Who funds Web3 grants? Foundations, DAOs and companies

Blockchain foundations

Blockchain foundations are the largest group of grant funders. A foundation usually holds a share of its chain's token supply and spends it to grow the ecosystem: more developers, more applications, more transactions.

• Solana Foundation grants fund open-source work and free community resources, paid against milestones. You must explain why the project needs Solana rather than another chain. The Foundation publishes no range but said in March 2026 that open-source grants average about $40,000.
• The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) runs three programs in the directory: the Stellar Community Fund (up to $150,000 in XLM, SCF #46 open until November 8, 2026), SDF Marketing Grants (up to $500,000 for user acquisition on live products) and SDF Academic Research Grants (up to $150,000 to universities).
• Aptos Ecosystem Grants typically pay $5,000 to $50,000 to teams with a live product and evidence of real users.
• The Ethereum Foundation's Ecosystem Support Program (ESP) funds only free, open-source, non-commercial work. As of October 1, 2026 it had no Wishlist or RFP items open, so there was nothing to apply to.

What foundations want back is measurable growth on their chain or shared infrastructure their developers need. Pitch the chain's own priorities: its RFPs, wishlists and focus areas. The guide on why blockchains give grants covers these motives in more depth.

DAOs and on-chain treasuries

A DAO-run program spends a treasury that token holders control, either through a committee they elect or by voting on each request. In web3grant's directory, 20 programs work this way, including the Compound Grants Program (whose main domain has been paused since April 2026), CoW DAO Grants, MoonDAO Projects and RootstockCollective Grants.

• Polkadot OpenGov Treasury: anyone with a Polkadot account can submit a spending referendum. The track you choose sets the cap, from 250 DOT to 10,000,000 DOT, and the decision deposit, from 1 DOT to 1,000 DOT.
• Cardano Treasury: a treasury withdrawal needs a 100,000 ada deposit, refunded after the vote. It passes when DReps holding 67% of the active voting stake approve and the Constitutional Committee finds it constitutional, and approved recipients must pass KYC or KYB through Intersect. The Cardano grants and funding page lists the routes.
• Lido Ecosystem Grants (LEGO): there is no form. You pitch a LEGO member on Telegram, agree terms, and the proposal is posted on the Lido research forum. Granting slowed in 2026: Q1 used 30% of the quarterly budget and Q2 less than 1%.
• Rocket Pool GMC grants: a seven-member committee runs monthly rounds. Funds are tight: Round 41 declined every application, and nothing above $7,500 has been approved since May 2026.

What DAOs want back is benefit to the protocol their token holders own, at a cost voters can justify. Pitch in public, early: post a draft on the forum, answer questions, and keep the first request small. Blockchain treasury funding explains how treasury votes work.

Companies

Companies fund grants to get developers building on their products. The money is real, but the scope is narrow: your project has to use what the company sells or supports.

• Circle Developer Grants pay USDC by milestone to teams whose architecture uses Arc and Circle products as meaningful building blocks. Circle asks for evidence of usage, pilots, partners or revenue, or a credible path to them.
• Tether Grants and Bounties pay $1,500 to $5,000 in USDT or bitcoin, mostly for defined tasks on Tether's open stack, such as its wallet and local AI kits.
• Polymarket Builders Program gives grants from a pool of more than $2.5M plus weekly USDC rewards based on the volume your app sends. You must integrate Builder Codes and tell Polymarket before any token launch.
• Galaxy's Bitcoin Quantum Readiness Grants commit up to $5M, paid by milestone, for post-quantum work on Bitcoin. You apply by email.

What companies want back is adoption, and sometimes a showcase. Pitch the integration first: which of their products you use, how deeply, and how many users or transactions it will carry.

Nonprofits and mission-driven funds

Nonprofit funders pay for open-source work that serves a mission, often Bitcoin development, privacy or human rights. Most of them fund people over long periods rather than one-off projects.

