Lisk DAO Season 2 Report
This thread is written by @Superchaineco with input from the Lisk DAO Grants Council and Steering Committee and provides an overview of the Lisk DAO Season 2 developments between the passing of the proposal on May 14th and the end of the second Season on December 17th, 2025.
This is a work-in-progress report, which will be completed in the second half of December when the season comes to an official end.
For those interested, we’re hosting a Lisk DAO Townhall on December 10th (join here), where we’ll present the progress from Season 2 and discuss the Season 3 plans.
Introduction
Lisk DAO Season 2 launched with the mission of accelerating the Lisk ecosystem by aligning with four core Social and Economic Intents and supporting builders through a structured framework. Running in parallel with Optimism Season 8 and concluding on December 17th, 2025, Season 2 built directly on the foundation laid in Season 1.
Guided by a Grants Council and Steering Committee, Season 2 directed a total of 3,925,000 LSK toward builders, programs, and incentives on Lisk Mainnet. Of this, 3,750,000 LSK was allocated directly to ecosystem growth across Development Grants, Incubation Programs, Ambassador Initiatives, and Ecosystem Incentives.
With the theme “Collaborations that drive real-world development,” the DAO focused on expanding the base of builders, fostering cross-ecosystem collaboration, and deepening onchain activity within Lisk and the broader Superchain.
Summary
Season 2 continued to mature the Lisk DAO’s operational framework and marked a clear step forward in execution. The DAO supported more than 70 applications across grants and incentives, launched LiskDAO.com as the central hub for all programs and funding, and introduced the Year End Builder Reward Campaign to close the season with a transparent snapshot of ecosystem activity. Together, these initiatives strengthened community participation, improved ecosystem coordination, and expanded the tools available to builders.
We believe Season 2 was a success as we made progress on the four socio-economic intents set at the start of the season:
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Make contributing to Lisk DAO engaging and rewarding: Continued supporting builders through the Grants Program and expanded coordination with Lisk Accelerators to engage more builders in emerging market regions. The launch of LiskDAO.com and the introduction of the Year End Builder Reward Campaign now provide builders with clearer pathways, better visibility, and direct incentives to participate.
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Accelerate Lisk programs and builders: Supported deployments such as Kyo Finance, a Superchain-native DEX expanding to Lisk, alongside new incubator partnerships to grow the builder pipeline. To close the season, we are also launching the Year-End Builder Reward Campaign to incentivise builders to register their progress and capture a complete snapshot of ecosystem activity for 2025.
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Grow the TVL of Lisk: Lisk DAO-funded initiatives, such as Kyo Finance and Lisk Surge Season 2, to grow non-LSK TVL and increase trading and liquidity activity on Lisk.
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Increase Lisk’s contribution to the Superchain: Lisk has now grown into a top 10 chain on the Superchain in both daily transactions and daily USD-denominated fees. It is also one of the few chains in the top 10 to record a 41% increase in daily revenue over the last 90 days, based on the data shown here, highlighting the momentum and growing economic activity happening on Lisk.
Initiatives
Season 2 Budget was split between four key initiatives that contributed to the Season 2 intents as specified in the proposal.
Below is an overview of the final budgets of each of the Season 2 initiatives:
| Initiative | Budget | Approved | SPent | Remaining |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Development & Infra Grants | 1,250,000 | 1,250,000 | 1,250,000 | 0 |
| Ecosystem Incentives | 1,500,000 | 1,482,000 | 1,482,000 | 18,000 |
| Ambassador Program | 250,000 | 250,000 | 250,000 | 0 |
| Incubation & Acceleration Programs | 750,000 | 750,000 | 750,000 | 0 |
Season 2 received over 61 applications, with 11 grants approved. 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 produced an S2 Grants Dashboard, which can be viewed here, providing an overview of all approved grants and budget allocations over time.
Key stats and takeaways:
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Most grantees (10 out of 11) are based in Emerging market regions, showcasing the strong interest and growth of Lisk in that region.
