Former Ant Group engineers launch Pharos Foundation governance engine to support VCs

• The Pharos Foundation has launched as a non-profit whose aim will be to steward the RealFi and open finance ecosystem on Pharos. 
• Details of ecosystem fund management and utilization will be released in the first transparency report following mainnet launch.
• The news comes after Pharos Network launched its second testnet, the AtlanticOcean testnet.

Pharos Network has officially launched the Pharos Foundation on November 24, 2025, and the non-profit outfit is being positioned to oversee governance and provide stewardship for the upcoming layer 1 blockchain created specifically to deal with RWAs and open finance ecosystems. 

The foundation was founded by former engineers from Ant Group, is Asia-led, and already a VC sweetheart. 

The main focus of the Pharos Foundation would be to funnel resources towards the RWAfi initiative and broader open finance tools on Pharos Network, self-described as an inclusive financial layer that ensures accessibility to real value and institutional-grade assets. 

Pharos Foundation shares plans 

Pharos Foundation is touted as a support resource for developers building in the RWA space, while promoting the network’s tech stack. To keep things fair and carry members along, the foundation’s decisions will be community-driven with a focus on decentralization and compliance. 

The foundation will also cover an educational campaign that will feature boot camps and resources with the ultimate aim of strengthening collaboration with traditional financial institutions and expanding open finance research and industry knowledge. 

However, it stops short of offering investment advice, won’t comment on token prices, or favor any single protocol.

Pharos also separated its foundation from its TGE launch campaign. Instead, it will be responsible for providing frameworks, documentation, and transparent processes needed for sustainable token governance and ecosystem development before and after TGE.

Details regarding the management and utilization of the ecosystem fund won’t be released until the first transparency report, which is expected to come after the mainnet launch, and will cover grants issued, governance decisions, and fund deployment. 

Pharos Network’s second testnet is live

Pharos Network’s second experimental network, AtlanticOcean Testnet was officially launched on October 21, 2025, marking a significant step in expanding access to real-world asset open finance. 

AtlanticOcean went live with partners like Morpho Labs, Bitverse, Euclid, and integrations with OKX Wallet, Bitget Wallet, Hemera Explorer, and Goldsky, and enables institutions, builders, and partners to test real-world asset flows across borders.

It is the second testnet Pharos has launched so far. The first one went live in May. Since then, it has processed nearly 3 billion transactions across 23 million blocks with a 0.5-second block time, deploying a global validator network, achieving full Ethereum Dencun SPEC compatibility with reliable block replay, and implementing optimizations including parallel execution, enhanced caching, and low-memory node releases. 

The new testnet builds on those achievements, introducing major upgrades like the official PoS tokenomics model with 1 billion total supply aligned with mainnet, user-friendly staking and validator voting, and an expanded developer toolset for more composable and complex testing scenarios.

The testnet activations are to be rolled out in several stages, and to ensure continuity and a smooth transition, the first Testnet will continue to co-exist alongside AtlanticOcean for several months, giving ecosystem partners all the time they need to migrate.