Top Shot creator unveils $725 million fund to support Flow ecosystem | Cryptocurrency

The new ecosystem fund will be used to help Flow’s 7,500 developers build new gaming, infrastructure, DeFi and content creation products on the NFT blockchain.

The Flow ecosystem is set to receive increased support through a new $725 million fund that will be used to invest in the growth of the non-fungible token network.

Flow (FLOW) is a layer 1 blockchain developed by Dapper Labs and specifically designed for NFTs. Dapper Labs also created the popular NBA Top Shot NFT collection. Flow uses an eco-friendly Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm.

The new fund has been backed by 17 companies that have experience backing other Web3 companies, including top investment firms a16z, Spartan Group, and CoinFund. The funds will be used to incentivize developers to bring their work to Flow, as opposed to competitor Ethereum (ETH) which still dominates NFTs despite high gas fees. Within the Flow ecosystem itself, the funds will provide support for games, infrastructure, decentralized finance (DeFi), content and creators.

Today we are announcing a $725 million ecosystem fund to accelerate growth across the entire Flow ecosystem

This is the largest pooled fund created for ANY blockchain, available to existing and future developers #onFlow

Discover the Flow Ecosystem Fund: pic.twitter.com/VBKbnZdQEQ

— Flow (@flow_blockchain) May 10, 2022

Projects receiving grants through the Ecosystem Fund will be supported by investments in FLOW tokens and what the fund’s webpage calls “in-kind support.”

Flow is currently the third largest blockchain by NFT sales volume behind Ethereum and Solana (SOL). Not including May, throughout 2022 Flow averaged $50.3 million in monthly NFT sales according to CryptoSlam, an NFT market tracker.

The host of the NFT-focused podcast The First Mint LG Doucet tweeted a list of five new products on Tuesday that he says should be supported by the funds. They include a whitelist app to help users get whitelisted for a mint, mobile app, video education, wallet integration on Shopify, and artwork other than cartoons, animals and athletes. He added that Flow needs “real INNOVATION, not just roadmaps that copy ETH projects.”

$725 million to come $Flow ecosystem

Products we need:

– App WL like @PREMINT_NFT
– Mobile app for @emerald_dao
– Video education on @Flowverse_
– Portfolio integration on @Shopify
– Non-Cartoon Animal/Athlete PFPs

And real INNOVATION, not just roadmaps that copy ETH projects

— LG DOUCET (@LgDoucet) May 10, 2022

Although Flow is operated by Dapper Labs, which has produced some of the biggest NFT products over the past two years, its NFT sales still lag behind larger Layer 1 ecosystems. This may be due to weaker network effects and a smaller ecosystem of decentralized applications (Dapps) running on it. The new ecosystem fund aims to fill this gap.

Other Dapper Labs NFT products include CryptoKitties, one of the first NFT games, UFC Strike, NFL All Day, and Cheeze Wizards.

FLOW has a market cap of $1.4 billion and is up 20% in the past 24 hours to $4.01 according to data from CoinGecko.