Apple Farm Season 1 Is Live: $3M in Rewards Now Up for Grabs

The wait is over—Apple Farm Season 1 has officially launched. With $3,000,000 in rewards on the table, the program is designed to jumpstart activity across Etherlink’s emerging DeFi landscape by incentivizing users to lend, provide liquidity, and trade across a growing number of participating protocols.

This is more than a simple yield farm. Apple Farm is an evolving incentive engine, rewarding users every 8 hours with Apples, the in-program reward unit. At the end of the season, Apples earned will be redeemable for $XTZ, making every interaction on Etherlink more rewarding than ever.

How It Works

• Head to applefarm.xyz to explore available opportunities.

• Choose a protocol—lend on Superlend, provide liquidity on IguanaDEX, trade with Hanji, or hold xU3O8 on Uranium.io.

• Once you’ve deposited, your Apples begin to accumulate. Rewards can be claimed at any time, directly from your dashboard.

Rewards are distributed continuously across a roughly three-month season, with new opportunities and allocation adjustments every two weeks. This keeps the incentives dynamic and aligned with real user activity.

Your Opportunities Dashboard

To help users make informed decisions, Apple Farm features a real-time Opportunities Dashboard that highlights:

• Score – How your contribution compares to the total rewards available.

• TVL – Total value locked in a given pool or protocol.

• Daily Rewards – The number of Apples allocated to that opportunity per day.

This level of visibility ensures that users can track performance and optimize their participation across the farm.

Referral & Waitlist Boosts

If you joined the waitlist before launch, you’re eligible for a rewards boost, that’s distributed in two phases:

• April 2 – First boost distribution

• April 9 – Final boost distribution

Boost eligibility is based on Apples farmed during the first two weeks and includes a confirmation Apple distributed to every waitlist user. To qualify, make sure your earned Apples are claimed before the boost dates, as unclaimed rewards won’t count toward the threshold.

Users can also invite friends with a referral code, earning an extra 5% yield based on the deposits their referees make. It's a simple on-chain transaction to generate your code—and it adds another layer of incentive for community expansion.

With participation from Superlend, IguanaDEX, Hanji, and Uranium.io, Apple Farm is already bringing liquidity and engagement to Etherlink’s DeFi ecosystem. And with more protocols set to join throughout the season, the opportunities are just getting started.

Apple Farm gives users a real reason to show up. It’s a chance to explore new strategies, take part in the growth of DeFi on Etherlink, and get rewarded along the way. Every deposit, every trade, every contribution helps set the foundation for what this ecosystem can become—and it starts with the people who are willing to engage early.

Ready to start farming? Visit applefarm.xyz and explore.

Tezos X-Plained Episode 3: Quebec Upgrade in Focus

While Apple Farm kicks off a new chapter for DeFi on Etherlink, it’s worth remembering how protocol-level upgrades continue to shape the foundation Tezos is built on. The latest episode of Tezos X-Plained zooms in on Quebec, the protocol upgrade that introduced faster block times, improved staking mechanics, and a smoother user experience across the network.

In this episode, Yann Régis-Gianas and Emma Turner break down what Quebec changed, why it matters, and how it sets the groundwork for everything that’s now possible—on both Layer 1 and Layer 2.

🎥 Watch Episode 3 on X

Countdown to Rio: 5 Days Left in the Cooldown Phase

After diving into the user-facing layers of the ecosystem—like Apple Farm and the Quebec upgrade—it’s time to look back under the hood. While users engage with dApps and builders ship new tools, Tezos continues to evolve at the protocol level. The Rio protocol upgrade is now in its Cooldown phase, with just five days remaining before the final vote.

What’s Next for Rio

Having cleared the Exploration phase, Rio is currently in its 14-day Cooldown period, giving developers and bakers time to test and validate the upgrade across the ecosystem. This stage ensures everything is stable before entering the Promotion phase, where bakers will cast their final votes to reach an absolute consensus.

If approved, Rio will become the next official protocol upgrade for Tezos.

What’s in the Upgrade

Rio brings with it several meaningful improvements focused on scalability, performance, and validator responsiveness:

• Shorter cycle times – Reduces cycle length from three days to one, speeding up staking and rewards.

• Refined staking model – Participation rewards now better incentivize bakers who contribute to the Data Availability Layer (DAL).

• Network responsiveness – The inactivity threshold for bakers is lowered, helping maintain a healthy validator set.

