Sustainable funding for open source crypto projects

The main sources compared

Each source pays differently and carries a different risk. Status is as of October 31, 2026:

Long-term and follow-on grants

The closest thing to a salary in Web3 grants is a long-term grant for an individual maintainer, and most of those in our directory are Bitcoin grants:

• Brink gives established Bitcoin protocol developers year-long grants to work full-time on open-source Bitcoin projects. Grantees commit publicly to deliverables and post regular public updates. In 2025 Brink spent $1,749,927 on eight full-time engineers and two research interns.
• Btrust Developer Grants pay Global South developers monthly in BTC, with six-month starter grants or renewable one-year grants.
• Maelstrom Bitcoin Grants pay $50,000 to $150,000 per developer for a year, monthly in BTC or stablecoins, with total grant income from all funders capped at $400,000 a year.
• OpenSats funds 3- to 12-month grants for free and open-source Bitcoin work; its Q4 2026 window is open until November 30, 2026.

Outside Bitcoin, follow-on funding usually means applying again with a new scope. Check each program's rules on repeat grants: VeBetter, for example, makes past grantees wait six months from their first disbursement before applying again, though its notice says activity is very low as of October 2026.

Retroactive and quadratic funding rounds

Retroactive funding pays for impact you have already shown, and quadratic funding matches small donations from a pool. Both reward a track record, but neither is a steady income in October 2026. Optimism Retro Funding has been paused since January 2026 for at least 12 months, FIL-RetroPGF is paused with no date for its next round, and all three quadratic funding programs in our directory are between rounds. Ronin Proof of Distribution still pays monthly, but only for games, apps and DeFi protocols with contracts on Ronin.

One steady channel remains: any project can list on Giveth and receive donations at any time, outside its matching rounds. Treat retro rewards and matches as bonuses. Our guides to retroactive public goods funding and quadratic funding explain how each works.

Treasury proposals

An on-chain treasury can fund ongoing work if token holders keep voting for it. Polkadot spends can be scheduled as several payouts over time, and the Livepeer Community Treasury mostly funds Special-Purpose Entities (SPEs) and teams with a defined scope, such as protocol R&D and network engineering.

Cardano shows what a treasury-funded maintainer program looks like. Intersect's Maintainer Retainer Program, funded from the Cardano treasury, pays recurring, performance-reviewed income to people who maintain core and community Cardano repositories. It is not in web3grant's directory because too little about it is verified, including pay levels, but its docs said applications were open when we checked on October 2, 2026.

Treasury funding is public and votes often fail. Our guide to blockchain treasury funding compares seven treasuries and the risks.

Revenue: build income into the project

The most durable funding is income the project earns itself. Some programs are built around that:

• The Aqua Revenue Stream Incubator pays up to $50,000 to build trading strategies on 1inch's Aqua, in exchange for a share of revenue to the 1inch DAO from the first dollar. Approved teams so far agreed to between 10% and 50% of a defined revenue base, with a buyout option after three years.
• The Polymarket Builders Program pays grants from a pool of more than $2.5M, plus weekly USDC rewards for the most active builders based on the order volume their apps route to Polymarket. Builders can also charge their own fees on that order flow.
• The Solana Foundation offers convertible grants for public goods with a commercial side, which turn into an investment only if the project hits set milestones such as raising a priced round.

For open-source projects without a protocol fee, common routes are a hosted version, paid support or service contracts, and paid integration work for teams that depend on your code. Check that your grant agreement and license allow it before you charge for anything.

Services, sponsorships and donations

Companies that rely on your code are the most natural sponsors, because your maintenance protects their product. Offer something concrete: priority fixes, a support channel, help integrating a new release or a public thank-you on your repository.

Donations work best where a platform already gathers them. Besides Giveth, the MAGIC Monero Fund runs fundraising pages for open-source Monero work, and Monero's CCS funds proposals through community donations in XMR. These suit projects with a visible, grateful user base.

Fellowships and stipends for individuals

If you are one developer rather than a team, a fellowship can carry you through the gap between grants:

• Brink's fellowship is a one-year, full-time program in London for engineers new to Bitcoin protocol work, paid as a salary with benefits.
• The Bitshala Fellowship pays $500 a month for six to twelve months, with mentoring, to Bitcoin open-source developers and educators in India and South-East Asia.
• The Ethereum Protocol Fellowship is a five-month program with stipends for some fellows; Cohort 7 runs until November 2026 and Cohort 8 dates have not been announced.

Our guide to Web3 fellowships covers more options.

Plan it from the first proposal

The best time to plan funding after the grant is while writing the grant. Some funders ask for it directly: the Walrus Foundation looks for a path to sustainability, such as other funding or resources, and the Canton Development Fund requires a plan for who maintains what it funds.

Add a short sustainability section to every proposal:

1. Who maintains the work after the grant, and roughly what it costs per month.
2. Which sources come next, with the programs and their timing.
3. What evidence the grant will produce for the next funder: users, integrations, dependents, reports.

Then apply for the next source before the last milestone. The median time to a decision in our directory is 4 weeks, but 14 programs take 8 weeks or more by our estimates, including Brink at about 8 weeks and OpenSats at about 13. Keep public milestone reports as you go; they are the track record retro rounds, treasuries and repeat grants all look at. Our guide on how to write a Web3 grant proposal covers the rest of the proposal, and the grant directory lists every program by model and status.

FAQ

How do open source crypto projects make money after a grant ends?

Open source crypto projects usually combine several sources after a grant ends: follow-on or long-term grants, on-chain treasury proposals, retroactive and quadratic funding rounds, protocol revenue or revenue shares, paid support and integrations, corporate sponsorships and donations. Individual maintainers can also use fellowships and stipends. Relying on any single source, especially community rounds, leaves a project exposed when that source pauses.

Can I get a second grant from the same program?

A second grant from the same program is often possible, with a new scope and evidence that the first one delivered. Rules differ: Btrust offers renewable one-year developer grants, some programs make past grantees wait before applying again, and treasuries such as Polkadot's accept new proposals at any time. Strong public milestone reports from the first grant are the best support for a second one.

Are there grants for maintaining existing open-source code?

Grants for maintaining existing open-source code do exist, though fewer than for new builds. The Polkadot OpenGov Treasury lists maintenance of open-source developer tools and SDKs among the work it funds, Brink and Btrust fund ongoing Bitcoin protocol work, and Intersect's Maintainer Retainer Program pays Cardano maintainers from the Cardano treasury. Algorand's xGov also pays maintenance costs, though its payouts were on hold in October 2026.

Is retroactive funding a reliable way to sustain an open source project?

Retroactive funding is not a reliable way to sustain an open source project as of October 2026. Optimism Retro Funding has been paused since January 2026 for at least 12 months, FIL-RetroPGF is paused with no date for its next round, and Algorand xGov's payouts wait on a treasury top-up. Retro rewards are useful as a bonus for proven impact, not as the base of a budget.