By Unknown Author
8 min read
Oct 9, 2025
Last month, we announced our latest epoch, in collaboration with Ethereum Foundation's Strategic Funding Coordination team.
After receiving 450+ applications and a gruelling review process, we're excited to bring you our Epoch 9 Cohort or in the words of Josh Stark, "Ethereum's 30 CMOs"
Dates: 8 Oct - 22 Oct (12 pm EDT)
This is the start of our two-week period where you can benefit from your ETH rewards AND do some good by allocating. Time to support your favorite Ethereum writers, creators, journalists, film makers, and even novelist!
In case you're wondering how the allocation process works, here's a handy video.
It's all happening on...
This was definitely our toughest epoch review process to date.
✨ Over 757 hours that went into the review phases over the last 4 weeks.✨ We had our most vigorous vetting and review process. Every application had at least 4-5 reviewers at a minimum.✨ We had 4 reviews phases with reviewers cross-checking, comparing, evaluating, and digging deeper into every single application. ✨ Our decision for the final 30 was based on a variety of factors including past work, content formats, channels, audiences, and quality of work. ✨ We hosted a closed session sharing notes on the process and some general comments + constructive advice on how applicants can do better moving forward.
Let's get to who's who in this cohort.
$ilence Vincent Van Meen is the first crypto novelist to win a European literary prize. $ilence would be the second crypto novel in his 0xBlixa-series, focusing on privacy and censorship resistance.
ZachXBTOur resident superhero, ZachXBT needs no introduction. From what started as simply whistleblowing projects and calling out influencer scams in 2021 has since evolved into helping victims recover funds and providing incident response support. His work as an independent researcher is helping make Ethereum a safer place.AKINDO
Have been hosting video podcasts and Ethereum education workshop events to grow the builder ecosystem in Japan, with their audio content having close to 200 thousand plays.
TORNADO: The War On Code – A Documentary by The Rage
The Rage gained momentum as one of the best news outlets during the Roman Storm trial. They now want to produce an immersive audio documentary podcast recounting the story of Tornado Cash, the criminal trial of Roman Storm, and the deep issues it raises about regulatory treatment of on-chain and privacy tools.Amongst a Potted Plant with Brooke Lacey
Over the last four years, Brooke has built a body of Ethereum-focused content across TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube designed to onboard new audiences and make Ethereum approachable. With her project, Brooke plans to bring out the human side of Ethereum’s cultural and technical leaders in candid, witty, and insightful conversations.
Ateh Ugoji and Cinematic Streak V2
Ateh started noticing that Ethereum and its ecosystem were being explained in ways that were boring and overly technical. Cinematic Streak V2 aims to teach creators film-grade Ethereum storytelling, with classes, tools & onchain amplification, making Ethereum feel like a movie.Crypto AltruistsSince June 2021, Crypto Altruists have built one of the largest collections of content on Ethereum for good. It’s time to bring Ethereum out of the crypto echo chamber and into the global impact economy.
Ethereum Explained
@geniusyinka has been creating short-form explainers that distill complex technical, Ethereum-focused concepts into clear, engaging narratives. This series will be about exploring Ethereum & privacy tech, through engaging short-form videos that spark curiosity—telling Ethereum’s story.
Ethereum in Plain English
Over the past 5 years, the folks at The Rise Up Morning Show have created thousands of pieces of educational content focused on Ethereum and the broader Web3 ecosystem. Now they want to bring a high-impact video and social storytelling series that makes Ethereum make sense to everyday people, applying real-world narratives and a broader social context.Ethereum’s Story Goes Mainstream
Vitalik: An Ethereum Story is a feature documentary telling the story behind the creator of Ethereum. Epoch 9 will help supercharge the upcoming launch of the film on Amazon Prime Streaming, bringing Ethereum’s story to millions of new mainstream viewers.ETHPanda
ETHPanda is bridging Chinese community through education, collaboration and long-term contributions to Ethereum ecosystem. Every Monday they share research into weekly trends and hosts weekly briefings. Fork'd
Over the last several years, Natalie Crue has created a plethora of Ethereum-focused content, communities and platforms including but not limited to podcasts, and launched Twitter Spark (now called X Spaces) with Metaverse Music. Fork'd will be an interactive, global docuseries exploring the authentic culture, communities, and human stories behind Ethereum.Institutional Guide to RWA Token Standards
This project brings together the minds of Ray Buckton (Founder & Head of Research at RWA.World) and Ivie Satijn (Founder at Somma). Their comprehensive report will serve as the definitive institutional resource for understanding and implementing RWA token standards on Ethereum, combining technical analysis with practical institutional insights.
