Season 9 Governance Fund Missions
Funder
Optimism Governance Fund · Season 9 Governance Fund
Type / status
other · open
Amount
4,870,000 OP · ≈ $493k
Deadline
unknown
Ecosystems
optimismsuperchain
Categories
defidev tooling
Tech stack
Apply
Source
Fit
8% · poor fit · The Venture23 Aleo team works exclusively in the Aleo ecosystem with a tech stack of Rust, Leo, and ZK, which is entirely outside the Optimism Superchain and DeFi focus required for this governance fund.
Trust
55% · model self-report 85% · first seen 2026-09-09 · v3
Verified
2026-09-15 · page still up, no closing language
The Optimism Governance Fund allocates OP tokens to support DeFi ecosystem growth through grants managed by the Grants Council and Developer Advisory Board. Funding targets projects that increase DEX TVL and trading volume per TVL for collateral-borrow pairs on lending markets across Superchain chains. Grants are awarded based on measurable impact on these metrics by the end of Season 9.
Eligibility: Projects deployed on eligible OP Chains that are part of the Superchain and contribute revenue back to the Collective, as defined by the Superchain Index. Additional criteria may be set by the Grants Council or Developer Advisory Board.
Pipeline
Trust breakdown (2/3 checkable facts verified)
| Signal | Weight | Result | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| amount | 0.25 | 0% | figure not found in source |
| apply link | 0.075 | 100% | link in source |
| funder | 0.075 | 100% | named in source |
| source quality | 0.15 | 80% | grants section or aggregator |
| model confidence | 0.1 | 85% | model self-report |
Fit breakdown (against the ORG_* profile)
| Signal | Weight | Result | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| model fit | 0.5 | 10% | model rated 10% |
| ecosystem overlap | 0.25 | 0% | optimism, superchain vs aleo |
| category overlap | 0.15 | 17% | defi, dev_tooling vs zk, privacy, infra, dev_tooling, security, interoperability |
| tech overlap | 0.1 | 0% | none vs rust, leo, zk |
Sources (1)
| Role | Document | From | Fetched |
|---|---|---|---|
| primary | Season 9 Governance Fund Missions | Optimism forum: grants, announcements | 2026-09-09 |
History (3)
| v | Changed | Fields |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | 2026-09-09 | summary, status |
| 2 | 2026-09-09 | summary, amountMin, amountMax, status, type |
| 1 | 2026-09-09 | created |
Extracted text
# [](#p-45977-governance-fund-missions-1)Governance Fund Missions
## [](#p-45977-grants-council-mission-2)Grants Council Mission
1. **Expected impact on the Intent:**
The Grants Council makes grants, on behalf of the Token House. In Season 9, the Grants Council will work towards the below success metrics.
**Primary: DEX TVL for collateral-borrow pairs that exist on lending markets (e.g., Morpho, Aave, etc.)**
* **Purpose:** Growing TVL in strategically relevant DEX pools helps foster a healthy DeFi ecosystem
* **Requirement:** Both assets in a given liquidity pair need to be available on lending markets (e.g., WETH/USDC DEX pool → WETH is the collateral asset and USDC is the borrowed asset on Morpho)
* **Note:** We will link to a sheet that we’ll update on an ongoing basis, which will show the highest-priority liquidity pairs
**Secondary: DEX trading volume per TVL for collateral-borrow that exist on lending markets**
* **Purpose:** Trading volume per TVL measures demand-side activity for a liquidity pool and therefore serves as a reliable proxy for healthy ecosystem dynamics
1. **Total budget:** 3.89M OP from the Governance Fund, as proposed by Budget Board [here](https://gov.optimism.io/t/budget-board-advisory-proposal-for-governance-fund-season-9/10532) Please note this budget was ~6.29M OP in Season 8
2. **Eligibility:** The Foundation recommends that all incentive programs for Season 9 be available to any chain in the Superchain who is contributing revenue back to the Collective. This corresponds to the any chain in the [Superchain Index](https://www.superchain.eco/chains). Projects are eligible who have deployed their own contracts on eligible OP Chains. Additional criteria may be determined by the Grants Council.
3. **Selection Algorithm:** It is at the discretion of the Grants Council to determine their own selection algorithm. Selection algorithms (which have taken the form of public rubrics in the past), must be made public on the forum before the first round of selection takes place.
4. **Evaluation Algorithm:** Projects selected by the Grants Council will be assessed, based on their ability to generate contribution towards the success metrics defined above, by OP Labs or Open Source Observer on the measurement date.
