Optimism grants in 2026: Grants Council and Retro Funding

What happened to the Optimism Grants Council?

The Grants Council was dissolved by a Token House vote that passed on July 15, 2026, after its last season closed submissions on May 20, 2026. The Token House is the group of OP token holders and their delegates who vote on Optimism governance.

From Season 3 through Season 9, the council reviewed applications for OP grants from the Governance Fund on the Token House's behalf. Each season set its own mission and success metrics, and applications were reviewed in three-week cycles of 15 business days.

Season 9 had a narrow brief. It ran from February 11 to May 20, 2026 with one goal: grow DEX liquidity and trading fees in priority collateral-borrow pairs, with priority for projects on OP Mainnet. The council funded fewer projects with larger allocations, approving 8 of 38 applications for 150,000 to 1,000,000 OP each. At about $0.09 per OP, the mid-2026 price, that is roughly $13,500 to $90,000. The season's budget was 3.89M OP.

The Foundation then proposed dissolving the council, and the vote passed. Monitoring of milestones for existing grants moved to the Foundation. You can read the dissolution proposal on the governance forum.

What is the status of Optimism Retro Funding?

Optimism Retro Funding is paused. The Foundation paused it in January 2026 and said it will not run for at least 12 months, and no Retro Funding missions will be proposed in Season 9 or Season 10.

Retro Funding paid projects after they showed impact, instead of funding plans. In 2025 it ran as two missions:

• Dev Tooling, for open-source compilers, libraries and debuggers used by Superchain builders.
• Onchain Builders, for apps deployed on OP Chains.

You registered a project once on OP Atlas and were then scored every month by open-source algorithms from Open Source Observer, using data such as dependency graphs, contract activity, gas fees and users. Rewards were paid monthly in OP.

Season 8 paid about 3.33M OP, roughly $870,000 at late-September 2026 prices. Individual rewards ranged from about $55 to $32,500, and past recipients include Foundry, Viem and Velodrome Finance. The last monthly results, for December 2025, were published on January 8, 2026.

About 777.6M OP of the Retro Funding allocation remains unspent, and the Foundation has said it may propose reallocating it. If the 12-month minimum holds, January 2027 is the earliest a restart could come, and none has been announced. Our guide to retroactive public goods funding explains how the model works on other chains.

Where does Optimism's money go now?

The Optimism Foundation says it will make only select strategic grants itself. It deploys tokens through partnership deals and its Strategic Ecosystem Fund, and neither has a public application. If you are not already talking to the Foundation, there is no form to fill in.

That leaves the Superchain's individual networks. Several OP Stack chains run their own programs, and they are the realistic options for an app that could live on more than one chain.

What can Superchain builders apply to instead?

Three programs on Superchain networks in our directory take applications on a rolling basis:

• Ink Spark grantsInk Foundation$500–$20KAnytime
• Unichain GrantsUniswap FoundationUp to $7.5KAnytime
• World OneWorld FoundationThis is an in-person residency in San Francisco for solo builders who can work in the US.$30KAnytime

Ink Spark grants pay 500 to 20,000 USDC to live products on Ink, the OP Stack layer 2 started by Kraken. Ideas on paper, testnet-only projects and marketing are unlikely to be funded. Priority goes to work built around Tydro (Ink's lending market), Nado (its perps DEX), real world asset infrastructure and AI agent infrastructure.

Unichain Grants from the Uniswap Foundation pay up to $7,500 plus product and go-to-market help to DeFi projects on Unichain with at least $250,000 in TVL, and to infrastructure partners such as routers and solvers. Payment is in USD or USDC.

World One is a three-month San Francisco residency for solo builders using World ID. It pays $10,000 a month, $30,000 in total, and you must be authorized to work in the United States.

Base has a Builder Grant Program paying up to $5,000. Base said on X around October 27, 2026 that Season 2 is live, but we found no deadline or docs page. Our guide to Base grants sets out what we verified and what we didn't.

One chain-agnostic route is also worth knowing: TheDAO Security Fund's Round Two, open until January 31, 2027, co-funds work that makes Ethereum or its L2s measurably safer. For every L2 side by side, see our comparison of layer 2 grants.

Next steps

1. Ignore opgrants.io and any listing that still shows a Grants Council deadline. Follow gov.optimism.io for news of a Retro Funding restart.
2. Keep your OP Atlas profile and open-source repositories current. Retro Funding scored projects on public data, and a record of impact is useful whatever replaces it.
3. Apply now where you qualify: Ink Spark, Unichain Grants or World One, through each program's own site.
4. Browse the full grant directory for multichain programs that fund your kind of work, and read how to apply for Web3 grants before you submit.

FAQ

Is the Optimism Grants Council still accepting applications?

No. The Optimism Grants Council took its last applications in Season 9, which closed on May 20, 2026, and Token House delegates voted to dissolve the council in a vote that ended July 15, 2026. Monitoring of existing grantees' milestones moved to the Optimism Foundation. There is no open application program replacing the Grants Council.

Will Optimism Retro Funding come back?

The Optimism Foundation paused Retro Funding in January 2026 for at least 12 months, so January 2027 is the earliest a restart could come. No restart date has been announced, and no Retro Funding missions are planned for Seasons 9 or 10. About 777.6M OP of the allocation is unspent, and the Foundation may propose reallocating it.

How much did Optimism grants pay?

Optimism grants varied by program. In Season 9 the Grants Council approved grants of 150,000 to 1,000,000 OP, roughly $13,500 to $90,000 at the mid-2026 OP price. In Season 8, Retro Funding rewards ranged from about $55 to $32,500 per project, with about 3.33M OP paid in total. Both programs paid in OP tokens.

Is opgrants.io the official Optimism grants site?

No. The old Optimism grants site, opgrants.io, now serves an unrelated gambling page, and app.opgrants.io no longer resolves. Do not enter personal details or connect a wallet there. Official information about Optimism grants, Retro Funding and governance votes is published on the Optimism governance forum at gov.optimism.io and on vote.optimism.io.

Does the Optimism Foundation still fund projects directly?

Only selectively. The Optimism Foundation says it will make select strategic grants itself and deploys tokens through partnership deals and its Strategic Ecosystem Fund. None of these has a public application form, so a builder without an existing relationship with the Foundation has no direct way to apply as of October 2026.