The DeFi Spring program by the Starknet Foundation has recently been expanded with an additional allocation of 50 million STRK, as revealed in details released on Monday.
DeFi Spring 2.0 represents the Foundation’s renewed commitment to nurturing the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem of Starknet, an Ethereum Layer-2 rollup system.
This increase in funding follows a successful initial phase during which the Foundation earmarked 40 million STRK to support various DeFi projects. With this new allocation, the total amount designated for the program now stands at 90 million STRK.
The timeline for DeFi Spring 2.0 spans from July 1, 2024, and will continue at least until December 31, 2024.
In collaboration with OpenBlock Labs, the Starknet Foundation is working to ensure fair and equitable distribution of STRK across four categories of protocols: DEXs, borrowing and lending, perps and options, and a newly introduced “other” category that will include DeFi protocols accepting user deposits, as well as projects issuing yield or returns to users.
The DeFi Spring program, which was launched in February of this year, saw Starknet distribute 14.4 million STRK over 16 weeks, reaching over 106,000 users. A total of 14 protocols participated in the program, with the aim of expanding the Layer 2 blockchain network’s DeFi ecosystem.
According to the latest announcement, the initiative generated significant economic activity within the L2 chain’s ecosystem over the past four months, despite the challenging market conditions and network issues that the project faced following the launch of its STRK token. As a result, Starknet has experienced a notable increase in total value locked (TVL), with the current value of assets held in Starknet smart contracts reaching $240 million. DeFiLlama data indicates a sharp growth from about $54 million in February when DeFi Spring was launched.
Projects participating in DeFi Spring include DEX protocol Ekubo, borrowing and lending platform Nostra, and Starknet’s first AMM mySwap.