The project, which had pitched itself as a layer-2 “real-time blockchain” targeting more than 100,000 transactions per second, would make onchain interactions feel closer to traditional web apps than today’s crypto networks.
Feb 9, 2026, 4: 14 p.m.
MegaETH, a high-performance blockchain built to make Ethereum applications feel nearly instant, debuted its public mainnet Monday, entering an ecosystem mired in a fundamental debate over how Ethereum should scale.
The project, which had pitched itself as a layer-2 “real-time blockchain” targeting more than 100,000 transactions per second (tps), would make onchain interactions feel closer to traditional web apps than today’s crypto networks. Ethereum works at less than 30 tps, according to Token Terminal.
The release caps a rapid rise that has drawn both technical curiosity and major financial backing. The project’s development arm, MegaLabs, raised a $20 million seed round in 2024 led by Dragonfly. Last October, it announced a $450 million oversubscribed token sale backed by some of the most recognizable names in crypto, including Ethereum co-founders Vitalik Buterin and Joe Lubin. The sale was one of the largest crypto fundraises of that year.
The native token, MEGA, which underpins the network’s economics, is not fully unlocked at launch. According to the team, token distribution and utility will roll out gradually, with certain unlocks tied to network usage milestones.
MegaETH’s debut comes as Ethereum’s long-standing scaling roadmap is being examined, particularly by Buterin. For years, the second-largest blockchain by market cap relied on layer-2 network