{"id":357734,"date":"2021-10-25T20:15:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-25T17:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/ethereum-competitor-near-launches-800m-developer-fund-as-defi-competition-heats-up\/"},"modified":"2021-10-25T20:15:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-25T17:15:00","slug":"ethereum-competitor-near-launches-800m-developer-fund-as-defi-competition-heats-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/ethereum-competitor-near-launches-800m-developer-fund-as-defi-competition-heats-up\/","title":{"rendered":"# Ethereum competitor Near launches $800M developer fund as DeFi competition heats up"},"content":{"rendered":"

“# Ethereum competitor Near launches $800M developer fund as DeFi competition heats up <\/strong>”
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Smart contract ecosystem Near Protocol has earmarked $800 million for new funding initiatives aimed at growing its decentralized finance capabilities, offering the latest evidence that the highly lucrative DeFi market is still in its infancy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The new funding, which includes the $350 million grants program<\/a> announced by Proximity Labs last week, gives ecosystem developers added incentive to create new product offerings on Near, the company announced<\/a> Monday. <\/p>\n

Roughly $250 million will be allocated to existing ecosystem developers; another $100 million is earmarked for startup grants, with Near planning to fund more than 20 startups at a rate of $5 million each. The remaining $100 million will be spent on so-called regional funds across Asia, Europe and the United States.<\/p>\n

Value locked in DeFi protocols has surged 936% over the past year, with Ethereum competitors such as Binance Smart Chain, Solana and Avalanche seeing considerable uptake, according to data from Dapp<\/a>Radar. Ethereum projects account for roughly 66% of the total value locked across DeFi, according<\/a> to industry sources. <\/p>\n

Despite Ethereum\u2019s overwhelming dominance, the DeFi market is growing at a torrid pace and is currently valued at over $247 billion \u2014 leaving plenty of room for competing platforms to capitalize. One year ago, the total value locked in DeFi projects was less than $13 billion. <\/p>\n

Related: <\/em><\/strong>Even with Ethereum 2.0 underway, L2 scaling is still key to DeFi\u2019s future<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Near accounts for a tiny sliver of the total DeFi market, but that could soon change as more developers tap into the new funding campaigns and users continue to search for alternatives to Ethereum-based protocols. As Cointelegraph recently reported, Ethereum\u2019s competitors have seen an influx of users fleeing the high fees on the ETH network. <\/p>\n