Arbitrum Trailblazer 2.0

Arbitrum Trailblazer 2.0 was a $1M grant program for agentic DeFi, paying up to $10,000 per submission for DeFi agents, agent templates and contributions built with Vibekit, the Arbitrum-native MCP agent framework developed by Ember. It is over.

As of October 2026: the Arbitrum Foundation's grants page lists Trailblazer 2.0 as inactive and complete, with no application link. Its sister program, the $1M Trailblazer AI Grant Program, is also complete, and no Trailblazer 3.0 has been announced. Trailblazer 2.0 launched in June 2025.

What did it pay?

Up to $10,000 per accepted submission from a $1M pool, for real utility: deployed agents, reusable agent templates or Vibekit contributions.

What is still open on Arbitrum?

The Foundation's grants page marks two programs active. The Arbitrum Audit Program puts $10M in ARB over 12 months toward subsidised third-party smart contract audits for early-stage projects. The Alchemy-Arbitrum Grant Program gives up to $500K in Alchemy infrastructure credits to teams building or migrating to Orbit rollups. Arbitrum Gaming Ventures also takes interest from gaming teams. These pay in services and credits rather than cash, but an audit subsidy is real money for a team about to launch.

My take: "Grant programs close. The skill you built for them does not." A DeFi agent built for Trailblazer is still a strong entry for the agent-focused money that is open elsewhere.

Where to point an agent build now

GOAT Network's builder grants fund agent apps with x402 payments, Circle's grants on Arc fund agentic payments, and the Base Builder Grant lists agents as a priority. Agent tooling on Arbitrum itself still has users: Arbitrum hosts perp DEXs we cover, like Variational . Need help shipping? Deployr .