Metis, Ethereum Layer-2 Network, Creates $100M Fund as Decentralized Sequencer Launch Nears

The MetisDAO Foundation, the organization behind layer 2 rollup Metis, said Monday that it has created a roughly $100 million fund to accelerate the growth of its ecosystem.

The fund, called the Metis Ecosystem Development Fund (Metis EDF), will allocate 4.6 million METIS tokens, which will all go to “sequencer mining, retroactive funding, deployment of new projects and other endeavors,” according to a press release shared with CoinDesk.

The METIS token price was $22.56 as of press time, down 8% over the past 24 hours.

The distribution of funds is planned for the first quarter of 2024, and potential recipients include those looking to build non-fungible tokens (NFTs), decentralized finance, smart contract development and blockchain security in the Metis ecosystem.

According to a blog post, Metis expects early next year to become the first optimistic rollup to decentralize its sequencer, a key component of a layer-2 network that bundles up transactions from users and passes them along to the main Ethereum blockchain.

The timing of distribution of the newly announced ecosystem funds will come a week after the Metis decentralized sequencer is supposed to go live.

“So the initial incentives for the sequencer pool will come from this fund,” Jose Fabrega, head of marketing at Metis, told CoinDesk.

The Metis team, led by co-founder Elena Sinelnikova, notably includes Natalia Ameline, the mother of Ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin.

“The MEDF will progressively evolve into a community-driven fund. It will be managed by the MetisDAO Foundation and Metis token holders, who will decide on grant allocation and project deployment on the Metis network,” the Metis team wrote in a press release. “Further down the project roadmap, Metis hopes the fund will become self-sustaining and ensure constant growth of the Metis ecosystem.”

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