IOTA Foundation Announces $2.9M in Grants for DeFi and NFT Projects

• IOTA Foundation announces that 25 projects have so far benefitted from its grant, with $2,744,000 in funding given out so far. 

• According to IOTA, the evaluation process has been designed to ensure that all applicants are subjected to a fair scale. 

The IOTA Ecosystem DLT Foundation was recently reported to have announced IOTA Grants to provide financial support for innovators and creators. According to the earlier press release, the initiative was designed to nurture and accelerate the development of innovative projects within the Web3 ecosystem while ensuring that IOTA’s full potential is unlocked. 

IOTA Grants are specifically designed to provide financial assistance to those with promising ideas but lacking the resources to bring them to life. Our goal is to nurture and accelerate the development of innovative projects within the Web3 space, ensuring that groundbreaking ideas receive the support they deserve.

Months after this exciting initiative was implemented, total funding of $2,744,000 has been given to 25 Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and Non-Fungible Token (NFT) projects out of the 102 applications received.  

Some of the IOTA Grants Recipients

According to the IOTA Foundation website, one of the recipients of this grant is ioLend, a DeFi platform that focuses on optimizing lending and liquidity. As highlighted, ioLend was designed to aggregate yield opportunities on various networks and to ensure that users use various strategies to optimize returns. Our review of the platform shows that it features yield-bearing collaterals and advanced risk management methodologies. Finally, it integrates with liquidity pools, supports different assets, and ensures the enhancement of Total Value Locked within the IOTA ecosystem. 

Another beneficiary of the IOTA Grants is Eco Forge Chronicles, an open-source trade-to-earn marketplace meant to enable the enhancement of Web3 engagement using Eco-Bound Tokens (EBTs) as well as redeemable NFTs.

An excerpt on the site reads:

The platform promotes ecosystem sustainability and user engagement by enabling projects to offer rewards that bind users to their ecosystems without depleting resources. Eco Forge Chronicles supports common NFT standards and allows for redeeming NFTs for digital goods. It serves as a building block that projects and builders can adapt to their needs, providing a versatile, customizable marketplace template. This makes it a dynamic addition and solution for ecosystem growth.

Other Beneficiaries

Peppy Finance, a platform which seeks to develop a “degen-themed” SYMMIO-integrated frontend tailored to retail users also emerged as a beneficiary of the IOTA Grant. This platform provides a seamless and engaging experience by taking advantage of the iGaming and online gaming design principles. 

Also, a no-code Web3 platform which seeks to democratize the creation and management of ERC-20 tokens, TokenLabs.network, obtained some of the $2.7 million grants. 

And finally, this is grant No.2 for @TokenLabsX! The TokenLabs Network empowers anyone to create, manage, and audit ERC20 tokens with their no-code Web3 platform – no technical expertise required. This second grant ensures their platform adheres to security standards. — IOTA (@iota) June 28, 2024

A look at the description of the IOTA Grant shows that it prioritizes the development of any or all of these four categories – open Open-Source Development, Research, Education, and Events. Also, the evaluation process has been designed to enable all applications to be subjected to the same scale of scrutiny and to ensure that funds are allocated to projects that have the most potential to make an impact. 

As grants are re-introduced to the IOTA ecosystem, we encourage all innovators, developers, and creators to seize this opportunity. Your ideas have the power to drive positive change in the ecosystem, and the IOTA Ecosystem DLT Foundation is here to support you.

At press time, the native token of IOTA, MIOTA, was trading at $0.17 after surging by 1.12% in the last 24 hours.