Name of Grant
Marketing Incentives to create awareness about rETH on Base
What is the work being proposed?
Flat Money is requesting a grant to launch an rETH awareness campaign on Base. The goal of this campaign is to make rETH holders and the wider ecosystem aware of the rETH integrations and yield opportunities on Base. At Flat Money, we firmly believe the Base ecosystem has the potential to onboard the next cohort of DeFi users through their marketing, technical developments, and support for builders on Base.
For this campaign, we would collaborate with other protocols that support rETH to reach new users. We would also work to create more awareness within the RocketPool community. We’ve noticed rETH holders in the trading channel asking where the best rETH yield opportunities are on Base. We believe a mid-sized grant will enable Flat Money to boost awareness and increase the number of rETH holders on Base.
Launching a wider marketing campaign about RocketPool and rETH’s uses across DeFi on Base could attract interest from new users and builders as the Base team ramps up their Onchain Summer builders program between June and August.
Is there any related work this builds off of?
Since January, the Flat Money team has been working with RocketPool’s IMC to co-incentivize rETH liquidity on Balancer. Since then, Flat Money also launched the rETH/wETH Aerodrome pool and provided incentives there. To date, rETH liquidity on Base has grown by 180%. This increased liquidity has benefited rETH holders across the Base ecosystem, as this liquidity has enabled Flat Money’s growth and Moonwell’s recent rETH market cap increase.
Will the results of this project be entirely open source
This grant request is to fund a marketing campaign, and I (BraveNewDeFi) would provide bi-weekly updates on our progress during the course of the funding period, if our grant is approved.
Benefit
| Group |
Benefits |
| Potential rETH holders |
Our marketing campaign would help educate and reach more DeFi users on Base who we hope will hold and use rETH across DeFi protocols. By highlighting all the places where rETH can be used throughout DeFi on Base, more users would have a reason to hold rETH over cbETH and other LST/LRT alternatives. |
| rETH holders |
Greater demand for rETH on Base should improve rETH liquidity on Base as a knock-on effect, improve yield opportunities, and result in new rETH integrations in protocols on Base. |
| Potential NOs |
N/A |
| NOs |
N/A |
| Community |
Through increased adoption on Base, the RocketPool community can continue to grow, while providing new and existing community members with more ways to earn yield on their rETH. As more people learn about rETH and more builders onboard rETH into the new projects and protocols, the RocketPool community can attract users of all interest and experience levels. |
| RPL holders |
N/A |
Which other non-RPL protocols, DAOs, projects, or individuals, would stand to benefit from this grant?
Increasing awareness about rETH on Base will benefit protocols with existing rETH markets, liquidity pools, or integrations such as:
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Flat Money
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Moonwell
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Beefy
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Balancer
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Aura Finance
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Aerodrome
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Ajna Finance
Our goal is for this grant to benefit many DeFi protocols on Base that current offer rETH holders a way to earn on their holdings, while growing the RocketPool community on Base. We’re also hoping to reach new protocols and builders onboarded through Base’s Onchain Summer program, so this marketing campaign can help reach both a retail and technical audience. Of course, Flat Money would benefit from this grant, as more rETH liquidity and activity on Base helps Flat Money grow, as well as other DeFi protocols with rETH integrations on Base.
Work
Who is doing the work?
The Flat Money team would execute this marketing strategy to increase awareness and adoption of rETH on Base.
What is the background of the person(s) doing the work? What experience do they have with such projects in the past?
My name is BraveNewDeFi, and I’m a marketing advisor for Flat Money. I’ve been active in DeFi since mid-2020, and I also work within the Nexus Mutual DAO in many roles, most notably Head of Community and Head of the Product & Risk team.
I joined Flat Money in December 2023 and worked with RocketPool’s IMC to boost rETH liquidity on Base by 180% through co-incentives and effective marketing over the last three (3) months. The Flat Money Twitter account has shared weekly updates about yields on Balancer since February and we added updates about our incentives on Aerodrome when we launched the rETH/wETH Aerodrome pool in March. Our work has improved rETH liquidity substantially and allowed our team to onboard more rETH holders to Base.
Since Flat Money launched on April 17th, the protocol has grown to $2.41m in TVL and the smart contract for the Flat Money (UNIT) Market is the largest holder of rETH on Base. Flat Money’s rETH Perpetual Futures Market is the largest ETH futures market on Base by Open Interest and the Flat Money (UNIT) Market currently provides the highest yield for rETH holders on Base.
Some other members of the Flat Money team also contribute to dHedge and Toros Finance, where they’ve grown their TVL and userbase on Optimism, Base, Arbitrum, and Polygon. Together, we can offer marketing expertise and graphic design talent for the proposed deliverables in this grant proposal.
What is the breakdown of the proposed work, in terms of milestones and/or deadlines?
The timeframe for this grant will be two (2) months from June 1 to July 31 during Base’s Onchain Summer builders program.