• OpenSats General Fund: a US 501(c)(3) public charity that pays grants in bitcoin for free and open-source Bitcoin work. Applications open in the first two months of each quarter (the Q4 2026 window runs to November 30) and need two written references. In 2025 it allocated $5,639,789 to regular grants and $2,328,000 to long-term support grants. The OpenSats General Fund page describes what it funds.
• Brink: a donor-funded nonprofit that gives established Bitcoin protocol developers year-long, full-time grants. In 2025 it spent $1,749,927 on eight full-time engineers and two research interns.
• Human Rights Foundation's Bitcoin Development Fund: pays bitcoin for privacy, security and education work that helps people under authoritarian regimes. Its Q3 2026 round gave more than 500 million sats to 16 projects.
• Btrust: set up in 2021 with a 500 BTC donation, it pays Global South developers monthly in BTC to work on open-source Bitcoin.
• Zcash Community Grants and the MAGIC Monero Fund: both use committees elected by their communities; MAGIC Grants is a US 501(c)(3) public charity.

What nonprofits want back is the mission advanced, in public. Pitch your record: merged pull requests, reviews, references from known contributors. Most of these funders appear on the Bitcoin grants page.

Community and quadratic funding platforms

Quadratic funding platforms match donations from a shared pool, weighting the number of donors over the size of each gift. The funder is partly the platform's matching pool and partly the crowd.

• Gitcoin Grants: Gitcoin says more than $60M has gone out through Gitcoin Grants since 2019. GG24 in October 2025 allocated about $1.8M. No round has run since, and as of October 2026 Gitcoin is folding quadratic funding into a local-money pilot targeted for November, with no application for builders yet.
• Giveth QF rounds: Giveth runs rounds with partners. Its Stellar round closed to applications on August 28, 2026, and no next round is announced.
• Octant funding epochs: Octant, a Golem Foundation project, matched community allocations from a 100 ETH pool in Epoch 13. Epoch 14 has no date yet, and pre-launch projects are excluded.

What these platforms want back is evidence the community values your work. Pitch to donors, not reviewers: a clear page, real users who will contribute, and no paid or fake donations, which disqualify you from matching. See quadratic funding for how the formula rewards breadth.

How to pitch each kind of funder

The same project needs a different first paragraph for each funder type.

For the basics behind all five, start with what Web3 grants are.

FAQ

Which kind of funder gives the largest Web3 grants?

On-chain treasuries have the highest published ceilings in web3grant's directory: the Polkadot OpenGov Treasury tops out at about $12,000,000 and the Kusama OpenGov Treasury at about $1,750,000, both decided by token-holder vote. Among other funders, Zcash Community Grants has paid up to about $750,000 and SDF Marketing Grants go up to $500,000. Most programs of every type sit near the $50,000 median ceiling.

Do company-funded Web3 grants come with conditions?

Company-funded Web3 grants usually come with product conditions rather than equity. Polymarket requires its Builder Codes and advance notice of any token launch, Circle wants Arc and Circle products at the core of your architecture, and Tether pays for defined tasks on its own stack. 1inch DAO's Aqua incubator goes further and takes a negotiated share of your revenue in exchange for up to $50,000.

Are crypto ecosystem funds the same as grant funders?

Crypto ecosystem funds are often not grant funders. Several funds announced by chains are venture investment vehicles: Injective's $150M Ecosystem Fund is a consortium of venture firms making investments, and the Mantle EcoFund is a venture fund run with Mirana Ventures. They take equity or tokens. Check whether a fund's terms say grant or investment before you apply.

Can a DAO grant be challenged after it is approved?

A DAO grant can sometimes be challenged after approval, depending on the program's rules. Rocket Pool's GMC opens a two-week window after each round in which anyone can dispute an award through a governance proposal, and Shutter DAO pays the second half of a proactive grant only after a second DAO vote approves the delivered milestone. Read the program's governance rules before you count on the money.