The Ethereum Foundation has paused new grant applications to its Ecosystem Support Program (ESP) as it reconsiders how it funds builders and projects.

The pause, announced Aug. 29, comes as the Foundation restructures its approach to ecosystem development and looks to align its grantmaking with longer-term priorities.

A detailed roadmap outlining new funding priorities is expected in the fourth quarter of 2025.

While the open grants channel is temporarily paused, ESP will continue supporting existing grantees and funding public goods. The team also pledged to maintain Office Hours, where builders can receive guidance, feedback, or connections to non-financial resources.

Why the Ethereum Foundation is pausing grants

The organization said Ethereum’s rapid growth in size and complexity has created pressure to adapt its funding model. Instead of continuing with a system that reacts to grant requests as they come in, the Foundation wants ESP to shift toward proactively backing projects that address strategic needs.

This transition will ensure resources are deployed where they can have the most lasting impact on Ethereum’s usability and resilience.

It added:

“This change will enable us time to redesign in a way that redirects our focus toward strategic initiatives, moving from a reactive model to a more proactive one that also supports the priorities of other EF teams.”

Meanwhile, the Foundation emphasized that its values remain unchanged. These include funding open-source infrastructure, research, and developer tools; supporting community initiatives; and strengthening resources that benefit the wider Ethereum network.

Since its creation in 2018, ESP has evolved from a simple grants program into a broader initiative providing financial and non-financial backing for Ethereum builders.

In 2024 alone, it distributed nearly $3 million across 105 projects, spanning developer tooling, data analytics, education, research, and community events.

Some of the past beneficiaries include Commit-Boost, BundleBear, Web3Bridge, ZK Playbook, and the Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress.

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Crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) said on Tuesday it is reviving its Stablecoin Bootstrap Fund, aiming to boost stablecoin liquidity on decentralized finance (DeFi) markets.

The initiative will be managed by Coinbase Asset Management and begins with deployments on Aave, Morpho, Kamino and Jupiter, according to a blog post.

The exchange first launched the program in 2019 to help protocols seed early trading pools for USDC stablecoin. That effort supported early platforms like Uniswap

, Compound and dYdX and helped spearhead USDC in the DeFi ecosystem, which is still the most widely used stablecoin in the sector.

In its new iteration, the initiative will allocate capital across both established and emerging protocols, aiming to ensure users can access stable yields and efficient markets.

While Coinbase has not disclosed the size of the fund or specific amounts for each deployment, a company spokesperson told CoinDesk it will test placements across multiple networks before scaling further. Currently, the fund provides capital in USDC and EURC, Circle’s euro-pegged stablecoin, the company added.

Coinbase’s move comes as the DeFi sector’s growth is accelerating amid red-hot crypto markets and easing regulatory headwinds in the U.S. There are almost $200 billion of assets held across DeFi protocols collectively, nearly doubling since April but still below its 2021 peak, DefiLlama data shows.

Read more: Decentralized Finance and Tokenization Growth Still Disappoints: JPMorgan

A 39-year-old Romanian man has pleaded guilty to stealing more than $500,000 from a US government benefits program and other crimes.

According to the Northern District of California’s U.S. Attorney’s Office, Marius Marian stole $507,916 in Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) funds from those who rely on the money to cover basic expenses.

He also pleaded guilty to illegally reentering the United States following an aggravated felony conviction and making false statements on his asylum application.

Beginning in March 2024, Marian fraudulently obtained EBT funds by using over 601 unique victim EBT account identifiers. EBT benefits are federal funds distributed through the California Department of Social Services to low-income individuals to use for such things as food, rent, childcare and medical expenses.

Marian used skimmer devices on ATM and point-of-sale machines to capture the victims’ EBT card numbers when the victims used the cards. He then encoded the stolen EBT account information on counterfeit bank cards and used them to fraudulently withdraw EBT funds from ATMs in Northern California.

“As a result of his scheme, Marian withdrew $507,916 in cash and intended to withdraw $611,845 in EBT funds. Marian further admitted that his conduct involved sophisticated means and caused substantial financial hardship to at least 25 victims.

Additionally, Marian admitted that on or around April 27, 2023, he knowingly submitted false statements on an application for asylum to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Specifically, Marian knowingly failed to disclose in his asylum application that he had been previously deported from the United States and that he had previously been convicted in 2019 of bank fraud.

Finally, Marian acknowledged that he had been previously deported after his 2019 conviction for bank fraud and that he thereafter illegally reentered and was found in the United States.”

For theft of the EBT funds, Marian pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud, which carries a sentence of up to 30 years in prison. The illegal entry into the US charge carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, while the asylum fraud charge carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

Marian is due back in court for sentencing on October 20th.

