Receiver Entity: Celo Governance
Status: DRAFT
Title: Stabila Season 2 Funding Request
Authors: @MichaelKwan
Type of Request: Funding
Funding Request: $950,000 USD equivalent to 5,622,470.43 CELO calculated using the 90-day average CELO price ($0.1689)
Summary
This proposal requests Season 2 funding for Stabila to execute a focused set of DeFi liquidity and infrastructure initiatives aligned with Celo Governance’s Season 2 intent to grow TVL and deepen onchain market activity.
Building on Season 1 learnings, Season 2 narrows scope, improves capital efficiency, and prioritizes incentives that support durable, usage-driven liquidity across Celo’s core DeFi primitives, including DEXs, lending markets, and FX trading infrastructure. Unspent Season 1 funds, as outlined in the Stabila’s Season 1 Progress Report, will roll forward into Season 2 and be applied to initiatives extending beyond the Season 1 window, reducing the net incremental funding requested.
Motivation
Season 1 demonstrated that incentive effectiveness on Celo is strongest when capital is concentrated in:
- Core DEX liquidity that underpins lending and FX markets
- Lending markets that expand stablecoin supply and collateral utilization
- Infrastructure that enables sustained onchain activity rather than short-term TVL spikes
Season 2 reflects a deliberate shift from broad ecosystem bootstrapping toward focused execution, aligned with governance priorities around capital efficiency, sustainable TVL growth, and coordination with Celo’s evolving tokenomics framework.
In this context, Stabila’s role in Season 2 is to compound the most effective components of Celo’s existing DeFi stack while reducing fragmentation and improving incentive efficiency. Continued, targeted incentive support ensures core infrastructure remains healthy and usable, providing a stable foundation for new protocol launches to build on existing liquidity and market depth.
Specification
Stabila’s Season 2 mandate is to execute a focused set of high-impact DeFi initiatives designed to compound liquidity, usage, and market depth over time.
Primary objectives:
- Deepen durable liquidity for stablecoins, RWAs, and blue-chip assets
- Expand lending and FX market depth
- Support infrastructure that generates organic, usage-driven yield
- Align incentive design with long-term protocol sustainability
Scope of Work Season 2 (January 1 – June 30, 2026):
1) DeFi Protocol Incentives
Incentives will be deployed across a small number of high-conviction DeFi primitives, with flexibility to rebalance between protocols based on performance and ecosystem needs.
| Protocol | Description |
|---|---|
| DEX Liquidity | Incentivize blue-chip and FX-related stablecoin pools that underpin lending markets and downstream DeFi infrastructure on Celo. Deployment may span Uniswap, Velodrome, Carbon DeFi, and/or other DEXs based on observed effectiveness, liquidity retention, and market conditions. |
| Aave | Extend incentive support as part of Celo’s existing long-term commitment to Aave, with a focus on stablecoin supply growth, collateral utilization, and onboarding of new assets in coordination with the Aave ACI team. |
| Morpho | Support deployment on Celo (targeting early Q1), including curated FX, stablecoin, and CELO/stCELO collateral markets (including stCELO) that complement Aave, in collaboration with an external risk curator. |
| Celo-native FX Perpetual Exchange | Support launch and early scaling on Celo (targeting early Q1). |
| Partner Development & Additional DeFi Infrastructure | Maintain flexibility to support emerging partnerships, including RWA issuers, yield-bearing assets, prediction markets and automated liquidity or vault products aligned with Season 2 priorities. |
2) Marketing & Operations
- Marketing & Ecosystem Engagement: Targeted ecosystem engagement and communications in direct support of Stabila’s DeFi initiatives and protocol launches. This may include limited engagement with external marketing or communications agencies, ecosystem and partner amplification, and selective sponsorship or participation in high-impact conferences and events aligned with DeFi builders, liquidity providers, and strategic partners.
- Legal & Administrative: Routine operational costs required to execute Stabila programs, including governance execution, legal review, compliance support, and general administrative expenses.
