Top Shot creator unveils $725M fund to support Flow ecosystem

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

The Flow ecosystem is set to get a boost in support from a new $725 million fund that will be used to invest in the growth of the nonfungible token network.

Flow (FLOW) is a layer-1 blockchain developed by Dapper Labs and purpose-made for NFTs. Dapper Labs also created the popular NBA Top Shot NFT collection. Flow utilizes an eco-friendly proof of stake (PoS) consensus algorithm.

The new fund was backed by 17 firms that have experience backing other Web3 companies, including large investment firms a16z, Spartan Group, and CoinFund. The funds will be used to attract developers to bring their work onto 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 gaming, infrastructure, decentralized finance (DeFi), content and creators.

Today, we're announcing a $725 Million ecosystem fund to accelerate growth across the entire Flow ecosystem

This is the largest joint fund made for ANY blockchain, available for both existing and future developers #onFlow

Meet the Flow Ecosystem Fund: https://t.co/8Y8qaLvccz pic.twitter.com/VBKbnZdQEQ

— Flow (@flow_blockchain) May 10, 2022

Projects awarded grants through the ecosystem fund will be supported by FLOW tokens investments, 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 has averaged $50.3 million in monthly NFT sales according to CryptoSlam, an NFT market tracker.

Host of the NFT-focused podcast The First Mint LG Doucet tweeted on Tuesday a list of five new products he believes should be supported through the funds. They include a whitelist app to help users get whitelisted for a mint, a mobile app, video education, wallet integration on Shopify, and non-cartoon, animal, and athlete art. He added that Flow needs “actual INNOVATION, not just roadmaps that copy ETH projects.”

$725M coming to $Flow ecosystem

Products we need built:

– WL App like @PREMINT_NFT
– Mobile App for @emerald_dao
– Video Education on @Flowverse_
– Wallet Integration on @Shopify
– Non cartoon animal/athlete PFPs

And actual 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 last 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 apps (Dapps) running on it. The new ecosystem fund aims to tackle that shortcoming.

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

Related: Otherside NFTs fall below mint price while cheaper ETH sees sales volume boost

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