Ethereum Foundation Ecosystem Support Program (ESP)
Ethereum Foundation · Web3 public-goods grant
VariesAmount set per proposal (paid in ETH by default); $29.1M awarded across 388 projects in 2025
Milestone-based grants from the Ethereum Foundation for open-source public goods (infrastructure, research, developer tools and community resources) tied to its Wishlist and RFPs.
Key terms
- Work must be free, open-source and non-commercial, aligned with CROPS (censorship resistance, open source, privacy, security)
- For-profit companies can apply if the funded work is open source
- Applications respond to Wishlist or RFP items
- Paid in milestones, with a public report at completion
- Budget negotiated with the Grant Management team
Eligibility
- Where
- Worldwide
- Stages
- idea, pre-seed, seed, series-a, growth
- Needs VC/accelerator backing
- No
- Needs partner referral code
- No
- Must be incorporated
- No
- AI focus required
- No
- Students / researchers
- Eligible
- Nonprofits
- Eligible
Also required
- Funded work must be open source and benefit Ethereum
How to apply
Pick a Wishlist or RFP item, then submit a proposal with methodology, timeline and deliverables. Free Office Hours are available for feedback.
- Benefit
- cash
- Equity-free
- Yes
- Decision time
- —
- Credit validity
- —
- Deadline
- Rolling (Wishlist/RFP-based)
- Status
- Open
Verified 2026-10-22 · source