MegaETH rebrands as MEGA with $30 million push into AI inference
The MegaETH Foundation has rebranded as MEGA and committed $30 million from its treasury to build new products on its network, led by a decentralized AI inference marketplace launching in December.
The MegaETH Foundation has rebranded as MEGA and committed $30 million from its treasury to develop in-house products, beginning with an artificial intelligence inference market slated to launch on its blockchain in December. Co-founder Shuyao Kong stated that staying strictly a blockchain provider would mean ignoring major opportunities, though she emphasized that MEGA remains a crypto-native project rather than an AI company.[1][2][7]
The flagship product, dubbed Purified Intelligence, aims to serve as a marketplace for running AI models. According to a whitepaper by co-founders Yilong Li and Lei Yang, the platform will verify which models providers actually run and how user data is managed, allowing buyers to rely on lower-cost providers they might otherwise avoid. The paper also outlines tradable forward contracts that let buyers lock in compute capacity ahead of time, drawing inspiration from Japan's historic Dojima Rice Exchange.[2][3][5]
Under the new structure, MEGA holds no corporate equity, leaving the MEGA token as its sole native asset. Kong noted that the board will oversee programmatic token buybacks, work with community members on tokenomics updates, and allocate funds toward product lines. Alongside the product pivot, MEGA is targeting four protocol upgrades—including fast finality and sequencer rotation—with the goal of completing network decentralization by the end of the first quarter of 2027. The shift arrives as MegaETH's total value locked sits around $12 million, down from a May peak above $245 million.[1][2][4][5]
Key facts
- The MegaETH Foundation has rebranded as MEGA and committed $30 million toward building products on its network.
- MEGA's first product is Purified Intelligence, an AI inference marketplace scheduled to open in December.
- A whitepaper by co-founders Yilong Li and Lei Yang outlines tools to verify model authenticity, protect user data, and trade forward contracts for compute capacity.
- MEGA holds no company equity, with $MEGA designated as its only token.
- MEGA plans to decentralize its network by the end of the first quarter of 2027 through upgrades including fast finality and sequencer rotation.
- MegaETH's total value locked stood near $12 million at the time of the pivot, down from a peak exceeding $245 million in May.
Sources · 6 sources
- BA
Bankless@BanklessPost on X ·
NEWS: @megaeth rebranded as MEGA and committed $30M from its treasury to building its own products, starting with an AI inference market launching in December. The pivot lands with MegaETH's TVL near $12M, down from a May peak above $245M, per DefiLlama. https://t.co/dwzKDMRYlj
Open source - UN
UnchainedArticle ·
MegaETH Foundation Becomes MEGA, Earmarks $30 Million for New Products The team that built MegaETH is taking its engineers into AI inference , the computing work of running trained models to answer requests, and says a public marketplace for it will open on its blockchain in December . The MegaETH Foundation became MEGA on Tuesday, and the new entity said it is committing $30 million to products built on MegaETH, starting with inference. “We realized that staying a chain-only company felt wrong and would have meant ignoring the biggest opportunity in front of us,” MegaETH co-founder Shuyao Kong wrote on X . Kong said MEGA is not turning into an AI company, writing, “MEGA is a crypto-native company, and proudly so.” Get Unchained’s crypto news in your inbox with the free Unchained Daily newsletter . One Token, a Wider Mandate In a separate thread , Kong said the new MEGA entity “has no equity and one token: $MEGA.” Its board will be tasked with decisions such as working with the community to update tokenomics, carrying out programmatic token buybacks and investing further in product lines, according to Kong. MegaETH “remains general-purpose and permissionless,” the project posted , and teams building on it will keep getting technical support. Kong said the team is putting resources into four upgrades and hopes to finish decentralizing the network by the end of the first quarter of 2027 . They are fast finality, which shortens the time before a transaction counts as settled, a rotation of the sequencer (the node that orders transactions) so no single team produces blocks, a market where operators compete on connection speed to that sequencer, and real-time censorship resistance. Why It Matters With no equity in the new entity, the MEGA token is the one asset tied to MEGA’s products, so how its board handles buybacks and tokenomics will shape what holders get from the inference push. The plan also ties MegaETH’s decentralization roadmap to a product deadline, since the project said the December launch requires pushing the chain further . Inside the Whitepaper A whitepaper by Yilong Li and Lei Yang sets out the thinking. It argues that buyers can stick with a familiar, pricier inference provider because they cannot check whether a cheaper one serves the model it advertises or handles their data safely. The paper proposes tools to make providers interchangeable on model authenticity, privacy and security, and floats tradable forward contracts for inference capacity, pointing to Osaka’s 18th-century Dojima Rice Exchange as a precedent. It says a blockchain can keep shared records and handle payments but cannot on its own prove inference was delivered. MegaETH said in a teaser post that its strongest engineers were moved onto a “special project” in early summer, after its accelerator program wrapped. MEGA has not said which models or providers the market will carry, or what role the MEGA token will play in it. Related Listen: Why Programmatic Token Buybacks Are ‘Kind of a Red Flag’ The post MegaETH Foundation Becomes MEGA, Earmarks $30 Million for New Products appeared first on Unchained .
Open source - BA
BanklessArticle ·
MEGA's $30M Bet on Inference Markets Verification gets MEGA to the starting line. Privacy and future capacity are what would set it apart.
Open source - CB
Crypto BriefingArticle ·
MEGA commits $30M to new products, plans decentralization by Q1 2027 MEGA's strategic pivot towards product development and decentralization could redefine its market position and enhance token value stability. The post MEGA commits $30M to new products, plans decentralization by Q1 2027 appeared first on Crypto Briefing .
Open source - BS
BSCN@BSCNewsPost on X ·
The team behind MegaETH is moving into AI The MegaETH Foundation has rebranded as MEGA (@mega_holdings) and committed $30M to build new products on @megaeth. First up is Purified Intelligence, a market for running AI models, set to launch in December. MEGA says it has no company shares, and $MEGA is its only token. According to a whitepaper by co-founders Yilong Li and Lei Yang, the market will check which model each provider actually serves and how it handles user data. That lets buyers use providers they would normally avoid. Buyers will also be able to lock in AI capacity ahead of time, similar to a futures contract.
Open source - CB
Crypto BriefingArticle ·
MEGA commits $30M to launch AI inference market in December MEGA's $30M investment in AI inference could redefine blockchain utility, fostering innovation and decentralization in the crypto ecosystem. The post MEGA commits $30M to launch AI inference market in December appeared first on Crypto Briefing .
Open source - TB
The BlockArticle ·
MEGA commits $30 million to new products, starting with AI inference The MegaETH Foundation has rebranded as MEGA and committed $30 million to new products, starting with AI inference.
Open source