DIA Labs to boost DeFi ecosystem with grants of up to $250,000

Decentralized oracle platform DIA is to start issuing grants worth up to $250,000 to drive the development of the DeFi ecosystem.

The grants will be offered under the DIA Labs program, which has been designed by DIA to drive the development of proprietary and open-source building blocks for DeFi.The explosion of DeFiThe grants will support projects with a range of resources, including financial backing of up to $250,000 per project, introductions to DIA's ecosystem network for business development and awareness, and hands-on operational support.

Michael Weber, DIA Co-Founder and Association President, said: "DeFi has been exploding and similar to rapidly growing organizations, the core applications often outpace the development of building blocks that may be important, but not urgent at that stage."With DIA Labs we aim to fill that gap by nurturing the development of building blocks that support both DIA's mission as well as the wider DeFi ecosystem.

Rapid ecosystem growthThis year, the DeFi ecosystem has experienced rapid growth, with a diverse range of products and projects offering people a range of options to engage with decentralized finance.

This has included lending protocols, the expansion of transparent data provision, modules to enhance inter-protocol and platform compatibility, as well as solutions that improve efficiency in data sourcing and delivery and innovative applications that rely on transparent, scalable feeds.

DIA Labs focuses both on projects developing proprietary products and solutions as well as building blocks that will be made available free and open-source to foster a cooperative environment for the benefit of the entire space.

DIA said that anyone can apply to the program, from individual builders, newly formed startups, and scale-ups to industry associations or academic institutions.

It said that projects that are accepted to DIA Labs would be supported by a range of DeFi and crypto veterans, including Tamar Menteshashvil, Strategy and Corporate Development at Binance, Eric Wang, Ecosystem Development Lead at Parity Technologies, Charlotte Kapoor, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Outlier Ventures and Simon Dedic, Founder of the crypto VC Moonrock Capital and the digital asset research firm Blockfyre.

Applications for the program are officially open and can be accessed at the DIA Labs homepage.