March has brought renewed momentum to the Web3 funding landscape: after a cautious February, capital flows have surged back with some of the largest deals seen so far this year. Mastercard's acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure firm BVNK for up to $1.8B and the launch of its Crypto Partner Program (bringing together more than 85 companies including Binance, Circle, Solana, and MetaMask) signal that incumbent financial giants are no longer experimenting with crypto, but embedding it. Polymarket's $600M raise and a string of late-stage deals reinforce the trend, though the direction of capital is telling: VCs are increasingly concentrating on stablecoins and payments infrastructure over broader Web3 bets. For builders focused on grants and non-dilutive funding, this creates real tailwinds: programmes are expanding, ecosystems are competing for talent, and deadlines are approaching. Here's your curated update.
Here’s a fresh batch of funding opportunities for builders, researchers, and innovators in Web3:
Scaling Trust – Multi-Agent Security Arena A £49.8M R&D programme to co-design, build, and operate a secure testing arena for AI agents. Looking for a partner to deliver a robust, modular testing ground and ensure the platform remains globally accessible. Deadline: 14 April 2026 Focus: AI, Infrastructure
Arbitrum Mentorship Program Supports teams moving from early experimentation to mainnet launch, with structured guidance on go-to-market, liquidity design, and VC fundraising. Arbitrum’s 8-week programme starts April 13th. Focus: AI, Cross-Chain, Data & Oracles, DeFi, Dev Tooling, Infrastructure
Toby’s Grants Program For Solana Validators building on the Solana blockchain. $3M allocated in direct development grants (up to $50,000 per project), plus a $2M rewards system for ongoing ecosystem activity and a 0.5% trading volume incentive for builders. Focus: Dev Tooling, Infrastructure
Rain’s Grant Program Rain, a decentralised prediction markets protocol, launched a $5M grant initiative alongside an OpenClaw-compatible AI agent SDK. Supports developers building independent prediction market platforms on top of Rain — in any language or topic. Focus: AI, Data & Oracles, DeFi, Dev Tooling, Infrastructure, Cross-Chain, Stablecoins
Venom Foundation – Grants Program for Migration & Integration Initial $10,000 grant plus up to $100,000 in subsequent funding for projects migrating from other chains or deeply integrating with Venom. Candidates need an active social following, 1,000+ monthly active users, and a clear financial model. Focus: Cross-Chain, DeFi, Education, Infrastructure, NFTs, Privacy & Security, Public Goods, Social & Community, Stablecoins & Payments, Sustainability
Venom Foundation – Venom Labs Targeted grant programme for Web3 teams building DeFi, NFT, GameFi, SocialFi, AI, RWA, and enterprise infrastructure on Venom’s high-performance blockchain. Staged funding starts at $10,000 and can reach $100,000 for milestone-hitting projects. Focus: DeFi, NFTs, GameFi, AI, RWAs, Infrastructure, Stablecoins & Payments, Sustainability
Developing Core Technologies for Virtual Worlds EU Horizon Europe call supporting immersive XR and Virtual Worlds technologies. Focused on next-generation visualisation, interaction, and seamless data exchange across virtual environments. Deadline: 15 April 2026 Focus: Gaming, Social & Community
Web 4.0 Architectural Framework and Open Internet Stack EU Horizon Europe call to stimulate the emergence of Web 4.0 standards, protocols, components, and frameworks for virtual worlds at European and global scale. Deadline: 15 April 2026 Focus: Gaming, Social & Community, dApps, RWAs, DAOs, Cross-Chain, Data & Oracles, DeFi, DePIN, Dev Tooling, Education, Infrastructure, NFTs, Privacy & Security, Public Goods, Stablecoins & Payments, Sustainability, ZK
The Bags Hackathon $4,000,000 in funding for blockchain developers building on Bags.fm. $1M distributed as grants to 100 teams shipping real products with real traction. The remaining $3M goes into The Bags Fund to back builders with capital, distribution, and more. Focus: DEXs, Events
The intersection of AI and Web3 grants is evolving along two tracks: AI as a subject of grants, and AI as an instrument of grant-making itself. The shift is already measurable, major ecosystems are carving out explicit AI tracks within their programmes. Arbitrum’s Trailblazer 2.0 fund ($1M) targets developers building agentic DeFi protocols, while the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance offers four grant tracks supporting decentralised AI, with awards reaching up to $100K per project. If your project sits at the AI x Web3 intersection, you are increasingly in the priority lane.
The second track — AI reshaping how grants are administered — may be more quietly transformative. Agents are already being used to flag inconsistent applications, estimate treasury runway, and reduce the cognitive load on governance processes, directly addressing one of grant-making’s most persistent problems: voter fatigue. At the infrastructure level, Coinbase’s Agentic Wallets now enable AI-managed DAO treasuries that can execute grants and pay contributors without monthly votes. The question is no longer whether AI will enter the grants pipeline, but how quickly programmes will build the guardrails to do it responsibly.
The deeper implication is convergence: the infrastructure powering agentic finance and the infrastructure needed to run grant programmes are becoming the same stack. It's also part of what shapes how we think about the CL Web3 Grants Hub — a public good tracking 150+ active Web3 and crypto grants, updated every 48 hours, and already using AI to match projects with the right funding opportunities through our Grant Finder. A topic we'll explore in much greater depth in a dedicated upcoming edition.
As our latest analytics release, we've analysed grants issued by The Graph Foundation — one of the most active and longest-running grant programmes in Web3 infrastructure, supporting developers building on the decentralised data indexing protocol. This analysis is especially useful if you're a builder or researcher exploring funding in the data and infrastructure layer of Web3.
👉 https://analytics.web3grants.co/
Plenty of excellent gatherings to meet other builders, show what you’re working on, and stay close to ecosystem trends.
TOKEN2049 Dubai — Postponed ⚠️ TOKEN2049 Dubai, originally scheduled for late April, has been postponed to April 2027 due to ongoing geopolitical uncertainty in the Middle East. Tickets carry over automatically to the 2027 edition, or can be transferred to TOKEN2049 Singapore in October 2026.
Paris Blockchain Week — 15–16 April 2026 With TOKEN2049 now off the spring calendar, Paris Blockchain Week steps up as the next major gathering — covering infrastructure, regulation, AI x Web3, and institutional adoption, with major names including Coinbase, Binance, BlackRock, and Ripple expected to attend.
ETHPrague — 8–10 May 2026 ETHPrague 2026 is a conference and hackathon taking place at Municipal House Prague, with three days of talks, workshops, and hacking focused on Ethereum's future. A high-signal event for serious builders.
TOKEN2049 Singapore — 7–8 October 2026 The next edition of TOKEN2049 will take place at Marina Bay Sands, offering the global crypto community its next major gathering point of the year.
DappCon Berlin — 16–17 June 2026 Developer-focused event centred on Ethereum tooling, research, and real-world applications.
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