Arthur Hayes’ Maelstrom fund has announced a new Bitcoin grant program to advance the technical development of the world’s first blockchain network.

Maelstrom’s new Bitcoin (BTC) grant program will be offering developers grants between $50,000 to $150,000 on a 12-month basis, with grant stacking of up to $250,000 per individual developer.

The program aims to give back to Bitcoin open-source developers and further promote the development of the network.  According to the announcement:

“The objective of the program is to help with the technical development of Bitcoin and enhance its resilience, scalability, censorship resistance, and privacy characteristics. We have the capacity to support Bitcoin developers and are committed to an open and transparent grant process.”

Maelstrom is a family office fund investing in decentralized technologies. It is led by CIO Arthur Hayes, a popular crypto entrepreneur and the former CEO of the BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange.

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Bitcoin grants could be awarded as soon as Q3

A potential grantee will be expected to contribute to Bitcoin’s technical development, including pull requests or review work for the Bitcoin Core software project.

Grants will be issued for 12 months in Bitcoin, Circle’s USD Coin (USDC), and Tether USD (USDT), according to the announcement.

Grants are expected to be awarded to developers during the third or fourth quarter of 2024. Developers can submit their grant applications with Maelstrom until August 25.

Interest in Bitcoin development was reignited this year, first because of the newfound interest brought by the United States spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and the 2024 Bitcoin halving that occurred in April.

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