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A US-based non-profit is launching a new guaranteed income pilot program that will give thousands of dollars to people to use as they wish.

The Georgia Resilience & Opportunity (GRO) Fund says the Freedom Futures guaranteed income pilot program will provide a no-strings-attached monthly income of $500 for 48 months, or $24,000 for the entire period, to selected participants in the state.

Applicants for the program must be 18 to 25 years of age and must either be enrolled in high school or in a tertiary institution of learning partnering with the nonprofit. The applicant’s household income must be at or below double the federal poverty level.

Participants in the guaranteed income pilot program will also be eligible to receive investment capital on top of the $500 monthly income.

“Freedom Futures provides an investable sum of over $20,000, which can be used towards the following wealth-building purposes: homeownership, entrepreneurship, higher education, or investing in a retirement account.”

To receive the investment capital, participants will have to undertake financial education to enable them to make informed decisions. The investable sum will be handed out starting in the third year of the Freedom Futures guaranteed income pilot program.

Applications must be submitted by the end of the day on August 27th. Applicants will be required to provide various documents, including proof of identity and income. Successful applicants will be notified within weeks of the application deadline passing.

“If you are selected, you can expect to receive your first income supplement payment in September 2025.”

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As we embark on a new decade(!), the Ecosystem Support Program team wanted to speak to some of the recent growth, transition and learning around the program, and share details of our 2019 financial allocations.

What is ESP?

The Ecosystem Support Program (ESP) is the arm of the Ethereum Foundation focused on providing support to teams throughout the Ethereum ecosystem. This includes financial and non-financial support. ESP is an expansion of the Grants program, which previously focused primarily on monetary support.

Improving Our Processes

The 2019 Ethereum Foundation Spring Update first previewed some of our plans for evolving from Grants to ESP. Since that transition, we’ve continued to award straightforward grants, and helped make connections to other potential sources of funding where an EF grant was not a fit. We have also facilitated advice from industry experts, community exposure, access to cloud services and other infrastructure, and more.

Over the last nine months we’ve incorporated feedback to refine our application process and made a number of changes, including:

• A standardized process for reviewing ESP applications
• An expanded group of domain experts available to help with peer review of applications, or to advise applicants on their projects
• Increased focus on providing applicants with 1:1 feedback
• Worked more closely with accepted projects to create clearer goals, roadmaps, and mutual expectations

Expanding Communications

With these stronger processes in place, we’re making an effort to increase visibility and to attract more high-quality applications. To that end, we’re making some changes to how we communicate, from improving existing channels to adding some shiny new pages to the ESP website.

Some changes are modest, but we hope that they’ll be helpful in both keeping the community informed and better preparing potential applicants. On the front page you can now follow the latest news about ESP and see which events we’ll be participating in, whether virtually or in person following the current and ongoing health crisis.

We’ve added to our FAQ, improved our inquiry forms, and most importantly debuted some new page banners that we think really tie the room together . Keep an eye out for even more additions in the coming months, and regular updates to existing content!

We’ve also added a Wishlist to bring attention to specific areas like security, Eth2, and privacy, where we’d like to see more applications. This list is not a declaration of what’s important to the ecosystem, or even a statement of ESP’s priorities. However, we hope the list serves as inspiration for anyone looking to get involved! As always, we want to strike a balance between demonstrating the range of efforts that ESP supports while also embracing potential contributors working outside of the specific areas we’ve defined.

On the reporting front, we will be publishing regular blog posts to announce new grant recipients, but a grant is only the beginning. Moving forward, we’ll also be highlighting what supported teams go on to accomplish. On the new Featured Projects page, we’ll spotlight projects that are months or years into the work that was enabled by those grants. We’ll also use our blog and expand our use of social media to celebrate grant recipients as they achieve milestones and make progress toward their goals.

Financial Support in 2019

While we worked to improve the Ecosystem Support Program throughout 2019, we continued to support projects across the ecosystem. Awarding grants is only one way that we provide that support. There are many amazing teams that aren’t EF grant recipients, either because they’re already funded or because their particular focus is just not the right fit for EF funding. However, we work to support these vital contributors in whatever way we can (for example, as a bridge to new opportunities or as an amplifier of network effects for their projects).

That said, financial support continues to be a major part of how we support the broader Ethereum ecosystem. Over 70 projects received financial support in 2019. What is listed below details newly distributed grants to teams in 2019. It does not include recurring support, tranches for newly achieved milestones from prior recipients, or funding for other EF teams. For more details on all of the Foundation’s work, we’ll share a 2020 Spring Update in the coming days.

