Leading cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has announced donating $250,000 to the Ethereum Foundation in a bid to support the open-source developer teams behind Ethereum 2.0. According to the official press release, the fund will be granted to developers working on nodes that maintain the network software over the following months. The exchange further mentioned that the funds would be directed to projects that drive over 80% of the distributed Ethereum network.
Kraken’s announcements come just a few weeks after Ethereum underwent a successful London hard fork which saw the blockchain network introduce five highly-awaited upgrades to its software.
Following the development, Kraken CEO and co-founder Jesse Powell stated,
“As the first major exchange to list ETH for trading, Kraken is proud once again to lead the way by giving back to the courageous builders who are hard at work on the front lines of crypto innovation.”
Kraken’s grants for Ethereum ecosystem’s development
The cryptocurrency exchange clients have reportedly staked more than 800,000 ETH, worth more than $2 billion, to secure the Beacon Chain, which happens to be the PoS version of the ETH blockchain. As a result, they have already made over 25,000 Ether in rewards via this offering by the end of July.
Besides, this is not the first time Kraken has been involved in the donation for the ETH ecosystem. As a matter of the fact, the crypto platform had previously given out grants to the decentralized ETH funding platform Gitcoin, which assisted Kraken to allocate $150,000 to the blockchain network’s infrastructure projects. Additionally, some of the other platforms to have received grants from the global exchange are Brink, BTCPay Server, and the University of Wyoming.
Ethereum Foundation Executive Director Aya Miyaguchi lauded the “collaborative efforts” and stated,
“We strongly believe that collaborative efforts and support are the most sustainable way to benefit Ethereum in the long-term. This joint effort to support teams and builders that maintain a diverse set of Ethereum clients is not only impactful, but sets a great example.”