Avalanche Foundation Awards $160K to Six Projects in Fourth Retro9000 Cohort
Rongchai Wang Feb 27, 2026 17:27
Avalanche's $40M retroactive grant program distributes over $160,000 to L1 builders while introducing new C-Chain round rewarding projects by AVAX burned.
The Avalanche Foundation has distributed over $160,000 to six projects in the fourth cohort of its Retro9000 retroactive grant program, while simultaneously launching a new funding mechanism that rewards builders based on actual on-chain usage.
ChainArq, Orange, Paradise Tycoon, The Grotto, FanHub, and TURF Network all received funding for launching Avalanche Layer 1s and infrastructure tooling on mainnet. The grants come from a $40 million pool established to reward developers who've already shipped working products rather than just promising future delivery.
From Building to Usage
The more interesting development here isn't the grants themselves—it's the pivot in how Avalanche plans to evaluate future recipients.
The new C-Chain Round introduces a straightforward metric: AVAX burned through transaction fees. Every C-Chain transaction burns AVAX, so the Foundation can now rank applications by actual demand rather than subjective assessments. Top 40 projects on the public leaderboard become eligible for rewards each round.
This approach eliminates much of the guesswork in grant allocation. A project either drives transactions or it doesn't—the blockchain provides the receipts.
Timing and Market Context
The announcement lands during an eventful week for Avalanche. Just two days ago, Japan's Progmat platform announced it would migrate over $2 billion in tokenized securities to the network. AVAX jumped 10% on February 26 following news of the real-world asset inflow.
However, AVAX currently trades at $9.01, down 0.2% over 24 hours as of February 27, with a market cap of $3.84 billion. The ecosystem also received sobering news this week: Colony, an Avalanche-focused accelerator, announced it will shut down at the end of Q1 2026.
The Foundation's continued grant distribution suggests confidence in organic ecosystem growth even as some support infrastructure winds down.
Referral Incentives
Community members can earn up to $3,000 in AVAX per project, per round, by referring builders who ultimately receive funding. The mechanism aims to crowdsource deal flow—essentially paying the community to identify promising projects the Foundation might otherwise miss.
Grant distributions remain subject to KYB and KYC requirements. Projects interested in the C-Chain Round can apply at retro9000.avax.network, where the public leaderboard tracks AVAX burned by contract address in real time.
Image source: Shutterstock- avalanche
- avax
- retro9000
- grants
- layer 1
