Vitalik Buterin backs new blockchain MegaETH as it raises $20 million at '9-figure' token valuation
Summary
The round was structured as equity plus token warrants and brought MegaETHs fully diluted token valuation to a "9-figure" amount, Kong said, meaning at least $100 million.Dragonfly led the seed round, with Figment Capital, Robot Ventures, Big Brain Holdings and others participating, MegaLabs said Thursday. Angel investors, including Ethereum ETH +1.66% co-founder Vitalik Buterin, ConsenSys founder and CEO Joseph Lubin, EigenLayer founder and CEO Sreeram Kannan, ETHGlobal co-founder Kartik Talwar, Helius Labs co-founder and CEO Mert Mumtaz, Santiago Santos, Hasu and Jordan Fish, aka Cobie, also joined the round.What is MegaLabs and its blockchain MegaETH?MegaLabs was founded in early 2023 by Kong, a former global head of business development at Consensys, and Yilong Li, who holds a PhD in computer science from Stanford University and previously worked at software company Runtime Verification Inc., Kong said. "Further, it must support high transaction throughput and substantial compute capacity to maintain the real-time experience even during peak user demand," she added.MegaETH uses Ethereum security, Optimisms fault-proof system and its own optimized sequencer to achieve real-time performance, Kong said.Specifically, MegaETHs two key techniques a heterogeneous blockchain architecture and a "hyper-optimized" EVM execution environment help it achieve 100,000 TPS in real time, the project said. "These techniques stand in stark contrast to todays homogenous architectures, which can only utilize less than 1% of the compute capacity of a modern web2 server," it added.On investing in MegaLabs, Buterin said in a statement, "Creating hyper-scalable EVM implementations is a key prerequisite for truly scaling Ethereum. MegaLabs recently launched a builder program called MegaMafia to help developers around the world co-build with the MegaLabs team and its advisors.Currently, fewer than 20 people are working on MegaETH, and Kong isnt looking to hire more people.Stay updated on the latest crypto funding news and trends with my bimonthly newsletter, The Funding.