tl;dr:

• Aptos Foundation, which supports the growth and development of the Aptos protocol, is announcing its first group of grant recipients, awarding 50 new project teams with a total grant allocation of more than $3.5M to continue scaling on the Aptos blockchain. 

• Grants were awarded across four key focus areas: Developer Tooling, Infrastructure, Education, and Ecosystem – with notable projects such as Mokshya, Pontem, Aries, KYCDao, Overmind, Aptos Eden, Tsunami, and Topaz.

• Applications for Phase 2 of ecosystem grants are now open.

The Aptos ecosystem continues to grow daily, and today we celebrate an exciting milestone in ecosystem health – the Aptos Foundation has awarded over $3.5 million as it wraps up the first chapter of its ecosystem grants program!

And when one chapter ends, another begins: Phase 2 of the Aptos Ecosystem Grant Applications are now open. Let’s dive into the Aptos Ecosystem Grants Program to celebrate all the Phase 1 recipients and see what’s in store for Phase 2!

Our Commitment:

While Aptos now sees an impressive 50+ projects supported by the grants program, this is not simply growth for growth’s sake. Since Day 1 of Mainnet, the Aptos Foundation launched the Ecosystem Grants Program as an active commitment to empowering builders to shape the network, bolster its public utility, and serve the Aptos community and beyond.Our Mission:In this first round of grants, infrastructure, developer tooling, ecosystem, and education were particular focus areas. These verticals offer tremendous utility to the broader ecosystem, and projects in these spaces are often led by a deep interest in creating communal value.

By encouraging these areas with both funding and hands-on support, we’re striving for a healthy developer and user community. This progress seeds the ecosystem flywheel, further driving the network's future evolution and growth. True decentralization becomes easily achievable across these projects’ underlying facets: physical (node distribution and count), community-led governance, stewardship in protocol improvement, and in overall maintaining and growing the reach/accessibility of the Aptos network.

We know that when the ecosystem stays building – from building great products to building bridges – this is how Aptos and the Web3 movement will win.

The Awardees:

We were honored to receive an incredible mosaic of applications. The selection process involved reviewing over 500 applications.

Award criteria was based on the idea's merit, the potential value for the broader ecosystem, and the team's ability to lead the undertaking to fruition.

To date, we’ve had the pleasure of awarding over 50 projects that meet and exceed that criteria. 

Top 50 projects in the first wave cohort of ecosystem grant recipients:

• Apscan
• Bruh Bears
• Intu.xyz
• MoveFunsDAO
• SoQuest
• Aptoads
• CannedBi
• kycDAO
• MoveHub
• Spooks
• Aptomingos
• Chengjin Sun
• Laminar
• Mu Methods
• Starspace
• Aptools.xyz
• Coin Object (NodeInfra)
• Life Mining
• Neutral Alpha
• Suberra
• AptoPlay
• DID Solution
• Lifinity
• NodeReal
• Topaz
• Aptos Eden
• DID You Eat?
• MAVRIKS
• Options Factory
• Tsunami Finance
• Aptos Framework Formal Verification (MoveBit)
• Envelop DAO
• Merkle Trade
• Overmind
• Umi Pool (Umi AMM)
• Aptos NFT Studio
• Genie
• Mokshya Protocol
• PerSecond
• Unique.VC
• ArchLabs
• IMCODING
• Momentum Safe
• Pontem
• Werewolf and Witch
• Aries Markets
• InBond
• Move developer dao
• SakureVerse - Punk Ninja
• Yours

The Future:

The Aptos Foundation opened Phase 2 grant applications in April, and we eagerly await the coming influx of new applicants.

We’ll continue to cultivate strong relationships with a community of developers, entrepreneurs, and creatives. Alongside the current grant projects, we’re excited to foster a collaborative, sustainable, and innovative environment for Aptos and the broader Web3 ecosystem.

***Congratulations to all the grant recipients! We can't wait to see the impressive work from this Aptos Foundation investment.

To stay current on more network wins, sign up for our Aptos Wrapped email newsletter series and follow us on Aptos’ Twitter and YouTube for the latest network and ecosystem updates.