 weeks.
• Bitshala pays fellows in India and South-East Asia $500 a month with mentoring, including for Lightning and Rust Bitcoin libraries.
• Bitcoin Design Foundation funds UX work on BOLT12, silent payments and ecash for Fedimint and Cashu.

Two caveats before you apply. OpenSats does not fund altcoin projects, and HRF's Bitcoin Development Fund does not fund projects built on other cryptocurrencies, so work centered on an L2's own token is unlikely to fit these funders. And most of these programs fund individuals: a company with a product roadmap is better served by the Stacks or Rootstock programs.

Bitcoin L2 programs with no way to apply

Two Bitcoin layers, and one older Bitcoin funder, advertise grants that you cannot realistically apply to today. From our October 2026 checks:

Core's current Core Starter Program offers partner discounts, not grants. If one of these programs reopens with a working application, it can be added to the Web3 grant directory; you can also suggest a program we missed.

How to choose the right Bitcoin L2 funder

Match the funder to who you are and what you ship:

1. A team with a product on Stacks: apply to the Stacks Endowment in the next quarterly cycle, Getting Started if you are early, Builder if you have six months of public metrics.
2. A team with a product on Rootstock: prepare the KYB, forum post and AMA for RootstockCollective; the vote is public and stakers want onchain numbers.
3. An individual contributing to Lightning or LDK: apply to Spiral, Brink, Btrust or Vinteum depending on your experience and region, and to OpenSats while its window is open.
4. A designer: the Bitcoin Design Foundation funds open-source Bitcoin UX, including Lightning and ecash.

Applying to several funders at once is normal for open-source Bitcoin work. Maelstrom, for example, lets you stack its grant with others up to $400,000 a year. Our guide on how to apply for Web3 grants covers how to manage parallel applications, and the deadline calendar tracks windows such as OpenSats' quarterly cycle.

FAQ

Is Lightning development eligible for Bitcoin grants?

Yes. Lightning development is one of the most commonly funded areas in open-source Bitcoin. Brink funds Lightning and other layer-two technology, Btrust funds layer-two work such as LDK Node and LDK Server, Vinteum funds Lightning implementations and tooling, and Spiral and OpenSats both fund Lightning software. Most of these programs pay individual developers for open-source work rather than companies.

When does the Stacks Endowment Q4 2026 cycle open?

The Stacks Endowment had not announced a Q4 2026 cycle as of October 29, 2026. Its Q3 2026 cycle ran from August 31 to September 23, 2026, and the Q3 report published on October 20 named no Q4 dates. The Endowment says it has $300,000 reserved for the next round, so check its blog and grants portal for the next window.

Does RootstockCollective fund hackathons or events?

No. RootstockCollective Grants exclude events, conferences, hackathons, pure marketing and content-only proposals. The program funds projects deployed or ready to deploy on Rootstock mainnet that can show demand and set targets for onchain metrics such as TVL, transactions and active wallets. Grants run up to $35,000 in USDRIF across three tiers.

Does Hemi have a grant program?

Hemi had no grant program you could apply to when web3grant checked on October 2, 2026. The hemi.xyz homepage still links to a grants page in Hemi's docs, but that page returns "Page Not Found" and hemi.xyz/grants is a 404. Hemi's docs mention grants only in a one-line note listing incentives, with no amounts, criteria or application form.