Layer by Layer: Hedera Sees Modest Growth After Introducing EVM Support

The blockchain landscape has shifted dramatically in the last several years, with the rise of smart contracts driving a revolution in the way assets can be transferred, stored, and utilized on-chain. Whereas the early days of blockchain development were mostly centered around overcoming throughput bottlenecks for simple user-to-user transactions, modern scaling efforts are often driven by the dynamics of growing smart contract usage, particularly in decentralized finance (DeFi) and NFT protocols. The impact of this rapid expansion in smart contract use cases has been profound. Today, nearly every Layer 1 (L1) treasury has dedicated substantial financial resources to incentivizing the development of DeFi and NFT applications on their respective platforms. 

Among the largest (if not the largest) of these incentive programs is the one introduced by the Hedera Governing Council in September 2021, which allocated 10.7 billion HBAR worth ~$5 billion at the time for development of the Hedera ecosystem. Half of this allocation was designated for a newly created HBAR Foundation that would be responsible for deploying the funds to various entities supported by the new program. In this piece, we will take a look at some of the key developments that have taken place in the Hedera ecosystem since the introduction of its massive incentive program in late 2021.