Acala announces $250 million fund to fuel adoption of aUSD stablecoin on Polkadot

Acala, a parachain project on Polkadot, has launched a $250 million ecosystem fund to boost the adoption of its stablecoin. 

Acala’s $250 million ecosystem fund is being stood up with the aim of accelerating the development of DApps that make use of its stablecoin, Acala USD (aUSD), on Polkadot. Polkadot is an interoperability network that connects many application-specific blockchains, dubbed parachains.

The ecosystem fund drew participation from an array of industry firms, including Alameda Research, Arrington Capital, Digital Currency Group, IOSG, Jump Crypto, Kraken Ventures and Pantera Capital, among others.

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In a press statement shared with The Block, Acala said the fund will provide grants to early-stage Polkadot projects in areas like decentralized finance (DeFi), derivatives, payments, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) that incorporate its aUSD stablecoin.

“The fund is meant to support any team building on any Polkadot parachain with a strong aUSD use case,” Dan Reecer, chief growth officer at Acala, told The Block.

Acala is also partnering with other Polkadot parachains – Astar Network, Centrifuge, Efinity, HydraDX, Manta, Moonbeam, OriginTrail, Parallel, and Zeitgeist — on aUSD adoption.

The aUSD stablecoin lies at the heart of Acala's DeFi offerings. It can be minted using collateral tokens on Polkadot, including polkadot (DOT), kusama (KSM), acala (ACA) and karura (KAR) and then be staked for yield.

About Author

Vishal Chawla is The Block’s crypto ecosystems editor and has spent over six years covering tech protocols, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Vishal likes to delve deep into blockchain intricacies to ensure readers are well-informed about the continuously evolving crypto landscape. He is also a staunch advocate for rigorous security practices in the space. Before joining The Block, Vishal held positions at IDG ComputerWorld, CIO, and Crypto Briefing. He can be reached on Twitter at @vishal4c and via email at [email protected]