The Human Rights Foundation said its Bitcoin Development Fund has awarded more than 60 million sats, or about $472,800, to 16 projects across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. According to ChainCatcher, the grants are intended to strengthen the Bitcoin protocol, expand real-world use, and support secure communications and community infrastructure for dissidents.

This is HRF's second round of funding in 2026, following its April announcement of support for 26 projects. The recipients include payment tools such as BitSpenda, Project Island Resilience, and Bitzed, as well as development-focused projects including Libbitcoinkernel, Floresta, BDK-Dart, and WalletScrutiny.

The funded Nostr-related projects include Vector, Flotilla Chat, OpenAlert, and 0xchat, which aim to provide censorship-resistant encrypted communication tools.