We’re pleased to share the results of Cycle 42, marking the successful completion of the first cycle under Season 8.
Key Outcomes
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Applications Approved: 3
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Applications Conditional Pass: 1
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Applications In Review: 25
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Applications Declined: 10
Funding Overview
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Total OP Requested from Growth Apps this Cycle: 15,748,547 OP
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Total OP Granted (Approved + Conditional): 950,000 OP
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Season 8 Grants Council Budget: 6,290,000 OP
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Season 8 Remaining Budget: 5,140,000 OP
Cycle 43 Outlook
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High-impact protocols (e.g. Lido, Aave, Velodrome) remain under review and may represent the majority of OP allocations in the next cycle.
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Several smaller ecosystem apps (NFT marketplaces, AI projects, account abstraction tools) will likely resubmit or iterate after declines.
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We anticipate continued balancing between large DeFi allocations and smaller ecosystem experiments.
Process & Improvements
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The AI + GovNerds dual-screening process successfully filtered out 6 low-quality applications, reducing GC review load.
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Decline reasoning was clearly communicated and teams were redirected to engage with Foundation analytics or to resubmit improved applications.
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No process or milestone delays occurred during Cycle 42.
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Ai prompt iterations and alignment with Season 8 success metrics (generic TVL and total fees, not interop-specific) continue based on the Last 2-cycle experience. Aiming to make the AI more granular as we move forward.
Applicants Table
| Title | OP requested | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Super DCA | 30,000 | Passed |
| PancakeSwap | 600,000 | Passed |
| Truemarkets | 70,000 | Passed |
| Curve Lending | 250,000 | Conditional Pass (pending confirmation) |
| Extrafi | 100,000 | In Review |
| GigaStrat | 200,000 | In Review |
| Strands | 90,000 | In Review |
| Lido | 500,000 | In Review |
| MetaLend | 99,998 | In Review |
| َQuintes | 10,000 | In Review |
| YieldFi | 100,000 | In Review |
| Superset | 30,000 | In Review |
| Kivon | 50,000 | In Review |
| Hydrex | 100,000 | In Review |
| Oku (Optimism User Acquisition) | 150,000 | In Review |
| Alchemix | 100,000 | In Review |
| Symbiosis | 75,000 | In Review |
| Renzo Protocol | 100,000 | In Review |
| Xombol | 10,000 | In Review |
| AI Power Grid | 74,999 | In Review |
| The BALL Foundation / Game 5 Ball ($BALL) | 200,000 | In Review |
| Velora | 200,000 | In Review |
| Aave | 9,000,000 | In Review |
| Arcadia Finance | 200,000 | In Review |
| Jerota | 10,000 | In Review |
| Velodrome Finance | 1,000,000 | In Review |
| Tydro — Ink x Optimism Money Market | 1,500,000 | In Review |
| Spicenet | 20,000 | In Review |
| GonnaMakeIt NFT Marketplace | 75,000 | In Review |
| Modern Society Labs | 90,000 | Declined by GC |
| Kyo finance | 350,000 | Declined by GC |
| Super Accounts | 50,000 | Declined by GC |
| Mana Group | 100,000 | Declined by AI (confirmed by GovNerds) |
| CheapGm | 20,000 | Declined by AI (confirmed by GovNerds) |
| SWaptorX | 100,000 | Declined by AI (confirmed by GovNerds) |
| Cat Fighter | 20,000 | Declined by AI (confirmed by GovNerds) |
| DCA finance | 30,000 | Declined by AI (confirmed by GovNerds) |
| TrustTrail | 18,000 | Declined by AI (confirmed by GovNerds) |
| Kuri | 25,550 | Declined by AI (confirmed by GovNerds) |