ETH in a minute
Cindy Lin has been in crypto marketing for 5+ years. She creates bite-size educational content on Tiktok and livestream while talking about DeFi, L2s, and onboarding. Her next project will be all about creating a 10+part series of short-form, highly shareable TikTok videos that break down Ethereum concepts into engaging, bite-sized stories on rollups, staking, account abstraction, and real-world use cases.La Blocka Toon
Rosa Glez is a visual artist, muralist, architect, and co-founder of La Blocka Toon. At La Blocka Toon they animate ETH culture to propagate decentralization with lolz. They will produce 100% human-made animated content with granular creative control, exclusively focused on Ethereum and its L2 ecosystems. OAK Research
OAK is an independent crypto research platform delivering deep insights & data-driven analysis. They've created long-form coverage of the Ethereum ecosystem, deep dives and analysis, data, quarterly reports, and other analyses, and plan to do more of it with the help of Epoch 9.Offbrand Crypto (by Full Value Dan)
Full Value Dan is focused on making crypto simple, fun, and accessible. He's created content that takes out the crypto jargon and simplifies what users can expect from different protocols. Offbrand Crypto would set out to onboard the next generation of crypto users while creating some real life experiences for them. Patchara
Patchara's goal has always been to become one of the spearheads in the Web3 gaming scene. She wants to step into the field of education content and create wholesome gaming & educational content for everyone to enjoy, with the aim to spread educational videos about Ethereum and what it has to offer.Proof of Intelligence with Nader Dabit
Nader Dabit has been creating content onboarding developers to building on Ethereum and the EVM which has amassed well over a million views. Proof of Intelligence aims at expanding the design space of Ethereum by bringing trust to AI, with videos and coding tutorials.Rafael Castaneda (CastaCrypto)
Rafael started producing content in 2022, covering mostly technical and socio-economic aspects of blockchain and focusing on education. Epoch 9 will help him expand on this mission.rileybeans & Kimiya Mag
Riley is the writer, researcher and editor of Kimiya Mag, dedicated to understanding a renewed sense of meaning and purpose made possible through Ethereum coordination. Sembrando Ethereum – Stories of Nature and Tech UnitedSince 2023, ChicoPlantas has produced Ethereum-focused stories that connect everyday environmental action to web3 tools. Tech will meet nature in this sequential video series blending emotional environmental storytelling with Ethereum's tools for real-world impact.SheFi Since 2019 Maggie Love has been creating Ethereum-focused educational and community content through SheFi, the leading crypto education and career development community for women and non-binary people. Over 14 seasons of live programming, SheFi has delivered 70+ hours of curriculum on Ethereum infrastructure, DeFi, NFTs, DAOs, scaling networks, and Web3 social, reaching more than 22,000 members across 100+ countries.ShibuyaFor five years @pplpleasr1 has been creating Ethereum-native content that blends storytelling, culture, and onchain technology in ways that resonate far beyond the crypto world. Her latest project has been the Emmy-winning interactive anime White Rabbit, designed to bring Ethereum storytelling to mainstream audiences in an immersive and emotional format. The Ethereum Creator Club (TECC)/The Ethereum Film Festival (TEFF)@lou3ee is a visual storyteller who's previous work includes spotlighting Ethereum's stories (alongside Binji at EF) for the 10-year anniversary. The TECC is a creative hub for Ethereum, coordinating Ethereum’s creator economy through stories, film and culture. The Ticker is ETH
The Ticker is ETH is a Telegram channel in Korea dedicated to highlighting Ethereum’s core values. The channel has become a central hub for Korea’s Ethereum builder community making it one of the few places where Korea’s core Ethereum-native voices regularly gather and exchange perspectives.
Celebrating 10 Years of Ethereum & Beyond
The NYSE Wired has extensive experience interviewing a vast array of organisations in technology with alumni including titans of industry such as Andy Jassy and Michael Dell. Coupled with their global distribution reach, they want to celebrate Ethereum’s 10th anniversary with an interview series highlighting what makes the ecosystem so unique.Web3Sec
Web3Sec has created comprehensive security content specifically focused on Ethereum. His past contributions: hack analyses, educational guides, and security tooling tutorials.
Crypto Native
Over the past several years, Future Alisha has produced a body of content exclusively focused on Ethereum and its builders — podcasts, Twitter Spaces, and live demos — always with the same intention: to humanize Ethereum by highlighting the people behind the projects, and the values that orient their work and worldview. With Epoch 9, Alisha wants to create a new season of the pod.
Gelora (The World Computer Files)
0xJaehaerys' has always focused on producing Ethereum-focused research threads and articles that break down highly technical topics into accessible and engaging stories. Gelora's goal is precisely that: to transform complex, technical research into accessible narratives that both builders and the wider community.
RealFi Hack is a global virtual hackathon by Funding the Commons focused on building open financial tools that work in the real world.
As part of the event, the RealFi Content Bounty invites creators and storytellers to explore how technology enables access, sovereignty, and collective strength. Participants can submit articles, videos, or creative formats that make RealFi clear and relatable to broader audiences. Submissions must use the term “RealFi” and be published publicly by October 16. Prizes are available for the best video, written piece, and creative format.
Learn more and submit here
We're hosting livestreams every day until the end of the epoch. Hear from the projects in this epoch. Every day on X.
We had a great chat with Casta Crypto, Full Value Dan, and Kinjo from Akindo about how to make people watch/listen/pay attention at a time where everything is distracting. With special appearances by Kacie Ahmed and Binji from the Ethereum Foundation. Watch it here.
And, finally, speaker applications for our DeFi Summit 2025 are currently open. Apply here if you're a DeFi expert and want to speak at the event.
Until next time!