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So far, the majority of projects can stick to the agreed timeline and deliverables
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Application rate remained constant throughout the entire season. Some good projects are interested to apply in future seasons.
This approach continues to ensure the DAO supports credible builders with strong potential to deliver tangible results.
Ecosystem Incentives
The Grants Council approved 5 Ecosystem Incentive applications out of 12 total, with 1,482,000 LSK allocated and 18,000 LSK remaining.
One key initiative this season was with Kyo Finance, the leading DEX on Soneium, launching on Lisk Mainnet. Kyo is beginning its Superchain integration with Lisk, marking a significant milestone for cross-ecosystem collaboration.
Another major Ecosystem Incentive grant was approved for Quidax, the biggest CEX coming out of Nigeria and one of Africa’s most prominent regulated crypto exchanges. This initiative focuses on accelerating onchain adoption by subsidising all withdrawal fees from Quidax to Lisk, making Lisk the preferred chain for deposits and withdrawals across African markets.
Through Quidax’s on/off-ramp infrastructure, users will be able to buy LSK, USDT, and USDC with local currencies and move assets directly into Lisk Layer 2. With more than 1.2 million users and 200+ businesses integrating Quidax’s APIs, this partnership is expected to unlock meaningful real-world activity and position Lisk as a core settlement layer for the African fintech ecosystem.In parallel, Lisk Surge Season 2 is underway, building on the success of Season 1, which attracted over $25M in TVL.
Incubation & Acceleration Programs
All 750,000 LSK allocated to incubation and acceleration have been approved to strengthen a pipeline of projects committed to Lisk. This funding supports three established programs that continue to expand global participation.
1. AyaHQ’s Africa Incubator, which has already helped 25 projects launch with 12 graduating into real products; 2. Lisk Spark in Indonesia, run with AngelHack and the government-backed 1000 Startup Digital program, which has attracted over 60 applications and has 7 projects progressing toward deployment; 3. Lisk Crecimiento Growth Program in Latin America, which has been building a sustained pipeline of early-stage founders across the region. Through initiatives such as the Crecimiento Buildathon (60+ applications), the Rayuela Startup Program (24 scouted startups), participation in regional hackathons (78 submissions), and support for founder tracks and residencies in Patagonia. Together, these initiatives provide a structured pipeline for identifying, supporting, and scaling new builders in the Lisk ecosystem.
Ambassador Program
Across H2, Lisk ambassadors drove ecosystem expansion through founder support, developer onboarding, content and high-impact community engagement. Their work accelerated network adoption, strengthened local and regional partnerships, and supported Lisk across key African and Southeast Asian markets. For the full report, please view a complete breakdown of each ambassador’s contributions here.
Founder support
Ambassadors onboarded and mentored dozens of teams across Africa and Southeast Asia, including Bitsave, Slimepay, QuickSmag, Payrit, Orochi, Inherit Wallet, SAVE, Aliniex, Lummy Ticket, Seedlot, Neovestor, Doremi Finance and more. They drove meaningful onchain usage through initiatives like the Azza cashback campaign, Stormbot, Lucred vendor marketing and the growth of Slimepay and QuickSmag, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in activity. They also built pipelines into Lisk incubators and grants, reviewed LiskSpark incubatees, and advanced multiple teams toward graduation and deployment, supported by technical mentorship, code reviews, AA workshops and DevRel validation.
Events and content
Ambassadors represented Lisk at major events across Africa and Southeast Asia, including EthSafari, ETHAccra, Web3 Lagos, DevFest PH, the Stablecoin Summit, Devconnect Hanoi, Coinfest Asia and ETH Jakarta. They ran consistent X Spaces, podcasts, founder spotlights and local AMAs, many drawing more than 200 participants. In Indonesia, they launched Lisk IRL across multiple cities and organized builder dinners, workshops, hackathons, and university programs that activated new developer pipelines. They also produced high-signal content such as EMpower Fund explainers, regional recaps, tutorials, Lisk Growth Garden materials and Panna SDK advocacy.
