ENS public goods grants ended in 2026: what changed

What did ENS public goods grants fund?

The program funded open-source work that benefits Ethereum and Web3 broadly, not only ENS. It had three sizes:

• Small grants: up to 2 ETH, streamed over 30 days. The Term 6 report says builder grants typically ran 0.25 to 2 ETH.
• Large grants: up to 50,000 USDC per reviewed milestone, for established projects.
• Strategic grants: larger grants made by stewards to core infrastructure teams such as Vyper, Argot (Solidity) and Remix, some co-funded with the Ethereum Foundation. The largest we found was $150,000 USDC to the Decentralization Research Center in 2025.

Focus areas were developer tooling and client infrastructure, smart contract languages and compilers, education and onboarding, hackathons and events, and decentralization and naming policy advocacy.

What is the ENS Foundation Grants program?

The ENS Foundation Grants program is where all future ENS grants are meant to come from, under the August 2026 executable proposal. Its scope, budget and launch date were unknown as of October 1, 2026; the proposal only says the Foundation's first annual budget is due within 60 days of adoption.

Until the Foundation publishes how to apply, there is nothing to submit. Watch the ENS DAO proposal thread and the ENS DAO newsletter on the same forum for the first budget and program details.

Is the ENS Service Provider Program an option?

Only for established teams. The ENS Service Provider Program streams funding to teams that provide services to ENS, such as protocol infrastructure, integrations and DAO tooling, and the minimum request is $200,000.

Season 3 was authorized as a one-cycle program with a budget cap of about $3.4 million. Applications ran from May 19 to June 9, 2026, and the cohort is funded through Q3 2027; a separate Marketplace RFP was awarded in August 2026. Another season needs a new DAO vote, and none had been proposed as of October 2, 2026. For a solo developer or small open-source project, this was never the right door.

Where can public goods builders apply instead?

The programs most often named as ENS alternatives are, in October 2026, mostly between rounds. Here is where each stood as of October 31, 2026:

If you relied on quadratic funding rounds, our guides to how Gitcoin Grants works and retroactive public goods funding explain what is changing.

Open now for Ethereum public goods

These programs take applications as of October 31, 2026:

• TheDAO Security FundTheDAO Security FundUp to $640K91 days
• Lido Ecosystem Grants (LEGO)Lido DAOUp to $100KAnytime
• Rocket Pool GMC grantsRocket Pool DAOFunds are tight. Round 41 declined every application, Round 40 approved 1 of 10, and nothing above $7,500 has been approved since May 2026.Undisclosed6 days
• Golem Ecosystem FundGolem FactoryUndisclosedAnytime

• TheDAO Security Fund is the closest match to ENS's strategic grants for compilers and languages. Its Round Two, open from September 15, 2026 to January 31, 2027, co-funds compilers, languages, formal verification, wallet security and incident response. Each initiative needs adoption milestones worth at least a third of its budget.
• Lido Ecosystem Grants (LEGO) fund work that benefits Lido or the broader Ethereum, proof-of-stake or DeFi space, from under $1,000 to over $100,000. Granting slowed in 2026: Q1 used 30% of the quarterly budget and Q2 less than 1%.
• Rocket Pool GMC grants Round 42 closes on November 7, 2026, but funds are tight: Round 41 declined every application.
• The Golem Ecosystem Fund accepts open-source contributions to the wider Ethereum ecosystem, though it prefers work on the Golem Network.

For more, browse public goods grants and our guide to open source maintainer funding.

FAQ

Can I still apply for an ENS builder grant?

No. The ENS builder grants portal at builder.ensgrants.xyz says applications are closed. The ENS Public Goods Working Group that ran it wound down when Term 6 ended on June 30, 2026, and the last approval shown on the portal is from June 2026. New ENS grants are planned under the ENS Foundation Grants program, which had not published an application process as of October 1, 2026.

When will the ENS Foundation Grants program open?

The ENS Foundation has not announced a launch date. The August 2026 executable proposal that moved ENS grant-making to the Foundation says only that its first annual budget is due within 60 days of the proposal's adoption. The program's scope and budget were unknown when web3grant checked on October 1, 2026, so watch the ENS DAO forum for the budget and application details.

What happened to the ENS Ecosystem Working Group grants?

The ENS Ecosystem Working Group, which ran small grants rounds at ensgrants.xyz, became a legacy group on July 1, 2026, at the same time as the Public Goods Working Group. Term 7 of the ENS DAO is Meta-Governance only, so neither working group runs grant rounds any more. Future ENS grants are planned under the ENS Foundation Grants program instead.

Do I need to build on ENS to get Ethereum public goods funding?

No. Ethereum public goods funders such as TheDAO Security Fund and the Ethereum Foundation's ESP pay for open-source work that helps Ethereum broadly, and ENS's own Public Goods Working Group funded Vyper, Solidity and Remix rather than ENS-specific tools. As of October 2026, open options include TheDAO Security Fund for security work and Lido's LEGO for work that benefits Ethereum staking and DeFi.