CL Web3 Grants #26
Grants from Gitcoin, Lisk & Trust Wallet, AI funding insights, Ethereum’s treasury move, and a fall Web3 tour from London to Split, plus a free Cosmoverse ticket!
Welcome to the 26th edition of the CL Web3 Grants newsletter!
In CL Web3 Grants, you’ll find new grant opportunities, insider tips for writing winning applications, pitch competitions, and events to elevate your Web3 journey.
🔍 Latest Web3 Grants
Here’s a fresh batch of funding opportunities for builders, researchers, and innovators in Web3:
Gitcoin Grants 24
Gitcoin’s flagship quadratic funding round returns October 14–28, funding open-source projects and public goods across the Ethereum ecosystem.
Focus: Public Goods, Social, Infra, Education
X1 EcoChain Grant Program
X1 EcoChain, the world’s first eco-friendly DePIN Layer-1 blockchain, is accelerating its global impact with two major initiatives: a $5M Grant Program for developers and the Galxe Starboard, a $100K rewards campaign for top community contributors.
Focus: Web4 dApps, DePIN pilots, core infrastructure on X1 EcoChain
Lisk EMpower Fund
$15M fund empowering founders in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America with capital and networks to scale globally. Targets real-world use cases like payments, remittances, and identity.
Focus: DevTooling, Infra, NFTs, Privacy & Security, Stablecoins & Payments
Web3 Accelerator by Trust Wallet
Supported by Binance, Polygon, MoonPay, AWS and others, this program helps ambitious Web3 startups launch and scale through mentorship, funding, and ecosystem support.
Focus: AI, AIAgents, DeFi, DevTooling, Gaming, Infra, Social & Community, Stablecoins & Payments, RWAs
Rhizome Microgrants 2025
Microgrants ($500–$1500) supporting creators exploring community-owned platforms, algorithmic realities, and AI collaboration.
Focus: Network Commons, Public Personas, Narrative Systems, Synthetic Agents
Scroll DAO Community Grants
Scroll DAO’s Community Council is funding global activations—events, hackathons, meetups, and creative ideas—that engage new audiences with the Scroll ecosystem.
Focus: Education, Events
Arts3 Startup Award
The Arts3 Foundation and CV Summit are awarding $100K to startups and NFT projects advancing blockchain in the art and entertainment space.
Focus: NFTs, Art, Decentralized Media
Web3 X Incubation Batch 6 Grants
For early-stage startups (post-MVP, pre-seed/seed) in Web3 across SEA, APAC, MENA, and EU. Designed for founders with strong teams and scalable ideas.
Focus: AI, DAOs, CrossChain, DeFi, Gaming, Infra, ZK, Sustainability
daGama Grants Program
$450K in DGMA tokens for developer teams building Web3 travel infrastructure, AI-driven tools, and crypto POS solutions for merchants.
Focus: Web3 Travel, AI, DevTooling, Infra, Sustainability
Zircuit Grants Program
A $495K fund from Zircuit, the security-first zk-rollup, supporting developers through two tracks: Super App ($135K x2) and Ecosystem ($45K x5).
Focus: Infra, Security, ZK, Developer Tools
Filecoin RetroPGF 3
Round 3 allocates 585,000 FIL to projects that boosted network usage, data availability, and onchain activity. Applications open in late September.
Focus: Infra, Data, Storage, Developer Tools, AI
Stanford Blockchain Accelerator
Run by Stanford alumni and lecturers, this free, non-dilutive accelerator supports Stanford students, alumni, and faculty building across DeFi, NFTs, and DAOs.
Focus: DeFi, NFTs, Infrastructure, Privacy, Identity
👉 Explore all active grants in the CL Web3 Grants Hub
🚀 Have a grant to share? Submit it here. Let’s keep building Web3 together!
🧠 Insights from the Field
We had the pleasure of presenting “AI for Grant Allocation in Web3” at the International Conference on Contemporary and Future Challenges of Blockchain and AI hosted by the University of Malta 🇲🇹. Our talk explored how AI-driven evaluation systems can make funding in decentralized ecosystems more transparent, scalable, and fair. The conference sparked meaningful discussions on digital identity, democratic governance, and blockchain-based arbitration, showing how on-chain innovation intersects with real societal challenges. It was refreshing to engage in thoughtful, quality conversations that went beyond hype, a reminder that the future of Web3 funding lies in evidence-based design, community trust, and responsible innovation.
A theme we’re watching closely: coordinated funding over fragmented grants. The recent Dev Tools Guild piece, “Why the Future of Funding is Coordinated,” argues that the old model, where every funder runs its own siloed grant program, creates inefficiencies and fatigue for both builders and backers. Instead, pooling resources, aligning criteria, and harmonizing evaluation across funds enables a more sustainable, high-impact ecosystem. We see this philosophy already emerging in moves like ENS Public Goods aligning with the Ethereum Foundation, Gitcoin’s shift to domain-specific matching, and Optimism’s retroactive funding evolution. For us at CL, this reinforces our own push toward making the CL Web3 Grants Hub a connected node, not just a list of opportunities, but a lever for synergy among funders and builders.
The Ethereum Foundation’s decision to sell 1,000 ETH via CoW Swap to convert into stablecoins (roughly $4.5M in value) signals a shift in treasury strategy toward more liquid, resilient funding instruments. The move is explicitly tied to supporting research, grants, and ecosystem development, reflecting a more active financial posture for funding core innovation. What’s notable is the use of CoW Swap, a decentralized liquidity aggregation protocol, rather than traditional centralized exchanges, a choice that underscores Ethereum’s commitment to DeFi-native infrastructure even in treasury operations. This development comes at a time when the Foundation has paused open grant submissions to better prioritize alignment and impact, illustrating how funders are rethinking both capital deployment and evaluation strategies in Web3.
🗓️ Upcoming Events
Zebu Live 2025
October 21–22, 2025 | Tobacco Dock, London (In-person & Virtual)
The UK’s flagship Web3 summit returns, powered by Flight3, featuring over 200 speakers, 500+ partners, and 4,500+ in-person attendees. Expect cutting‑edge talks, immersive workshops, and networking across crypto, AI, DeFi, gaming, digital identity, and more
London Blockchain Week
October 22–23, 2025 | London, UK
The London Blockchain Conference, 22-23 October in Evolution London is where blockchain, AI, and Web3 go from concept to conquest. Use CML’s discount code CRYPTOMONDAYS15 for 15% off!
Cosmoverse Balkans 2025 *free ticket*
October 30 – November 1, 2025 | Split, Croatia
Cosmoverse returns in the Balkans, bringing together the Cosmos community to explore interoperability, appchains, modular design, and sovereign infrastructure. Expect deep tech tracks, ecosystem showcases, and cross-chain bridges between verticals. We’re also giving away one free ticket to Cosmoverse 2025 — keep an eye on our X for details!
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