June has been a month of regulatory tension and internal recalibration. The CLARITY Act’s path through the Senate hit a rough patch while in Europe, Binance’s MiCA license withdrawal in Greece is a reminder that “harmonized” regulation still runs through very unharmonized national regulators. The Ethereum Foundation reorganized internally, cutting 20% of its team to refocus on long-horizon protocol work over short-term market noise. For builders, the funding landscape remains steady: new grant programmes are launching across AI, deep tech, and public goods, ecosystems continue deploying capital, and the summer conference and hackathon season is in full swing.
Here’s your curated update for June.
Here’s a fresh batch of funding opportunities for builders, researchers, and innovators in Web3:
Sentient Foundation Open Source AGI Grant Program A $42M open-source AGI initiative combining non-dilutive grants and founder-friendly investments for developers, researchers, and companies building open, decentralized AGI infrastructure, models, and tools. Rolling applications, no equity required. Focus: AI, AIAgents, DevTooling, Infra
COTI Web4 Grant Program Rewards AI agents directly for real on-chain activity — agents earn $COTI every 14 days based on verified usage, building on COTI’s new Agent Skills library for privacy-preserving on-chain automation. Focus: AI, AIAgents
Subspace Foundation Grants Program Funds builders on the Autonomys Network across five categories — infrastructure, AI-powered dApps & agents, integrations, research, and public goods — with funding available in $AI3 tokens, stablecoins, or USD. Focus: DevTooling, Education, Infra, PublicGoods, Social & Community, AI, AIAgents
GrantFox Campaign (Stellar) A $60,000 USDC prize pool for Stellar builders: complete tasks, solve issues, contribute to active initiatives. Build. Contribute. Earn. Focus: dApps, RWAs, DAOs, CrossChain, Data & Oracles, DeFi, DePIN, DevTooling, Education, Gaming, Infra, NFTs, Privacy & Security, PublicGoods, Social & Community, Stablecoins & Payments, Sustainability, ZK, DEXs, Events
Superteam USA — The Touching Grass Fund Up to $500 USDG for Superteam members who organize IRL Solana meetups across the US — funding for getting builders off Discord and into the same room. Focus: Education, PublicGoods, Social & Community, Events
Global Neobank Alliance Grant Program A selective program for promising neobanks, with funding focus spanning DeFi rails, infrastructure, stablecoin payments, and RWAs. Focus: DeFi, Infra, Stablecoins & Payments, RWAs
Agentic Engineering Grants $200 USDG to cover a month of premium AI coding tools — built on the idea that the barrier to building software has effectively collapsed. Focus: dApps, RWAs, DAOs, CrossChain, Data & Oracles, DeFi, DePIN, DevTooling, Education, Gaming, Infra, NFTs, Privacy & Security, PublicGoods, Social & Community, Stablecoins & Payments, Sustainability, ZK, DEXs, Events
Women TechEU EU-funded (EIC) support for women-led early-stage deep tech startups: €75,000 in non-dilutive grants plus mentorship, training, and investor matchmaking. Eligible sectors include AI, robotics, quantum, advanced connectivity, biotech, and space tech. Focus: AI, AIAgents, Infra, Privacy & Security
Startup Accelerator Grant Up to $10,000 in DD.xyz API credits to add a data layer to your dApp. Focus: dApps, Infra, DevTooling
Zealynx Audit Grants Subsidized security audits for early-stage projects. Focus: dApps, DeFi, Infra, DevTooling
A few things from this month worth reading together: one on Ethereum's internal reshuffle, one on US regulatory momentum, and one on regulatory friction in Europe.
The Ethereum Foundation completed a months-long reorganization, parting ways with 54 colleagues (roughly 20% of its headcount) as it moves to a five-cluster structure: protocol, access, user, community, and institutional layers, plus operations and management. The new shape is built around the CROPS principles Vitalik laid out earlier this year — censorship resistance, capture resistance, openness, privacy, and security — with each cluster owning a different piece of how Ethereum delivers self-sovereignty in practice, from core protocol hardening to institutional adoption pathways. The Foundation framed the cuts as necessary to focus resources on long-horizon work without getting pulled off course by short-term market swings, and is offering departing staff severance plus transition support to find new roles elsewhere in the ecosystem.
On the regulatory front, the CLARITY Act — the US crypto market structure bill — is hitting a critical window. It cleared the Senate Banking Committee 15-9 in May and was formally placed on the Senate's legislative calendar June 1, but bipartisan ethics talks collapsed on June 9 and law-enforcement objections to a key provision remain unresolved. Prediction markets have cut 2026 passage odds from roughly 74% to 48% over the past month, and with only about 31 Senate session days left before the August recess, the next few weeks will likely determine whether comprehensive federal crypto regulation happens this year — or slides into a lame-duck session with much longer odds.
Across the Atlantic, Binance withdrew its MiCA license application in Greece, after months of engagement with the Hellenic Capital Market Commission produced no formal decision as the MiCA transition period wound down. The exchange says user funds remain safe and accessible, and it plans to pursue authorization in another EU member state instead — a reminder that even under a “harmonized” MiCA framework, individual national regulators can still become a bottleneck. Worth watching for any teams or projects banking on a specific EU jurisdiction for their own licensing plans.
Plenty of excellent gatherings to meet other builders, show what you’re working on, and stay close to ecosystem trends.
ETHGlobal Lisbon — 24–26 July 2026 A 36-hour hackathon at Pavilhão Carlos Lopes with $125k+ in prizes from partners like 1inch, Sui, and World. Notably debuts ETHGlobal's first-ever Continuity Track, letting builders extend an existing open-source repo or ship a new feature to a live product — not just build from scratch in 36 hours. A good one to flag for builders who already have something shipping and want grant-adjacent momentum rather than a fresh demo.
European Blockchain Convention — Barcelona — 16-17 September 2026 Brings together founders, regulators, and enterprises from across Europe, with dedicated tracks on DeFi, the digital euro, and MiCA-era compliance. A natural lead-in to the Malta conference the following week if you're doing a European fall trip.
Blockchain and AI Conference 2026 — University of Malta — 23–25 September 2026. An interdisciplinary conference hosted by the University of Malta bringing together scholars, policymakers, technologists, and industry leaders to examine how blockchain and AI are reshaping governance, finance, law, identity, and civic participation. We attended last year and presented www.web3grants.co and can say it's one of those rare events where authentic engagement and meaningful content genuinely drive the programme, well beyond the buzzwords and marketing hype that dominate too many conferences in this space. Worth the trip to Valletta!
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.
Stay connected
Follow us on social media (Linkedin & X) for real-time updates on funding opportunities and more!
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.