• Gas fee tuning – Minor adjustments to wallet-to-wallet transactions, leaving smart contract fees untouched.

With the final vote just ahead, now’s the time for bakers and community members to monitor progress and prepare for what’s next.

Track Rio’s governance progress on Tezos Agora

This Week in the Tezos Ecosystem

Messari Report Highlights Etherlink's Momentum and Vision

This week, Messari published its in-depth quarterly report on Etherlink, painting a clear picture of how Tezos’ EVM-compatible Layer 2 is evolving from early adoption to real traction. Titled The Etherlink Framework: Expanding Tezos' Ecosystem, the report breaks down Etherlink’s performance, integrations, and growing ecosystem—underscoring its role in the broader Tezos X roadmap.

Here are the standout takeaways:

Growth & Network Activity

• Etherlink has maintained steady growth with a median monthly increase of 12.16% in new accounts and 27.80% in transaction volume.

• From January to mid-February 2025, transactions rose by 15.48%—from 4.5M to 5.2M.

• Account growth hit 120,620 users, reflecting continued onboarding since mainnet beta.

Low Fees, High Efficiency

• Etherlink’s average transaction cost sits at just $0.003, thanks to Tezos Smart Rollups, providing near-instant (~500ms) confirmation with L1-level security.

• The rollup architecture reduces gas pressure while enabling fast execution, ideal for dApps requiring throughput at scale.

Growing Ecosystem

• Over 50 projects are building on Etherlink across DeFi, gaming, and NFTs.

• Notable projects include:

  • SuperLend, IguanaDEX, Hanji, Uranium.io (DeFi)

  • Sugarverse, Battlerise (Gaming)

• The launch of Apple Farm and Calypso upgrade marked Etherlink’s transition from beta to production in February 2025.

Cross-Chain and Tooling Expansion

• Etherlink integrates with LayerZero, Stargate, Pyth, RedStone, Goldsky, and The Graph, making it easier to access liquidity and build advanced applications.

• Wallet support includes MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, Trust Wallet, and Rabby.

Part of the Tezos X Vision

• Etherlink is a foundational piece of the Tezos X roadmap, aimed at creating a canonical rollup supporting multiple languages and environments (Michelson, Solidity, JavaScript).

• Future goals include:

  • 1 million TPS via horizontal scaling of Smart Rollups

  • 5-second L1 block times

  • A seamless, composable framework where developers can build with familiar tools across chains and languages a cornerstone of how Tezos expands, interoperates, and evolves.

As Etherlink moves out of beta and into full production, it’s clear that the groundwork is being laid for something much bigger. With sustained growth, deep ecosystem support, and a roadmap tied directly into the long-term Tezos vision, Etherlink is shaping up to be more than just a scalable Layer 2—it’s becoming a cornerstone of how Tezos expands, interoperates, and evolves.

Upcoming Events

You're Invited: Tezos Soirée in Paris

Hosted by Nomadic Labs & Exaion

Join the Tezos community for an evening of conversation, connection, and celebration during Paris Blockchain Week.

Spend the evening with teams from Labos Nomades and Exaion (EDF Group) at the Nomadic Labs office, right in the heart of Paris. Whether you’re a builder, researcher, or just curious about what’s next for Tezos, this is your chance to meet the minds shaping its future.

🗓️ Date: April 9
📍 Location: Nomadic Labs, Paris
🥂 Details: Light refreshments, networking, and community vibes

Space is limited—RSVP now to save your spot:
👉 lu.ma/7izgi6bx

🔴 Now Streaming: Dark Tales & Digital Hauntings on Tezos with V. Ruins

This week on TezTalks Radio, Marissa Trew speaks with artist and storyteller V. Ruins about Dark Tales, his latest project on Tezos. From horror and identity to the role of AI in art, V shares how he’s building immersive narratives that bridge technology, community, and storytelling.

Our special guest is V. Ruins, who is reimagining how stories are told in the digital age.

🔍 In this episode, we’ll explore:

Dark Tales & Tezos: – A look into V’s narrative-driven project exploring memory, fear, and audience participation.

Art Meets Technology: – How V blends AI, interactivity, and Web3 to push the boundaries of digital storytelling.

Onboarding & Outreach: – The challenge of bringing non-Web3 users into the fold and building accessible creative experiences.

Community & Collaboration: – Why the Tezos ecosystem has become the foundation for V’s evolving artistic practice.

Watch the full episode on YouTube.