DeFi Infra & Tooling Bounty – Top-Up Proposal (Summary)

The DeFi Infra & Tooling Bounty has become a key driver of Polkadot DeFi adoption by funding SDKs, APIs, on/off-ramps, CEX integrations, analytics tools, and—more recently—full-stack dApps. We're opening up this discussion for the community to provide their feedback on the Top-Up of the bounty and the proposed strategy for the Bounty going forward.

You can find the full proposal in this link

Progress to Date

• 30 integrations funded since April 2024 (target was 10).
• Average cost per project: $98k (well below $200k target).
• Examples: KuCoin, Chainflip, Meld, Ripio, Banxa, The Graph, DIA, Uniswap V3, Morpho Blue.
• $2.94M deployed/committed; most of the current balance of 174k DOT already allocated to milestones.

Request

We seek a 1,000,000 DOT top-up to:

• Finalize pending contracts and expand the current pipeline.
• Support blue-chip DeFi deployments and native builders for the upcoming launch of Polkadot Hub.
• Launch the DeFi Builders Program (DBP) to bootstrap the first wave of Hub dApps and leverage the bounty as one of the available funding sources for selected teams.
• Continue stablecoin integrations on top-tier CEXs and on-ramps post Asset Hub Migration (AHM).
• If approved, Velocity Labs and bounty curators will charge a retroactive fee from the top up based on the first bounty amounts. (more details on the full proposal)
• This will provide us with ~12–15 months of runway at current deployment pace.

Capital Allocation Blueprint

• 32.5% Blue-chip DeFi deployments (proven codebases, >$500m TVL).
• 27.9% Native builders via DBP.
• 23.2% Infra & tooling.
• 9.3% CEX & on/off-ramps.
• 7.1% Retroactive curator fees (Velocity Labs + other curators).

Key Learnings

• Milestone-based funding saved treasury capital when teams under-delivered.
• Cross-bounty collaboration (e.g., with Marketing Bounty) expanded reach.
• Improved pipeline triage, curator refresh, and more efficient disbursement processes are being implemented.
• Provided the ecosystem with a streamlined program to fund infrasturcture deployments without depending on Parity or W3F.

Strategic Evolution

• With EVM on Asset Hub and the creation of the Polkadot Hub, infra alone is no longer enough.
• Bounty scope expands from infra → dApps + infra, positioning it as a full-stack GTM enabler.
• DeFi Builders Program adds capital, liquidity scaffolding, marketing, and mentorship to attract top builders. The top-up of the bounty will be a key piece of the program.

Conclusion

The bounty has proven capital-efficient and impactful, tripling initial targets while reducing costs and empowering Velocity Labs as a trusted core contributor to the ecosystem.

A 1M DOT top-up will sustain momentum, fund first-wave Hub dApps, and strengthen Polkadot’s DeFi moat ahead of Polkadot Hub’s launch.

After having the discussion opened for a week, we've moved on to submit our proposal on-chain. So far we haven't received any comments on our proposal but we'll be monitoring the comments to answer any questions or suggestions that arise throughout the voting process.

By Velocity Labs and the Bounty Curators