HBAR Foundation commits $155M for DeFi projects on Hedera

The HBAR Foundation, an organization set up to support the Hedera ecosystem, is committing to deploy $155 million in grants to developers building DeFi applications using that protocol.

Why it matters: The Hedera governing council is led by a number of Fortune 500 companies — including Google, IBM, FIS, Boeing and Avery Dennison — and they want to spur as much third-party developer action on the blockchain as possible.

Details: The grants will go to developers building yield-generation opportunities, fiat onramps via mobile and credit card, and other decentralized applications on Hedera.

• The foundation is taking a special interest in staking and liquidity, with $60 million going towards DEX liquidity rewards.
• The funding for the grants comes from an allocation of Hedera token HBAR that was given to the foundation to spur development.
• Depending on the developer’s needs, grants can be made in HBAR, in fiat, or in a combination of the two, Elaine Song, the foundation's director of ecosystem development, tells Axios.

Of note: The Crypto Economy Fund is one of four active funds the foundation has created to further Hedera adoption.

• In addition, it also has a consumer engagement fund, a payments and fintech fund, and a sustainable impact fund.

Yes, but: Grants like this are nothing new and, in many ways, Hedera is simply playing catchup with other DeFi platforms.

• Over the past year Terra, Avalanche, Fantom, and Polygon have all launched similar DeFi ecosystem funds.