This thread is written by @jashdotfi from @Superchaineco with input from the Lisk DAO Grant Council and Steering Committee and provides an overview of the Lisk DAO Season 1 developments between the passing of the proposal on March 10th and the end of the first Season on June 11th.
Introduction
Lisk DAO Season 1 launched with the mission of accelerating the Lisk ecosystem by aligning with five core Social and Economical Intents and supporting builders through a robust, structured framework. Running in parallel with Optimism Season 7 and concluding on June 11th, 2025, this inaugural season marked a critical phase in Lisk DAO’s evolution.
Guided by a Grants Council and Steering Committee, Season 1 aimed to direct up to 3,500,000 LSK to fuel builders and dApps on Lisk Mainnet. Season 1 sets a strong foundation for long-term ecosystem growth, fostering innovation and utility while offering valuable insights to inform future governance decisions, including the potential LSK Token Burn.
Summary
Lisk DAO Season 1 was the first time that a large iniative was funded with Lisk DAO Treasury resources through an onchain vote and executed by a third-party. The Superchain Eco team is grateful to be one of the first contributors to Lisk DAO.
We believe Season 1 was a success as we made meanginful progress on all five socio-economic intents set at the start of the seaosn:
1) Make contributing to Lisk DAO engaging and rewarding: Supported hunderds of builders through the Lisk Pioneers program and Builder Grants.
2) Accelerate Lisk programs and builders: Doubled down on the Lisk Acceleration programs through the Programs Budget and supported builder in various stages. Supported deployments by key builder groups including RE7 / Morpho and Mellow to Lisk.
3) Grow the TVL of Lisk: Grew TVL on Lisk from ~5M to nearly 25M becoming a primarly hub for FX and ETH in the Superchian.
4) Increase Lisk’s contribution to the Superchain: Saw an increase of contributions in May and June. On track to be a top 10 OP chain by contributions to the Optimism Collective, which would qualify Lisk as a Citizen chain in Optimism Season 8.
5) Provide clear insights to help guide the LSK token burn vote: Shared our Mid-Report and provided research and a concept for an alternative token burn path including the creation of the Lisk Treasury and Governance Dashboard.
While some iniatives are still ongoing until July 31st, we anticipated to have ~1.8M LSK left over at the end of the Season, meaning we only spent just over half of the approved budget despite progressing on all of the intents.
Based the positive collaboration and success of Season 1, the Superchain Eco team is eager to continue to play a role in the development of Lisk and aims to submit a Season 2 proposal soon.
If no follow-up proposal is accepted, the unspent tokens will be returned to the Lisk DAO treasury by July 31st.
Initiatives
Season 1 Budget was split between three key initiatives that contribute to the Season 1 Intents as specified in the proposal.
Below is an overview of the final budgets of each of the Season 1 initiatives:
| Initiative | Budget | Approved | Spent | Remaining |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Builder Grants | 600K LSK | 594K LSK | 344K LSK | 6K LSK |
| Builder Programs | 400K LSK | 400K LSK | 400K LSK | 0K LSK |
| Ecosystem Incentives | 2,500K LSK | 1,050K LSK | 804K LSK | 1.450K LSK |
Initiative Progress
Builder Grants
16 Builder Grants were allocated in Season 1. All grants are milestone-based with funding only being released upon completion to ensure accountability and progress.
As indicated in our Mid Report, the Grant council has supported teams in sharpening their proposal by making a suitable budget for the stage of their project and adding clear deliverables.
We’re produced a S1 Grants Dashboard which can be viewed here providing an overview of all approved grants and budget allocations over time.
Key stats and takeaways:
- Most grantees (10 out of 16) are based in Africa, showcasing the strong interest and growth of Lisk in that region.
- So far, majority of projects are able to stick to the agreed timeline and deliverables
- Application rate picked up during the last weeks of the season. Some good projects interested in applying in the future.
- Lisk DAO has provided post grant marketing support to multiple grantees, including the Lisk Pioneer Program which was very well received.
Builder Programs
The Builder Programs budget was allocated to three key program following a Lisk DAO Vote.
The proposal scales initiatives that have already shown traction in onboarding developers and launching early-stage projects.
Breakdown of supported Builder Programs:
- Lisk Incubation – Africa Incubator: AyaHQ is a talent-focused incubator helping African founders build and launch Web3 projects. 25 projects joined the program, with 12 graduating into real products. AyaHQ continues to provide hands-on support and help local builders break into global markets.
- Lisk Spark – Indonesia’s First Web3 Incubator: Lisk Spark is run in partnership with AngelHack and Indonesia’s government-backed 1000 Startup Digital program, Lisk Spark has attracted 60+ applications with 7 projects now progressing toward deployment.
- Lisk Pioneer Program – Go-To-Market Readiness: Led by Key Difference, this 4-month accelerator focuses on helping Lisk-based teams refine their tokenomics, prepare for investors, and hit key product milestones. Out of 190 applications, 10 teams will be selected.
Each program offers a regionally tailored approach to high-growth markets for developer onboarding and project scaling, while contributing directly to Lisk’s long term goals of supporting founders and builders from all around the world to thrive on Ethereum for the first time.
Ecosystem Incentives
Lisk Surge, a 9-week liquidity initiative designed to accelerate DeFi on Lisk and grow non-LSK TVL on the network was the primarly incentive program in Season 1.
While still going on for 14 more days, the program can be considered a success as it grew the TVL of Lisk from 5M USD in early May to nearly 25M USD today. Jumper, one of the co-hosts of the program created an Surge dashboard measuring the activity through their UI (view here).
Impact of Lisk Surge
- Positioned Lisk as a key liquidity hub in the Superchain with 3 out of the top 10 Velodrome pools being on Lisk.
- Attracted over 20M of new liquidity to Lisk. From the share that bridged through Jumper, most assets came from Ethereum followed by Arbitrum and Base.
- Accelerated the deployment of key protocols such as Morpho and Mellow
- Enabled the growth of key FX pairs including the newly launched EURC.e (EUR) and the IDRX pair to become the largest hub for these tokens in the Superchain.
The budget earmarked for Lisk Surge was 1.05M LSK, however we only ended up spending 805K LSK. This means nearly 1.7M LSK of the incentives budget have not been spent on Season 1.
Future Outlook
We see strong reasons to continue the Lisk DAO Seasons as a way to progress the development of the Lisk Ecosystem.
For the next season we propose to further align the timelines of the Lisk Team, Airdrop, and DAO to ensure that Season become an ecosystem-wide initiative and further increase the ROI of the Lisk iniatives.
The Seasonal budgets should take into account the current state of the Lisk Treasury, which may be influence by the current Token Burn vote, to ensure sufficient runway.
We would love to grow the number of contributors to the Lisk Season and are especially eager to work with Lisk delegates who are capable at building an ecosystem. If you’re interested in playing a role in Season 2, please leave a comment in this thread!
