Avalanche Reveals First Retro9000 Grantees

The Avalanche Foundation has announced the first recipients of its Retro9000 grant program, a retroactive funding initiative designed to support developers who have launched Avalanche Layer 1 (L1) blockchains or created essential developer tooling on the mainnet. This announcement reflects the Foundation’s ongoing commitment to fostering innovation and growth within the Avalanche ecosystem.

Avalanche Reveals First Retro9000 Grantees

Overview of the Retro9000 Grant Program

Retro9000 is backed by a $40 million funding pool and aims to reward projects that have already demonstrated impact by shipping Avalanche L1s and related infrastructure on the mainnet. The program specifically targets developers who have contributed foundational layers to the Avalanche network, including permissioned and permissionless L1 blockchains, as well as tooling that supports these chains.

The initial round of Retro9000 was connected to the Avalanche9000 Testnet campaign, which encouraged developers to experiment, deploy, and iterate on Avalanche L1s and supporting tools from the testnet stage to mainnet. Projects qualified for Retro9000 by participating in the testnet, launching an Avalanche L1, or developing critical infrastructure for Avalanche L1s.

Builders progressed on a leaderboard by sharing regular updates and engaging the community, which voted on their progress. This voting and visibility helped guide the evaluation process, allowing the community and Retro9000 committee to assess projects’ overall contributions before retroactive funding decisions were made.

Avalanche Reveals First Retro9000 Grantees

Snapshot Completion and Eligibility Criteria

The first Retro9000 snapshot was completed on April 15, 2025. To qualify, projects needed to be live on testnet and listed on the Retro9000 platform, actively live on mainnet as indicated on their respective project pages, and have received votes from the community on Retro9000. Furthermore, eligible projects had to be building infrastructure, developer tooling, or applications specifically for Avalanche L1s.

Each submission was reviewed by the Retro9000 committee, which used a structured decision matrix that considered technical contributions, usage metrics, alignment with Avalanche L1 objectives, community vote results, and the potential impact on the broader Avalanche ecosystem. The committee also factored in prior funding received through other Avalanche-related initiatives to ensure an equitable distribution of grants and to avoid overlapping support.

Avalanche Reveals First Retro9000 Grantees

Announcement of the First Retro9000 Grantees

The first cohort of Retro9000 grantees consists of 19 projects, which collectively received over $1 million in retroactive grants. These projects have demonstrated measurable impact by launching live Avalanche L1s or providing critical infrastructure tooling on the mainnet.

The selected grantees include L1Beat, Suzaku, Tesseract, Snowpeer, COQnet, FCHAIN, KALICHAIN, PLYR L1, NodΞRunr, Avalanche for Humans, Ami, CodeNekt, Cedomis, Koroshi, Hatchyverse, Memoria, Animalia, Sherry, and Inverter Network. The distribution of funds will proceed once the grantees complete required Know Your Business (KYB) and Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance procedures. The Avalanche Foundation has already contacted these projects to coordinate the next steps in the grant process.

Avalanche Reveals First Retro9000 Grantees

Future Retro9000 Funding Opportunities

Retro9000 is designed as an ongoing program with quarterly snapshots to identify and fund additional projects making an impact within the Avalanche ecosystem. The next snapshot is scheduled for July 15, 2025, at 12:00 UTC. Developers and teams interested in retroactive funding are encouraged to continue building publicly, engaging the community to receive votes, and deploying projects on the Avalanche mainnet. These efforts will enhance their eligibility for upcoming Retro9000 grant rounds.