We’re including names and summaries for each funded project below. You can find a searchable spreadsheet including links to learn more about individual projects here.

Ethereum 2.0

Ethereum 2.0 development is in full swing, with many teams working together to make Ethereum more scalable, resilient, secure, and of course introduce Proof of Stake! We’ve helped to fund a diverse bunch of 2.0 clients, as well as efforts toward interoperability, improving reliability and creating developer tooling. In addition to the grants listed below, Ethereum 2.0 work has been supported through recurring funding and other channels.

Eth2 Clients: $1,695,000

Eth2 Tooling & Other: $1,459,000

Eth 1.x: $487,000

Vital work continues on improving Ethereum as it exists today, with upgrades being worked on by 1.x contributors to help improve Ethereum in the immediate term. Focused upon areas include Stateless Ethereum, improving developer experience, increasing node client diversity, ensuring that running a full node remains sustainable, and preparing a path to the 2.0 rollout. As with Eth2, these are just the allocations that took the form of grants. We’ll share more about other supported efforts – including Geth, additional 1.x and Stateless research, and more in later organizational updates.

Layer 2: $1,211,000

Layer 2 solutions enable a wide variety of applications that might otherwise be too expensive, slow, complicated, or just not possible to implement directly on the Ethereum base layer. 2019 was an exciting year during which teams and individuals across the community came together to make huge strides toward making Ethereum more useful and scalable. This work is crucial in the near term, but just as valuable for the future. Eth 2.0 will still benefit from the enhanced privacy, scalability, and flexibility offered by Layer 2.

Cryptography and Zero Knowledge Proofs: $426,000

There’s more work than ever going into research and development on cryptography and zero knowledge proofs. These efforts strengthen the fundamental building blocks of the protocol, opening up new possibilities for scaling, privacy, and security. 2019 was all about practical steps forward, with tools being built that make advancements more accessible to developers without requiring an advanced understanding cryptography.

Developer Experience: $1,322,000

Ethereum opened up a whole new design space for applications. As developers have explored this space, inevitably they’ve discovered new pain points and required new tools. We’re making significant investments in enhancing developer experience on Ethereum, from improving the range of programming languages, software libraries, dev tooling, node infrastructure, decentralized storage, messaging, and more. These advancements enable developers to do more, more easily, so they can focus on their products rather than on building their own custom tooling. Ultimately we want it to be easy – and fun – to build on Ethereum.

User Experience: $213,000

We’re always on the lookout for universal tools and upgrades that reduce friction for the end user without compromising decentralization or any of the other things that make Ethereum special. Addressing common pain points like gas costs, identity management, address readability, and interoperability makes it easier for dapp developers everywhere to onboard users.

Community and Education: $422,000

Simply put, Ethereum wouldn’t exist without its community and the people that work to grow and enrich our ecosystem. These teams bring people together both in person and online, increase the diversity of our global community, and help to build a universal knowledge base by making educational materials free and available to all.

Indirect Funding $484,000

A new kind of ecosystem needs new ways of thinking about funding! The Ethereum ecosystem relies on open source developers and independent thinkers to thrive. To this end, we look to support novel ways of funding talented contributors outside the traditional structures of companies and organizations; grants and VCs; contracts and salaries. This category is all about entrusting resources to the community.

We’re proud of everything our 2019 cohort accomplished, and we’re forging ahead in 2020 with renewed energy and purpose. As always, big thanks to the community for your passion and support, and we look forward to keeping you up to date with the latest from the ESP team!

An ATM scam tied to a New York City youth employment program reportedly spread on TikTok and caused millions of dollars in losses within days.

According to a New York Times report, payment cards provided to participants of NYC’s Summer Youth Employment Program were suddenly allowing users to take out more money from ATMs than they should have been able to.

The payment cards issued to thousands of young people in the program normally give users access only to that week’s earnings – at the most a few hundred dollars. But this time, the payment cards gave users the ability to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars at each ATM. In total, some $17 million was fraudulently withdrawn on the payment cards between July 11th and July 13th.

An estimated 30,000 cards were issued to 14- to 24-year-olds who were unable to receive payment by direct deposit.

The NYC Police Department’s Financial Crimes Task Force is now investigating the matter. Anonymous law enforcement officials say some of the program participants sold their cards for $1,000 apiece.

Mark Zustovich, a spokesman for the agency that oversees the program, the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development, says participants may have been pressured by criminals to abuse their payment cards.

“We are deeply disturbed by scammers preying on our participants just as they started their work assignments to support themselves and their families.”

It remans unclear at time of writing what made it possible for payment cards to allow for the fraudulent withdrawals and who will ultimately be responsible for covering the costs.

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