Amplifying and accelerating the builders who drive DeFi forward.

Last week marked the launch of Unichain, a new Ethereum L2 designed for DeFi, and powered by the Superchain.

Unichain is built to be the home for DeFi and  liquidity in our multichain world.  It’s low cost, while furthering decentralization. It’s fast, with near instant transactions. It’s designed to offer seamless multi-chain swapping. It’s open source, with components available for other chains to adopt. Unichain is built to scale Ethereum.

Unichain is also built to accelerate the work of DeFi developers: providing builders with new chain-level features that allow them to better serve their users.

Building a home for DeFi’s developer communities

Over the past year, we’ve seen the number of developers working on DeFi protocols grow and diversify. In turn, we’ve deepened our approach to builder support: re-calibrating our grant strategy, and resourcing hundreds of developers through global hackathons, developer events, the TLDR Conference, and the Uniswap Hook Incubator.

To drive innovation across Unichain, we’re introducing new grants programs and builder resources.

Whether you’re tinkering with an idea, hacking on a side project, or building a new app, hook, or protocol from scratch: we’re here to resource your builder journey at every stage.

Introducing Unichain Developer Grants

Unichain Developer Grants are a series of programs and resources designed to support Unichain’s emergent developer community.

Unichain Builder Requests

In the coming months, we’re excited to explore and support a few specific areas:

Novel Swapping Mechanisms. Novel hooks and non-AMM swapping mechanisms that improve the experience for all swappers.

Innovation upon the DeFi Experience. Applications which broaden and improve the experience for Unichain users including payments, commerce, insurance, treasury and asset management, and more.

Improvements to Liquidity Infrastructure. Hooks and tooling that allow those who manage liquidity to do so more efficiently, flexibly, easily, and with mitigated risk.

Unichain Developer Grants

Unichain Developer Grants are designed to support DeFi builders at every stage, with funding and resources allocated for builders, technical support, go-to-market resources, and discovery.

Unichain Builder Open Call

Every project has different needs. If you have an idea that can advance our community, apply for opportunities to receive funding, technical support, and go-to-market resources for your project. Apply here.

Unichain Infinite Hackathon

High potential Unichain projects built at hackathons and coding competitions around the world can be entered into our Infinite Hackathon. Entries will be judged by a dedicated committee of DeFi experts, researchers, protocol engineers, institution leads, and investors. Vetted applicants are eligible for grants of up to $7.5K. These grants will be awarded on a monthly basis. Enter here.

Unichain Retro Grants

Emerging projects that have demonstrated traction and impact are eligible for funding from the Uniswap Foundation.  Submissions will be judged by a dedicated committee of DeFi experts, researchers, protocol engineers, institution leads, and investors. Projects are eligible for up to $7.5K grants. Nominate a builder here.

Unichain at Hackathons

Every Uniswap Foundation sponsored hackathon will now also support Unichain builders.

Audit Subsidy Fund

Starting in 2025, developers and teams can apply to qualify for funds to cover their audit costs. Program operations will be managed by Areta. We are excited to share more details on how to apply for an audit subsidy soon.

Optimism Collective Grants

As part of the Superchain, Unichain developers can also qualify for Optimism Collective Grants programs. Learn more about Retro funding here, and Governance Fund Grants here.

Get Started

Unichain developers are building the future of DeFi. We’re here to help you begin.  Apply to our Builder Open Call, and reach out to our team in Discord with any questions.

Acknowledgements

Our approach to Unichain Developer Grants has been inspired by the work of Uniswap community developers, and by programs that have successfully contributed to the development of vibrant communities, including Optimism’s innovative approach to impact-driven retroactive funding, and Eigenlayer’s access-oriented Infinite Hackathon model for remote competitions.

We’re thankful to the Auditless Team for their support in shaping our approach and strategy to Unichain, and for their future support in growing the Unichain community.

Disclosure

Unichain and Uniswap Protocol v4 enable a diverse variety of project development, and any of those projects might touch on different areas of laws or regulations in different forums.  The Uniswap Foundation encourages compliance with all applicable laws and regulations, and it is incumbent upon builders to consult with legal counsel as appropriate to determine the legal requirements and restrictions (if any) for their projects.