MegaETH Launches with Record Performance – But User Numbers Still Fall Short of Expectations

On February 9th, MegaETH went live as a new Ethereum Layer-2 solution positioning itself through extreme speed. In stress tests, the platform achieved 100,000 transactions per second with a block time of just ten milliseconds – significantly faster than Solana's 400 milliseconds ^[1].

The project secured $20 million in seed capital from Dragonfly as well as $50 million through a token sale that was oversubscribed 27 times. Vitalik Buterin invested as an angel investor, but sharply criticized the rollup-centric roadmap shortly before launch ^[1].

The performance is based on a single highly specialized sequencer with 100 CPU cores and up to four terabytes of RAM – a centralized structure that is only scheduled to be decentralized in 18 months ^[1].

Particularly unusual are the tokenomics: 53.3 percent of the ten billion MEGA tokens will only be unlocked after achieving concrete milestones. The Token Generation Event only begins upon reaching $500 million in USDm stablecoins, ten launch apps, or three applications each generating $50,000 in daily fees ^[1].

However, the launch numbers reveal the discrepancy between potential and reality: actual usage stands at 29 TPS, with TVL at $40 million ^[1]. Whether MegaETH avoids the fate of other Layer-2 tokens – Optimism and Arbitrum each lost over 95 percent of their value – remains to be seen.