TLDR
- MegaETH ended Mega Mafia after two cohorts and will not launch a third accelerator program.
- Mega Mafia backed about 20 startups that raised roughly $80 million across funding rounds combined.
- MegaETH took no equity, governance rights or ownership stakes in the startup teams it incubated.
- Shuyao Kong said most successful Mega Mafia apps are no longer being built on MegaETH.
- MegaETH will now focus on first-party consumer apps tied to wallet and stablecoin infrastructure products.
Ethereum scaling project MegaETH will not run a third Mega Mafia accelerator cohort. Core team member Shuyao Kong said the program was successful in several ways, but was built on assumptions that no longer fit the project’s current needs.
Mega Mafia supported about 20 teams across two cohorts and helped them raise roughly $80 million from pre-seed through Series A rounds. The program focused on early crypto builders creating “0-to-1” products and OMEGA applications designed around MegaETH’s high-speed blockchain environment.
MegaETH provided more than basic startup support during the program. Kong said the team gave engineering help, security audit support, market-making assistance, lending, liquidity programs, leadership help, product direction, and merger support.
The network also helped shape the first product vision for five projects before linking them with venture investors. MegaETH did not take equity, governance rights, ownership stakes, or formal control in the startups it supported.
Successful Apps Move Away From MegaETH
Kong said the no-ownership approach was based on the belief that founders would stay aligned with MegaETH’s long-term vision. She said, “We wanted people to be genuinely bought into the Mega vision and the power of our technology.”
That model produced funded startups, but much of the value did not remain inside MegaETH. Kong wrote that Mega Mafia was “the best incubator of this cycle” in many ways, but added that “very little of that value has trickled to Mega.”
Several high-profile projects later moved toward other networks or independent plans. Global Token Exchange decided to build its own chain after the first Mega Mafia program, while Noise chose Base after raising a $7.1 million seed round.
HelloTrade moved toward Monad, while stablecoin project Cap adopted a multichain strategy after launching on MegaETH. Kong also said “most” successful applications from the program “are no longer being built” with MegaETH.
First Party Apps Become Main Focus
MegaETH will now direct funding and team energy toward first-party consumer applications. Kong said this approach gives MegaETH direct relationships with users and more control over product outcomes.
The shift also connects to MegaETH’s wallet infrastructure and stablecoin plans. Kong said the ecosystem will support teams building OMEGA applications, meaning apps that only make sense on MegaETH and rely on its core network features.
MegaETH mainnet launched in February, while the MEGA token launched in April after network apps met performance goals tied to the token rollout. The project has also introduced a MEGA token buyback program funded by revenue from its USDm stablecoin ecosystem.
The end of Mega Mafia marks a narrower product strategy for the network. MegaETH will continue supporting earlier accelerator projects, but new spending will focus on products built directly for its own users and blockchain infrastructure.
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