Secret Network today announces a $400 million ecosystem funding initiatives to drive adoption of privacy-first Web3 technologies.
Secret Network is the first Layer 1 blockchain with privacy-preserving smart contracts, which launched on mainnet in 2020. The initiative is part of Shockwave, a massive growth initiative aimed at establishing Secret Network as a critical pillar and data privacy hub for Web3.
In addition, SCRT Labs, the core development team behind Secret Network, announced that multiple top-tier investment firms have acquired SCRT positions and recently joined the Secret ecosystem as critical stakeholders and ecosystem fund participants: DeFiance Capital, Alameda Research, CoinFund and HashKey.
The $400 million in ecosystem funding is divided between two primary initiatives:
- a new $225M ecosystem fund comprised of contributions from over 25 existing ecosystem investors and partners, targeted at expanding Secret Network’s application layer (including DeFi and NFTs), network infrastructure, and tooling.
- a $175M accelerator pool funded in SCRT that is designed to provide non-dilutive capital, grants, and ecosystem incentives to rapidly expand user adoption.
Guy Zyskind, Founder and CEO of SCRT Labs, said:
“With a strong network of supporters and a passionate global community, Secret Network is now entering its most aggressive growth phase to date. Since our first whitepapers at MIT in 2015, we have worked tirelessly to bring data privacy to all blockchains. We now invite developers around the world to join us in our mission and to build the next generation of Secret Apps that will protect and empower millions of global users.”
The $225 million Secret Ecosystem Fund is led by SCRT Labs, the core development team supporting Secret Network, and features commitments from 25 partner organizations – all of whom hold a position in SCRT and/or have already invested in Secret’s application layer.
Ecosystem fund participants will deploy capital across the Secret application ecosystem, providing substantial experience, guidance, and ongoing mentorship. All 25 partner organizations can be found in the complete announcement on the Secret Blog, including Hashed, Arrington Capital, Dragonfly Capital Partners, Fenbushi Capital, and Terraform Labs.
In addition to the $225M Secret Ecosystem Fund, the $175M Accelerator Pool will be used to support critical growth initiatives across Secret DeFi, NFTs, gaming and metaverse, and other essential application verticals on Secret Network. Initiatives will target the core network metrics mentioned above, especially active usage, userbase, and TVL.
The Accelerator Pool will provide non-dilutive early-stage funding in the form of grants to teams developing applications, ecosystem tooling, and network-level upgrades.
The company says this funding is meant to serve as a starting point for developers before they look for the Secret Ecosystem Fund to work on global growth.
Grants have already been awarded for over a dozen projects, including the development of the Secret Monero Bridge, the Secret NFT reference implementation, developer frameworks like Polar and Griptape, and many others, according to the blockchain startup.
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