In June 2024, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, alongside venture giant Dragonfly Capital, invested in MegaETH - a Layer 2 rollup aiming for instant transaction finalization and speeds of 100,000 TPS. This ambitious project aligns with Ethereum Foundation’s long-term scalability vision.
Ahead of the scheduled testnet launch on March 10, 2025, industry experts are analyzing how MegaETH plans to outpace competitors like Solana, Sui, and Monad.
Ethereum’s Strategic Shift
Ethereum Foundation faced criticism in 2024 over decentralization concerns and a perceived over-reliance on L2 solutions. In response, on February 28, 2025, it formed the Silviculture Society - an independent advisory group for ecosystem development. Shortly after, on March 2, the foundation announced leadership changes, appointing Xiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stanczak as executive directors.
During Devcon in late 2024, Buterin reinforced Ethereum’s role as a “global decentralized computer,” with L2 solutions acting as its processing power. He emphasized decentralization, censorship resistance, and achieving 100,000+ TPS via Layer 2 as key priorities. MegaETH embodies this vision, with backing from major investors including Joe Lubin, EigenLayer’s Sreeram Kannan, and Solana’s Helius founder Mert Mumtaz.
How MegaETH Works
MegaETH was conceived in 2022 by Stanford graduate Ilong Li, inspired by Buterin’s vision of a scalable yet trustless system. The rollup features parallel transaction execution and a single-sequencer model with EigenDA for data availability. In private testing, MegaETH achieved 15,000 TPS, using 60 times more gas than Base. With parallelization, it aims for 100,000 TPS and sub-10ms transaction finalization - far surpassing Arbitrum’s 250ms.
Innovations include using RAM for state storage, reducing reliance on SSD speeds, and leveraging JIT compilation for optimized smart contract execution. Analysts at Nansen highlight its memory-efficient state tree, high-speed storage, parallel processing, and real-time transaction streaming.
Data Storage and Industry Response
Unlike most rollups relying on Ethereum’s BLOB storage, MegaETH uses EigenDA, enabling 100MB/s data throughput. However, Ethereum researchers Justin Drake and Dankrad Feist warn that relying on restaking platforms like EigenLayer poses security risks.
MegaETH’s development lead, known as Bread, argues that Ethereum’s obsession with decentralization has hampered scalability, leaving L2 solutions vulnerable to Solana’s rapid advancements. “Solana is crushing us,” he remarked, highlighting the need for Ethereum to adapt.
Funding and Adoption
MegaETH has raised $58M across multiple funding rounds, including a $28M NFT sale from the Fluffle collection. The ecosystem fosters developer growth through the MegaMafia initiative, supporting projects like high-speed DEXs, derivative platforms, and gamified trading apps.
With its testnet launch imminent, MegaETH is poised to demonstrate whether its high-speed architecture can redefine Ethereum’s scalability - or if its reliance on alternative data storage will raise further concerns in the industry.
