The Arbitrum Foundation launched the second season of its content creator grant program in October 2025, committing 700,000 ARB to reward the top 150 crypto content creators on X across a three-month window. Distributions ran in monthly tranches of approximately 233,000 ARB through December 2025, with rankings determined by an AI-powered leaderboard operated by Kaito.

Season 2 represented a 36% increase over Season 1, which distributed roughly 514,000 ARB to the top 100 creators between May and August 2025. The expanded pool is split across three tiers: the top 10 earners, the next 40, and the remaining 100. First place carried a reward of 32,000 ARB per monthly tranche, putting the cumulative first-place maximum at approximately 96,000 ARB across the full season; second place received 29,800 ARB per tranche and third received 27,600 ARB. At current prices (March 2026), ARB trades near $0.098, putting the full grant pool at approximately $68,600 in fiat terms. The token was worth considerably more when the program launched, so the ARB-denominated figure is the fixed commitment while the dollar equivalent has shifted with the market. Arbitrum's on-chain activity provides useful context for the grant program's scale: the protocol holds approximately $2.1 billion in total value locked per DefiLlama, with daily bridge volume near $225 million, illustrating the ecosystem footprint that creator programs are designed to support and grow.

How the Scoring Works

Kaito is an AI-powered "InfoFi" (information finance) platform that scores crypto content on three dimensions: volume of on-topic output (Proof-of-Work), engagement quality weighted by the credibility of who responds (Proof-of-Exchange), and originality of the discussion (Proof-of-Insight). This differs from raw follower counts or likes. Creators connect their X account through Kaito's Yaps system to become eligible. The Arbitrum Foundation also confirmed that employees and affiliates of Arbitrum are excluded from receiving grants.

One notable change in Season 2 concerns how the algorithm treats account size. "The algorithm has been adjusted for the new season to treat smaller accounts the same as larger accounts, creating a more equitable system," the Arbitrum Foundation said in its official announcement. That adjustment has direct implications for creators in markets where follower counts tend to run lower than those of established Western crypto accounts.

Season 1 organized creator focus around three monthly themes: DeFi, Arbitrum Chains, and AI. Season 2 dropped that thematic structure in favor of the expanded pool and the account-size adjustment described above.

Direct Relevance for South Asia and Africa

Arbitrum named India and Nigeria as two of its three founding priority regions for its Ambassador Program Phase 2, launched in June 2024. Creators across those two markets and Mexico produced roughly 1,200 content pieces on X since August 2024, achieving a combined reach of over 122 million for the ecosystem.

In effect, Season 2's rewards structure placed a direct payment layer on top of that existing activity, extending financial incentives to a creator base that had already been contributing to Arbitrum's visibility in those regions.

The income potential carries different weight depending on location. First place at 32,000 ARB per tranche translated to roughly $3,136 at current prices and was worth more at program launch. In Nigeria and India, where tech-sector monthly earnings run substantially below Western European or US levels, even mid-tier placements can represent meaningful supplemental income. The program reaches creators through their existing content activity on X.

There are access constraints worth flagging. Participation requires an active X account and content produced in English or another widely distributed language. Creators working primarily in Hindi, Yoruba, Swahili, or similar regional languages face a structural disadvantage, though Season 1 reportedly included a separate 50,000 ARB allocation for non-English content.

Arbitrum is not the only network routing creator budgets through Kaito. Polygon launched a comparable leaderboard paying $30,000 USDC per month to its top 50 creators. The pattern suggests L2 protocols are increasingly treating AI-mediated attention markets as a practical tool for creator incentives.

What the Kaito Sunset Means Going Forward

Readers should note a critical development that followed Season 2's conclusion. The permissionless Yaps program that powered these leaderboards was shut down in January 2026 after X changed its policies to prohibit reward-for-posting models. Season 2 appears to have run fully within its October to December 2025 window, so participants received what was committed. But any future season would need to operate under Kaito Studio, the platform's revised, more curated framework for connecting brands with vetted creators.

The KAITO token has declined approximately 87% from its February 2025 all-time high, a backdrop that raises questions about the long-term viability of Kaito-powered programs and the resources available to sustain them.

Whether Kaito Studio preserves the same open-access structure that allowed small accounts from emerging markets to compete is not yet clear. For creators in India, Nigeria, and comparable markets who built content strategies around Kaito-powered programs, that question has direct financial stakes. On the token side, ARB carries a scheduled unlock valued at approximately $92.6 million on March 16, 2026, adding near-term supply pressure to the token.