5. **Measured Outcomes:**
**Primary: DEX TVL for collateral-borrow pairs that exist on lending markets (e.g., Morpho, Aave, etc.)**
* **Purpose:** Growing TVL in strategically relevant DEX pools helps foster a healthy DeFi ecosystem
* **Requirement:** Both assets in a given liquidity pair need to be available on lending markets (e.g., WETH/USDC DEX pool → WETH is the collateral asset and USDC is the borrowed asset on Morpho)
* **Note:** We will link to a sheet that we’ll update on an ongoing basis, which will show the highest-priority liquidity pairs
**Secondary: DEX trading volume per TVL for collateral-borrow that exist on lending markets**
* **Purpose:** Trading volume per TVL measures demand-side activity for a liquidity pool and therefore serves as a reliable proxy for healthy ecosystem dynamics
1. **Measurement Date:**
* End of Season 9
### [](#p-45977-strategic-rationale-3)**Strategic Rationale**
1. **Proactive Grants are Needed to Incentive Growth:** The Mission supposes that proactive grants are needed to incentivize growth in the above defined success metrics. Otherwise, these tokens could be allocated via other means.
2. **Grants Council Acts as an Extension of Growth Team:** The Mission supposes that the Grants Council is an effective means of distributing user incentive grants. The Collective could, alternatively, chose to distribute user incentives via third party growth campaigns or the Foundation’s growth team.
* * *
## [](#p-45977-developer-advisory-board-mission-4)Developer Advisory Board Mission
1. **Expected impact on the Intent:**
The Developer Advisory Board will make grants that drive developer adoption, either in the form of Audit grants or Mission Requests. These grants should make progress towards the below metrics:
**Primary: DEX TVL for collateral-borrow pairs that exist on lending markets (e.g., Morpho, Aave, etc.)**
* **Purpose:** Growing TVL in strategically relevant DEX pools helps foster a healthy DeFi ecosystem
* **Requirement:** Both assets in a given liquidity pair need to be available on lending markets (e.g., WETH/USDC DEX pool → WETH is the collateral asset and USDC is the borrowed asset on Morpho)
* **Note:** We will link to a sheet that we’ll update on an ongoing basis, which will show the highest-priority liquidity pairs
**Secondary: DEX trading volume per TVL for collateral-borrow that exist on lending markets**
* **Purpose:** Trading volume per TVL measures demand-side activity for a liquidity pool and therefore serves as a reliable proxy for healthy ecosystem dynamics
1. **Total budget:** 0.98M OP from the Governance Fund, as proposed by Budget Board [here](https://gov.optimism.io/t/budget-board-advisory-proposal-for-governance-fund-season-9/10532)
* Please note this is relative to 949k OP in Season 8
2. **Eligibility:** The Foundation recommends that all incentive programs for Season 9 be available to any chain in the Superchain who is contributing revenue back to the Collective. This corresponds to the any chain in the [Superchain Index](https://www.superchain.eco/chains). Projects are eligible who have deployed their own contracts on eligible OP Chains. Additional criteria may be determined by the Developer Advisory Board.
3. **Selection Algorithm:** It is at the discretion of the Developer Advisory Board to determine their own selection algorithm. Selection algorithms (which have taken the form of public rubrics in the past), must be made public on the forum before the first round of selection takes place.
4. **Evaluation Algorithm:** Projects selected by the Developer Advisory Board will be assessed, based on their ability to generate contribution towards the success metrics defined above, by OP Labs or Open Source Observer on the measurement date.
5. **Measured Outcomes:**
**Primary: DEX TVL for collateral-borrow pairs that exist on lending markets (e.g., Morpho, Aave, etc.)**
* **Purpose:** Growing TVL in strategically relevant DEX pools helps foster a healthy DeFi ecosystem
* **Requirement:** Both assets in a given liquidity pair need to be available on lending markets (e.g., WETH/USDC DEX pool → WETH is the collateral asset and USDC is the borrowed asset on Morpho)
* **Note:** We will link to a sheet that we’ll update on an ongoing basis, which will show the highest-priority liquidity pairs
**Secondary: DEX trading volume per TVL for collateral-borrow that exist on lending markets**
* **Purpose:** Trading volume per TVL measures demand-side activity for a liquidity pool and therefore serves as a reliable proxy for healthy ecosystem dynamics
1. **Measurement Date:**
* End of Season 9
### [](#p-45977-strategic-rationale-5)**Strategic Rationale**
1. **Proactive Grants are Needed to Incentive Growth:** The Mission supposes that proactive grants are needed to incentivize growth in the above defined success metric. Otherwise, these tokens could be allocated retroactively or via other means.
2. **Developer Advisory Board has Unique Ability to Drive Developer Growth:** The Mission supposes that the Developer Advisory Board is an effective means of distributing grants that result in developer growth. These grants include more technical aspects such as audits or previous Foundation Mission Requests: [Open-Source Monitoring & Alerting](https://gov.optimism.io/t/closed-governance-fund-mission-request-open-source-monitoring-alerting/10293) & [Cross-Chain Key Management for Safe](https://gov.optimism.io/t/closed-governance-fund-mission-request-cross-chain-key-management-for-safe/10294)