Ecosystem growth
Ambassadors expanded Lisk’s regional presence by onboarding hubs like BWCN Zambia, strengthening coordination across Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and Zambia, and growing the Lisk Vietnam and Lisk SEA communities. They built institutional relationships with WeThinkCode_, Indonesian ministries, universities like BINUS, AngelHack, 1000 Startup Digital and multiple exchange partners. This work created transparent funnels into LiskDAO funding and incubators, supported by KarmaGAP tracking. Their outreach advanced real-world adoption through Quidax on/off-ramp integrations, fintech and merchant engagement and targeted campaigns that increased users, TVL and onchain activity across Lisk.
Lisk DAO Website
As part of Season 2, we launched the Lisk DAO Website, a unified home for all programs, incentives, funding pathways, and governance resources. The website gives builders, contributors, and community members a clear and accessible overview of everything happening across the ecosystem.
The site highlights active and upcoming efforts such as builder programs, incentive programs, and ecosystem gatherings. It also introduces a streamlined Funding page where teams can apply to the Lisk DAO Fund, get reviewed by the Investment Committee, and access support to scale their products. Together, these additions ensure the new website acts as a comprehensive gateway for builders looking to join, contribute to, and grow within the Lisk ecosystem.
Lisk Year-End Builder Campaign
As Season 2 concludes, the DAO has launched the Year-End Builder Reward Campaign, a focused initiative running from December 3 to December 18, 2025. The goal is to highlight the progress made by builders throughout the year and capture a clear snapshot of activity across Lisk Mainnet.
The program allocates 75,000 LSK in rewards, structured to reward both participation and measurable impact:
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1,000 LSK for the first 50 projects that complete their KarmaGAP profile and integrate Divvi.
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A 25,000 LSK performance pool distributed to the most impactful teams, as determined by the Lisk DAO Steering Committee.
Teams join by updating their project profile on KarmaGAP, linking relevant socials, documentation, and prior Lisk funding, then selecting the Year-End Builder Reward Campaign from the Funding tab. Once submitted, projects appear in the Lisk Year-End Community for transparent tracking.
This campaign strengthens ecosystem reporting, improves visibility into builder progress, and rewards teams contributing to Lisk Mainnet. All eligible projects and winners will be announced on December 18, with payouts delivered within 24 hours.
A detailed breakdown of participation and final results will be published in a follow-up report.
Future Outlook
Season 2 demonstrated clear progress across grants, incentives, and ecosystem coordination. With 70+ applications, new incubator partnerships, and the first Superchain integrations live, the DAO is set to continue scaling impact across builders, liquidity, and participation.
We see strong reasons to continue the Lisk DAO Seasons as the primary framework for ecosystem development. For the next season, our focus is on deepening the connection between funding and measurable onchain impact. This means strengthening the way we evaluate builders, improving transparency around progress, and ensuring that every LSK spent contributes directly to real usage, adoption, or growth on Lisk.
The newly launched EMpower Fund and Lisk DAO fund will play a key role in the 2026 strategy of Lisk DAO. Our aim for Season 3 is to attract promising teams to the Lisk ecosystem and forward them to the funds and accelerate fund portfolio companies through our growth programs and initiatives.
Next season, we aim to further integrate Karma as the central hub for grant applications, endorsements, milestone tracking, and public reporting. By moving our processes into a transparent, community-visible system, we can create better accountability while giving delegates, ambassadors, and builders clearer ways to collaborate.
Our goal is to sharpen incentives, support builders who can deliver tangible results, and make the path from proposal to measurable impact more open, structured, and aligned with the long-term health of the Lisk ecosystem.
We warmly invite all Lisk stakeholders to test, participate in, and share feedback on the current programs. Join the Lisk DAO town hall on December 10th (join here) to discuss this report and the upcoming proposal with the other Lisk Ecosystem stakeholders
