Arbitrum launches $40 million ARB incentives to enhance its DeFi ecosystem

The Arbitrum Foundation has launched the DeFi Renaissance Incentive Program (DRIP), and it is being touted as a significant initiative aimed at boosting decentralized finance (DeFi) activity on Arbitrum, Ethereum’s largest Layer 2 (L2) scaling solution by total value locked (TVL). The program aims to reward users for engaging in specific DeFi actions, and the first season, which started on September 3, will last until January 20, 2026. The first season will focus on leveraging looping strategies on leading markets, particularly for yield-bearing ETH and stablecoins. What’s Arbitrum’s DRIP program? The ArbitrumDAO approved the creation of DRIP in June, earmarking 80 million ARB tokens , over $40 million, to be distributed over four seasons. Each season will target a specific DeFi use case, encouraging high-impact experimentation while amplifying liquidity, capital efficiency, and protocol growth across the ecosystem. Season One will be supported across select lending and borrowing protocols, including Aave, Morpho, Fluid, Euler, Dolomite, and Silo. Those who participate can earn ARB rewards for borrowing against a curated range of collateral types, such as: ETH-type collateral and stablecoin collateral. The targeted rollout will ensure protocols that are contributing meaningful innovation to DeFi receive incentive support, while users benefit from new opportunities to optimize strategies on Arbitrum. Prior to the official Season One launch , DRIP had already started attracting deployments from some prominent protocols in the space. Morpho, Euler, and Maple Finance are among those that have recently expanded operations onto the Arbitrum network, citing the program as a strong catalyst for growth. “DRIP isn’t about spraying incentives across the ecosystem and hoping something sticks,” said Matthew Fiebach, Co-Founder of Entropy Advisors. “It’s about directing resources where they create real, tangible outcomes.” Arbitrum is already one of the largest L2s by liquidity, but the launch of DRIP further amplifies its position as number one by introducing a flexible, seasonal incentive model that can dynamically evolve alongside the market. DRIP program follows $14 million audit program The ArbitrumDAO has been busy this year, working to set its network apart from other Ethereum L2s. Aside from the launch of the DRIP program, the DAO also approved the launch of a security initiative called the Arbitrum Audit program. As Cryptopolitan reported , the initiative has allocated $14 million worth of ARB tokens to subsidize smart contract audits for blockchain projects on its network. The initiative’s aims include enhancing the security of the Arbitrum ecosystem, which has excelled as a suite of Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solutions, and making security audits easier financially. The tokens will reportedly be allocated over a period of 12 months to early-stage projects with demonstrated product-market fit or established teams planning notable upgrades or new deployments. Its main purpose is to ease the financial toll of security audits on all concerned parties, as the costs are sometimes too steep for smaller projects to handle, which often forces them to miss out on access to proper security assurances. The administrators of the initiative will be an oversight committee that consists of representatives from the Arbitrum Foundation, core developer Offchain Labs, as well as one DAO-elected technical professional. If you're reading this, you’re already ahead. Stay there with our newsletter .