The Arbitrum ecosystem and the DAO have achieved remarkable milestones throughout 2024.
As part of our ongoing commitment to transparency, the Arbitrum Foundation is pleased to share the 2024 Annual Transparency Report, highlighting key accomplishments across multiple strategic mandates.
Strategic Mandates of the Arbitrum Foundation
As outlined in our foundational bylaws, the Arbitrum Foundation operates under three primary strategic mandates:
-
Fostering Ecosystem Growth through grants and strategic partnerships,
-
Deepening Developer Education and leading community initiatives,
-
Overseeing and Supporting Technical Advancements.
Additionally, the Foundation plays a crucial role as a neutral steward in the DAO, ensuring the operationalization of ArbitrumDAO-approved initiatives.
Below, we provide a detailed overview of the progress made under each of these mandates in 2024.
Fostering Ecosystem Growth via Grants & Strategic Partnerships
Grants
In 2024, the Arbitrum Foundation continued its commitment to fostering the growth of the ecosystem by approving grants via the Arbitrum Foundation Grant Program to 276 diverse projects across various verticals such as decentralized finance (DeFi), gaming, infrastructure, NFTs, and social applications.
Beyond the general grant program, the Foundation also launched specialized funding initiatives, including the Frame It Grants and theTrailblazer AI Grant Program, which were designed to support early-stage innovation in emerging verticals. These initiatives have proved essential in nurturing new ideas and helping the ecosystem grow in novel directions.
Strategic Partnerships
The Arbitrum Foundation has also strengthened its ecosystem through strategic partnerships, entering into high-impact, milestone-based, multi-year contracts with several key partners. These partnerships typically involve funding exceeding 2M ARB and span an average duration of 2 years.
In the last quarter of 2024, the Arbitrum DAO approved a 250M ARB budget for strategic partnerships. Of this budget, over 11.2M ARB has already been committed to support teams working across various verticals, including Real-World Assets (RWAs), FinTech, and Orbit chains. These strategic partnerships play a pivotal role in expanding the reach and utility of the Arbitrum ecosystem.
—
Developer Education and Community Initiatives
Events and Developer Workshops
Developer education and community engagement were key focal points for the Foundation in 2024. The Foundation sponsored and hosted several workshops and events aimed at onboarding new developers and fostering a thriving community around Arbitrum. This includes having a major presence at EthCC, Token2049, Devcon, and regional events.
A major highlight was the launch of Arbiverse, an in-person builder gathering designed to promote networking and showcase the diversity of the Arbitrum developer community. Arbiverse events held in Singapore and Bangkok each attracted over 1,000 attendees, reaching an impressive audience of approximately 20 million on social media platforms.
Ambassador Program Expansion
In 2024, the Arbitrum Ambassador Program broadened its scope to include not only university students but also developers, non-developers, and enthusiasts from around the world. This expansion helped increase the program’s global reach and impact.
Dedicated ambassadors from 18 countries produced over 9,000 original posts covering a wide range of topics. These included fundamental concepts like “Arbitrum 101” as well as specialized areas such as DeFi, gaming, and AI development, thereby contributing to the education and growth of the Arbitrum ecosystem.
Technical Advancements
2024 was a year of significant technical progress for the Arbitrum ecosystem. Several key upgrades were approved by the Arbitrum DAO, advancing the technological foundation of the network.
Notable technical advancements include:
-
Stylus: A new, co-equal virtual machine that allows developers to write smart contracts in WASM-compatible languages like Rust, C, and C++.
-
BoLD: A novel dispute resolution protocol that enables permissionless validation for Arbitrum chains.
Additionally, Timeboost is currently undergoing the governance process. If approved, this protocol will allow chain owners to capture miner extractable value (MEV), while maintaining fast block times and protecting users from harmful behaviors such as sandwich attacks and front-running. 2024 also marked significant progress toward a Stage-2 Rollup, further solidifying Arbitrum’s alignment with Ethereum.
DAO Enablement and Operational Support
The Foundation has continued to play a pivotal role in supporting the Arbitrum DAO by enabling the execution of DAO-approved proposals in a compliant and transparent manner. Notable operational initiatives in 2024 include:
-
STEP Program Investments: The Foundation operationalized six investments into Real-World Asset (RWA) products through the STEP program.
-
GCP Foundation: The Foundation helped establish the GCP Foundation, which empowers the GCP team to execute its proposals while ensuring full transparency and accountability.
-
Non-Voting Observer Roles: The Foundation assumed non-voting, observer roles on councils such as the GCP Council and the ARDC Supervisory Council, further enhancing governance processes and supporting decentralized decision-making.
2024 Wrap-Up
The year 2024 has been a transformative one for the Arbitrum ecosystem, with significant progress made in areas ranging from ecosystem growth to technical innovation. As we look toward 2025, the Arbitrum Foundation remains deeply committed to furthering the growth, development, and decentralization of the ecosystem.
We are excited to continue our work alongside the community, developers, and partners to build a stronger and more scalable future for Arbitrum.