MEGA, the entity behind the Ethereum Layer 2 network MegaETH, has cut its staff by 20% in a pivot away from strictly blockchain infrastructure toward artificial intelligence development.
On November 13, co-founder Shuyao Kong revealed the organizational changes, verifying that personnel on the ecosystem, wallet, and blockchain divisions were impacted. While the exact headcount reduction was withheld, Kong noted that the core engineering staff, early team members, and founders remain dedicated to the initiative.
The adjustment follows the MegaETH Foundation’s transition into MEGA, alongside a $30 million treasury allocation directed toward building network applications. An AI marketplace slated for a December debut marks their inaugural major venture.
MegaETH Restructures as It Moves Beyond Blockchain
Kong noted that the leadership team spent months evaluating the organization’s strategic vision and internal structure before deciding to downsize. The layoffs impacted staff members who helped build MegaETH’s ecosystem, wallet, and blockchain, some of whom had been with the initiative since its inception.
According to Kong, the organization chose to stop functioning purely as a blockchain infrastructure provider, concluding that such a limitation would mean missing out on major opportunities in the artificial intelligence sector. This pivot demonstrates MEGA’s goal to construct applications directly on its own network, moving past its prior focus of solely supplying underlying technology for third-party use.
To fund this new direction, the organization has dedicated $30 million from its treasury reserves. Artificial intelligence services will serve as the initial focus, though leadership has not yet specified how the capital will be distributed across the upcoming product lineup.
AI Marketplace Planned for December
The primary offering from MEGA will be an AI inference marketplace designed to provide users with access to services from competing artificial intelligence model developers.
AI inference describes the operational phase where trained artificial intelligence models utilize user prompts to produce predictions, responses, and other analytical results. This marketplace concept is intended to simplify how clients evaluate and utilize various services.
Project documentation outlines that the platform could feature systems allowing participants to verify the exact models utilized by providers and lock in computing power at predetermined rates.
These proposed functions aim to tackle issues related to reliability, transparency, and computational accessibility. Nevertheless, MEGA has yet to specify which features will go live during the initial launch, nor has it named any participating models or providers.
MegaETH DeFi Activity Drops as Network Faces Challenges
This strategic pivot arrives amid a steep drop in activity across the decentralized finance ecosystem built on MegaETH.
Metrics provided by DeFiLlama indicate that the network’s total value locked (TVL) shrank to roughly $8.8 million, a dramatic decrease from its peak of over $245 million. This drop underscores the hurdles MegaETH has encountered in sustaining liquidity and drawing users to its decentralized applications. Furthermore, the MEGA token has faced downward pressure, shedding over 70% of its market value over the course of the year.
Initially launched as an Ethereum scaling framework designed to accelerate blockchain applications like gaming and trading venues, MegaETH is now pursuing fresh use cases through AI services.
By developing applications on top of its proprietary infrastructure, the organization aims to generate fresh network demand and broaden its utility outside the realm of decentralized finance.
MEGA’s AI Ambitions Will Test Its New Strategy
The workforce reduction and product line expansion mark a major strategic pivot for the team behind MegaETH. Rather than prioritizing foundational blockchain technology alone, MEGA is seeking to bridge the gap between artificial intelligence and decentralized systems.
Even so, the viability of this strategy relies on the upcoming marketplace’s ability to draw in users, computing capacity, and AI creators. Its proposed verification mechanisms must also prove their practical utility to successfully differentiate the platform from rival offerings.
MEGA has additionally noted that its upcoming products will function natively on MegaETH, while the underlying network continues pushing toward decentralization milestones targeted for completion by late March 2027.
Consequently, the upcoming marketplace rollout serves as a critical test. While it holds the potential to spark fresh network activity, the firm still confronts the hurdle of regaining momentum following a severe downturn in DeFi participation.
Will decentralized AI marketplaces become an important use case for Ethereum scaling networks, or will established AI providers maintain their advantage?
Written by
Yuki Yamamoto
