Arbitrum Seeks Early-Stage Onchain Startup Ideas

The Arbitrum Foundation's **Open House London Buildathon** begins tomorrow, offering a 3-week online program for early-stage teams building onchain products. **Program Support:** - Technical guidance from Robinhood, Alchemy, GMX, OpenZeppelin, and Offchain Labs - Product development workshops - Infrastructure readiness training - Access to industry leaders **Prizes & Opportunities:** - $115K in prizes - Top teams advance to an in-person Founder House accelerator in London - Focus areas include payments, DeFi, RWAs, privacy, AI agents, and consumer applications The program is open to teams worldwide looking to launch products on the Arbitrum Platform. Registration is available at [openhouse.arbitrum.io](http://openhouse.arbitrum.io/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=oh-london-buildathon).

**Arbitrum is transforming global finance into programmable infrastructure.** The platform now supports: - Tokenized stocks and regulated asset issuance - RFQ (Request for Quote) liquidity rails - Billions in transfer volume **Key developments driving adoption:** - Stylus enables performance-sensitive systems to stay offchain while verifying trust onchain - Timeboost and Arbitrum Chains unlock new business models - AI agents can now transact autonomously through x402 by Coinbase **Real traction across sectors:** - $78M+ in USDT capital inflow in one week - Ostium Labs: $50B+ cumulative volume (66% from TradFi) - Variational: $211B+ in trading volume - Rise: $1B+ lifetime payment volume The shift from manual financial systems to programmable infrastructure is accelerating, with institutions evaluating blockchain based on reliability, customization, and programmable compliance.

Arbitrum has launched **Earn** on its Portal, a new feature that simplifies access to onchain yield opportunities. **Key Features:** - Cross-chain token swaps powered by [LI.FI Protocol](https://lifi.protocol) - Unified vault management interface - Portfolio tracking in one place - Integration with major DeFi protocols including Aave, Morpho, and Pendle **Infrastructure Partnership:** Arbitrum partnered with [Vaults.fyi](https://vaults.fyi) as their core infrastructure provider. The platform handles Earn's data feeds, transaction processing, and portfolio tracking capabilities. Users can now access yield opportunities across multiple chains without leaving the Arbitrum Portal. The feature aims to reduce friction in DeFi participation by consolidating previously fragmented processes. [Try Arbitrum Earn](https://portal.arbitrum.io/earn) | [Read the announcement](https://blog.arbitrum.io/portal-earn/)

**Global financial institutions are experiencing a fundamental shift as markets transition to software-based operations.** - Investment banks in New York, FX providers in London, and asset managers in Tokyo are witnessing improved capital flow efficiency - Assets now interoperate natively across different platforms and jurisdictions - The programmable economy is creating standardized financial infrastructure on a global scale This development represents a continuation of the broader trend toward onchain capital movement and market convergence, enabling new financial systems to emerge with greater interoperability.