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) |