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Recipients

Cronos Labs offers grant structures that depend on the project type and stage of development. Pure "chain integration grants" are discouraged without significant user demand for a particular project.

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Grant models include:

  • Cronos quests. This model typically involves on-chain quests and competitions, with user prize pools jointly funded by Cronos Labs and the project.

  • Milestone grants. They are awarded based on the achievement of on-chain metrics, such as the amount of transaction fees generated on the network and the number of daily active users. We prioritize grants that grow on-chain activity (e.g., through user rewards). When evaluating milestones, we pay particular attention to bot activity, recycling of funds, and other workarounds that do not generate net new user activity on the chain.

  • Liquidity support. As an alternative to grants, liquidity may be injected into projects in partnership with DEXes such as VVS or H2. These contributions will be gradual, subject to the project's progress on market capitalization, trading volume, and TVL metrics. This model may require the project to set aside a token allocation for Cronos ecosystem funds and/or a token collateral to be held by Cronos Labs.

  • Start-up acceleration. After due diligence, we provide advisory and financial support to a small number of projects as part of the Cronos Accelerator program. In 2025, we aim to focus on projects with a working product, planning a token launch on Cronos to enable their next growth stage. This model requires the project to allocate tokens to Cronos ecosystem funds.

 

Most grants are paid in 5-10,000 USD tranches depending on the milestones achieved, reaching a total of up to 50,000 USD per project.

Grant models

While applications are evaluated on a case-by-case basis, a few use cases currently receive priority consideration:

 

  • Entertainment and digital collectibles:

    • Meme communities. Meme coins are just the beginning. Sustainable meme projects involve shared cultural references and strong online communities, which can lead to many types of derivative products (merchandise, collectibles, games) and on-chain transactions.

    • Web3 games, especially casual games that can launch and iterate quickly and are powered by NFTs or tokens. To be considered, games must generate on-chain activity.

  • DeFi

    • Decentralized finance remains the cornerstone of Cronos. We are particularly interested in projects that enhance the user experience by building on existing foundations and providing net new liquidity or yield to the ecosystem.

  • AI x Crypto agents

    • This category includes Web2 agents that use Web3 financial rails for payments and incentive mechanisms, as well as Web3 agents that simplify the interface between end-users and blockchain networks.

    • Refer to the Cronos roadmap for more details about our vision of the role of AI agents in the future economy.

  • Real-world assets

    • In high-interest-rate economies, yield-generating assets can be tokenized, sliced into affordable pieces, and traded 24/7. Thanks to improved regulatory clarity in the U.S. and other geographies, the connections between Web3 and traditional finance can become more substantial than ever before.

  • Reinvention of Web2 experiences, powered by crypto

    • Recent use cases that attracted new users to Web3 include cross-border payments, Telegram games, and prediction markets. We are looking for other projects that can similarly bring net new users.

 

A note on developer tools and infrastructure: given the large number of vendors, we typically support these solutions only when there is proven demand from the Cronos ecosystem.

Priority Use Cases

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Ecosystem Grants

Cronos Labs has supported dozens of projects. Browse the list below.

Once projects have established a core community and a track record of delivering announcements and partnerships on Cronos or elsewhere, they can consider requesting financial support.

 

The Cronos Grant Program aims to provide Cronos with a return on investment through incremental on-chain activity. Number of daily transactions, transaction fees, trading volumes, daily active users, and total value locked (TVL) are examples of metrics used to measure on-chain activity.

 

The ideal candidate is an end-user application that has organically demonstrated the ability to acquire several hundred daily active on-chain users and has the potential to scale up to several thousand or more daily users.

Project founders can reach the team at contact@cronoslabs.org for any question. To apply for the Cronos Ecosystem Grant program, please complete the form below.

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