Hi everyone, Wintermute is excited to announce our first batch of grant applications we intend to support for Round 1 of Arbitrum’s Short-Term Incentive Program.

Grant Selection Criteria

Our selection process is based on the set of core selection characteristics outlined below.

Core Selection Characteristics:

• STIP Goal Alignment - Grant applications should be conducive with the goals of the STIP.
• Innovative Grant Disbursement - Innovative incentive designs are a plus as they will provide new data and insights.
• Justifiable Grant Size - Grant size must be reasonable given the short timeframe and should have a clear overview of how tokens will be distributed.
• Potential Long-lasting Benefits - The incentive design has the potential to bring long-lasting benefits.

However, this does not necessarily mean that a project had to satisfy all characteristics.

Selected Applicants

We have selected 5 initial protocols that we plan to support once voting goes live for Round 1:

1. Vertex Protocol - 1.8M to 3M ARB
2. Balancer - 1.2M ARB
3. Socket - 1M ARB
4. RabbitHole - 1M ARB
5. Angle Protocol - 200k to 700k ARB

Rationale

Vertex Protocol

Vertex Protocol has successfully proven its ability to attract users, liquidity providers, and trading volume by providing a highly professional trading experience on Arbitrum. The grant size is on the high end, however, we like that it scales with the success of the program and that any unused funds will be returned. Overall, the grant objectives align with the goals of the STIP; reduced fees will put Vertex ahead of CEX competitors and hopefully migrate users; incentivizing the democratization of order book LPing adds another bit of infrastructure to Arbitrum within an already successful protocol.