Hedera Hashgraph Gets $155M Fund To Drive DeFi Development

The Fund will focus is on increasing the network’s total value locked while providing “key” grants to DeFi developers, the foundation said

article-image

Blockworks exclusive art by axel rangel

share

key takeaways

  • The HBAR Foundation said it has launched its fund to drive DeFi innovation on the Hedera Hashgraph network
  • Non-custodial liquid staking platform Stader Labs has become one of the first developers to be awarded a grant from the fund

The HBAR Foundation has launched its $155 million Crypto Economy Fund in an effort to drive DeFi development on the Hedera Hashgraph network.

According to a statement on Tuesday, the fund is focused on increasing accessibility into and within the network while furthering the growth of the HBAR Economy.

The foundation is responsible for the development of the Hedera ecosystem by providing grants and other resources. Up to $60 million in grants from the fund are expected to go to decentralized exchanges which may be used as liquidity rewards, per the statement.

Non-custodial liquid staking platform Stader Labs has been awarded an undisclosed sum, among other developers.

Liquid staking enables staked assets to be used as collateral for lending, yield farming and other DeFi (decentralized finance) opportunities while allowing users to continue accruing rewards.

Stader will attempt to create a more “secure” decentralized staking infrastructure that “evolves” the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, the foundation said.

“Our goal is to bring the DeFi ecosystem to Hedera so that users can benefit from the scale and low-cost,” said HBAR Foundation CEO Shayne Higdon. “This level of cost, performance and scale is critical as more institutions and consumers come to Hedera for issuing tokens, swapping assets, and engaging in the crypto economy.”

Hashgraph utilizes a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) structure which the foundation said increases transactional speed and efficiency as more transactions are added to the network. Hedera processes around 2.6 million transactions per day, with transaction finalization times of roughly 5 seconds.

Other protocols using a DAG as their distributed ledger of choice, rather than a blockchain, include IOTA, Nano, and Fantom.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) represent low-hanging fruit in a massive market ripe for Web3-driven disruption. The global CDN market was valued at ~$28B in 2024, and is projected to surpass $140B by 2034, (18.75% CAGR) underscoring the immense demand for efficient content delivery.

article-image

Robinhood announced that it’s building an L2 and also plans to launch staking for US users

article-image

“We’re not really doing anything controversial,” said co-founder Zak Folkman at Permissionless last week

article-image

Why equities are more stable than in past decades, plus advice from Peter Lynch

article-image

As Permissionless speakers talk on-chain RWA potential, tokenized stock platform Dinari secures FINRA broker-dealer approval

article-image

JavaScript fueled a toxic ad model for the internet, says Brendan Eich, but crypto and privacy tech could help us escape it

article-image

Stablecoin drivers, the SEC’s war on ETH, and how AI is driving crypto