GMX Receives 12M ARB From Arbitrum Grants; Lido Finance Refrained

The Short-Terms Incentive Program (STIP) of the Arbitrum network has seen its finale and brought interesting results. The community celebrated perpetual trading protocol GMX getting the most out of the 50 Million ARB, equivalent to approximately $40 Million. While the biggest Ethereum liquidity provider, Lido Finance, could not even attain the required voting numbers.

The funding from Arbitrum governance through voting concluded on October 12. About 29 projects applied for the grant including big names like Lido Finance, PancakeSwap, GMX, etc. The decision for the grant was to be made based on the voting of governance delegates.

Out of these applicants, perpetual trading platform GMX bagged the most funds. It received 12 Million ARB worth $10 Million. Second to GMX was a leveraged decentralized exchange, Gains Network, which gathered 7 Million ARB tokens.

Certainly, it appeared that the Arbitrum community had a clear inclination toward perpetual (perp) projects. This preference extended to other projects like MUX Protocol and Perennial Laba, which also received community support. Perpetuals constituted 44% of the overall funding, while decentralized exchanges (DEXes) ranked second, securing 15% of the funds.

PancakeSwap (CAKE) was among the decentralized exchanges that made the list. The voting snapshot revealed that approximately 100 projects sought the grant. Nonetheless, rejection in this round doesn’t necessarily eliminate the possibility for the projects that didn’t make it; they might have another chance in a future round.

The Special Token Incentive Program (STIP) is a one-time distribution, and those who receive the grants cannot convert their ARB rewards to other tokens or take part in any governance activities. The grant proposal was introduced and approved in September, 2023.

Lido Finance Left Refrained From Arbitrum Grants

The decentralized finance community is dissatisfied with Lido Finance and the governance panel for Arbitrum grants followed the majority’s sentiment.

The liquidity provider protocol was one of the 29 projects vying for a portion of the 50 million ARB allocated in Arbitrum’s STIP. However, Lido’s voting proportion, with 43.6% of delegated votes in favor of the proposal, fell short of the required 50% threshold to secure the grant, as 31.3% were against it, and 25% abstained from voting.

Prominent community members showed up and celebrated Lido’s not being able to make it through voting and refrained from receiving grants.

In a recent development, Superphiz, the organizer of the ETHStaker community, voiced his contentment over Arbitrum delegates’ rejection of incentives for Lido on their network.

He sees this as a notable triumph for their future endeavors. Evan Van Ness, the curator of the Week In Ethereum newsletter, emphasized that Arbitrum’s choice to oppose incentivizing Lido conveys a powerful signal, suggesting that the Ethereum ecosystem is growing more vigilant and security-conscious.

Lido announced its intention to utilize the requested ARB tokens to offer incentives for stETH liquidity on Arbitrum-based decentralized exchanges, particularly in conjunction with ETH and stablecoins. The project further noted that enhancing liquidity could potentially enable the native minting of stETH on Arbitrum in the upcoming days.