Aurora launches $90 million developer fund

Aurora, a blockchain layer in the NEAR protocol, has launched a $90 million token fund to accelerate the development of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.

The fund was unveiled today in collaboration with Proximity Labs, the DeFi division of the NEAR protocol. To create the fund, Aurora Labs, the core Aurora development team, gave Proximity Labs 25 million aurora tokens (about $90 million) from its DAO coffers.

Proximity will manage the tokens and provide grants to developers interested in building DeFi-based applications on Aurora. Such token-based funds are used by blockchain or cryptocurrency founders as a strategy to boost overall network activity.

Today’s funding from Aurora comes a month after the NEAR Protocol team (separate from Aurora Labs) raised $350 million in a funding round led by Tiger Global. This indicates that there are additional funds in the Near ecosystem for application development.

Although Aurora is part of the NEAR protocol ecosystem, it operates as a separate blockchain layer. Its main feature is compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), the computing environment used by Ethereum applications.

With the launch of its new developer fund, Aurora Labs said it hopes to make its EVM layer on Near more attractive to Ethereum developers.

“Aurora DAO continues its mission to expand the Ethereum economy beyond the Ethereum blockchain. This grant is the next big step in the development of the Aurora ecosystem, and I am delighted that Proximity Labs is accompanying us on this journey,” said Alex Shevchenko, founder of Aurora Labs.

Aurora has become an important network in the Near ecosystem because of its compatibility with EVM. It is home to new DeFi-focused applications, including Aurigami, Bastion, Trisolaris and others, which account for more than $800 million in total blockchain assets.

It has also recently begun to attract Ethereum-based lead projects. Last week Curve Finance, a leading Ethereum-based decentralized exchange, launched its DeFi offering on Aurora.