We propose breaking this program into three (3) distinct phases:
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Phase 1: RocketPool on Base. This phase of our marketing plan would take place for the first several weeks in June (i.e., June 3–21). During this phase, we’d share information about RocketPool, highlight the benefits of holding rETH, provide an overview of how to bridge rETH on and off Base, and move into Phase 2 where we’d spotlight protocols where rETH can be used throughout DeFi on Base.
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Phase 2: rETH DeFi Ecosystem. This phase of our marketing plan would take place for the last week of June throughout the entire month of July (i.e., June 19 to July 31). During this time, we’d work with other protocols that provide an opportunity for people to use their rETH in DeFi for a Base-wide co-marketing program, with individual spotlights throughout the month. The goal is to showcase all the ways users can earn with their rETH and provide these yield opportunities in an easy-to-find resource, which the Flat Money team will create to complete other existing RocketPool community resources.
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Phase 3: rETH integrations. For the month of July, we’ll also highlight the benefit of integrating rETH into new projects and encourage others to join the rETH ecosystem on Base. Since this will coincide with the Onchain Summer builders program, this part of the marketing campaign has the potential to reach a large number of builders active on Base during the program period.
Costs
We are requesting $30,000, which would be distributed over a two (2) month period.
Budget Breakdown
| Marketing Activity |
Proposed Budget |
| Graphic design budget for 2 months |
$3000 |
| Marketing execution budget for 2 months |
$8000 |
| Phase 1 Incentives: Bridge cost compensation for rETH holders who bridge to Base |
$2500 |
| Phase 2 Incentives: DeFi applications/awareness |
$10500 |
| Phase 3 Incentives: Builder incentives during Onchain Summer for rETH applications |
$6000 |
| Total Request |
$30,000 |
As part of this campaign, we would work with a variety of audiences on Base and small bursts of incentives combined with the proposed marketing campaign would allow us to reach more users, incentivize activity on Base, and work closely with the Base team and DeFi applications that have or would like to onboard rETH.
We are open to feedback on the proposed budget.
What is the acceptance criteria?
The GMC can assess whether or not this is an attractive value proposition given growth priorities across L2s. We believe the timing on the Onchain Summer builders program along with the support Base is providing to new/existing protocols launching on Base and the general push to onboard Coinbase exchange users on Base will provide the RocketPool community an outsized opportunity to increase the number of rETH holders and rETH held on Base.
Currently, rETH held on L2s ranks as follows:
While Base ranks 3rd by addresses holding and total rETH held onchain, their growth is the largest YTD with over 250% grow since January 1st. In comparison, Optimism has seen a 4% decrease YTD and Arbitrum has seen 6% growth YTD. As Base continues to grow, the Flat Money team sees a compelling opportunity to boost awareness during this period of growth on Base to create awareness about rETH, which in our view is the best decentralized LST available on Base.
What is the proposed payment schedule for the grant? How much USD $ and over what period of time is the applicant requesting?
As shared above, we are requesting $30,000, which would be distributed over a two (2) month period. If this grant is approved, we would request the distribution as follows, subject to the GMC’s input:
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Week of June 3rd: Distribution of $7500
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Week of June 17th: Distribution of $7500
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Week of July 1st: Distribution of $7500
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Week of July 15th: Distribution of $7500
Is the applicant requesting RPL or LUSD?
We are requesting the grant in RPL.
How will the GMC verify that the work delivered matches the proposed cadence?
All of the work we’re proposing would be visible across social media channels (i.e., Twitter and Farcaster). In addition to the public campaign, we would provide bi-weekly updates on the forum with progress reports on impressions, engagement, and changes in key onchain metrics such as rETH held on Base, number of individual holders on Base, and rETH liquidity level on Base, as we assume an increase in rETH on Base would naturally result in higher levels of liquidity.
What alternatives or options have been considered in order to save costs for the proposed project?
As our team will be running this campaign, providing the graphic design materials, and working to coordinate with other DeFi teams, we believe this is a worthwhile campaign that would come at a higher cost if it were handled by another marketing firm. However, we’re open to discussion on cost if the GMC believes this request needs adjustment.
Conflict of Interest
Does the person or persons proposing the grant have any conflicts of interest to disclose? (Please disclose here if you are a member of the GMC or if any member of the GMC would benefit directly financially from the grant).
N/A
Will the recipient of the grant, or any protocol or project in which the recipient has a vested interest (other than Rocket Pool), benefit financially if the grant is successful?
As I shared in a previous response, the Flat Money team is looking to onboard more rETH users into the Flat Money Markets, so an increase of rETH holders and growth in the rETH held on Base would benefit our protocol.
In no other way would Flat Money benefit from this grant proposal. This wouldn’t enrich any individual team members. We’re interested in growing the rETH ecosystem on Base and further our mission to create better money and promote projects dedicated to decentralization.
Edit: I amended the Costs section with a budget breakdown of the total request to highlight the rationale for the cost and how the funds would be allocated.