Metrics
Season 2 performance will be evaluated against the following metrics:
- TVL Growth:
- Achieve +50% growth in Celo’s DeFi TVL (measured in USD) by June 30, 2026
- Baseline: $34.62M TVL as of Jan 1, 2026 (DefiLlama), with the CELO portion normalized at $0.11 per token
- Protocol & Infrastructure:
- Successful launch and activation of Morpho on Celo
- Successful launch and early scaling of a Celo-native FX perpetuals exchange
- Ecosystem Usage & Integrations:
- At least two live DeFi use cases integrating Self Protocol for identity-aware participation or rewards
- At least two RWA, yield-bearing asset, or stablecoin integrations launched and supported across Celo’s DeFi stack
- Seasonal Reporting: Publish forum update on spend, KPIs, and outcomes
Current Status
Season 2 builds on initiatives executed during Season 1, as well as unspent budget rolled forward into Season 2. Detailed outcomes and learnings from Season 1 are documented in the Stabila Season 1 Progress Report.
Timelines
This proposal covers Season 2 (January–June 2026).
- January: Funding received and Season 2 execution begins
- Q1–Q2 2026: Ongoing program execution across DeFi incentives, ecosystem engagement, and protocol support
- Targeted Q1 launches of Morpho and a Celo-native FX perpetuals exchange
- End of Season: Publication of a Season 2 retrospective outlining spend, outcomes, learnings, and measurable impact
Budget Overview
| Category | Initiative | USD Amount |
|---|---|---|
| DeFi Protocol Incentives | Decentralized Exchanges | $150,000 |
| Aave | $500,000 | |
| Morpho | $100,000 | |
| FX Perpetual Exchange | $75,000 | |
| Partner Development & Emerging DeFi Integrations | $55,000 | |
| Marketing & Operations | Marketing & Ecosystem Engagement | $40,000 |
| Legal & Administrative | $30,000 | |
| Total | $950,000 | |
Budget Notes:
The amounts listed above represent the incremental Season 2 funding requested from governance. Total incentive deployment during Season 2 may exceed these amounts due to the use of unspent Season 1 funds rolled forward.
DEX Incentives:
Total expected deployment across DEX liquidity incentives during Season 2 is approximately $500k, funded through a combination of Season 2 funding and existing Stabila reserves carried over from the prior season. This structure provides flexibility to allocate capital toward the most effective DEX venues based on observed performance and liquidity retention.
Aave Incentives:
As part of Celo’s three-year, $3M ecosystem incentive commitment to Aave, incentives are structured on an approximately straight-line basis of ~$1M per year, or ~$500k over the six-month Season 2 period.
Morpho Incentives:
Total expected deployment for Morpho during Season 2 is up to $500k, supporting initial market bootstrapping and early scaling. This deployment will be funded through a combination of Season 2 funding and existing Stabila reserves.
Payment Terms
Season 2 funding will be requested in CELO, equivalent to $950,000 USD, with the CELO amount calculated using the 90-day trailing average CELO price at the time of submission.
Upon approval, funds will be withdrawn and sent to the Stabila multisig wallet: 0x9C257bDC314dc516e673728D70F45444F6e22412
Unused funds will be returned to the Community Fund or rolled forward, subject to community input.
Team & Multi-Sig
Celo Multi-Sig: 0x9C257bDC314dc516e673728D70F45444F6e22412
Current Signers:
Kevin Tharayil – 0x605C6B7a97748cbd0DE9C8643cdc502AB1DfDEd2
Productmatt – 0x1f5979355411dF24c5Ce21Df5bD9f2fff418c194
Martin Volpe – 0x0159B8f51fA6eDEF721d6D87002587130CD8246c
Michael Kwan – 0x78670759E39E955E55EFA52d6d4BECa86F40b498
Kishan Peshwa - 0x80d0A4aF5beff0Ca6127e203981afAB9B6152B60
Conclusion
Season 2 represents a transition from broad ecosystem bootstrapping toward compounding the most effective components of Celo’s DeFi stack. With rollover capital from Season 1 and a more focused execution framework, Stabila aims to deliver more durable, sustainable TVL growth with a reduced incremental funding request.