MegaETH shuts accelerator after $80M in projects leave network

MegaETH is shutting down its Mega Mafia accelerator program after two cohorts. The Ethereum scaling project acknowledged that the initiative failed to retain the startups it helped fund and build.

The project incubated roughly 20 teams that went on to raise about $80 million in early-stage funding. However, core team member Shuyao Kong admitted on Thursday that the accelerator was built on assumptions that no longer hold.

MegaETH provided technical, managerial, and market-making support to hand-picked teams that co-lived and co-built with the core developers. Crucially, the project did not take equity or governance stakes in these startups. "We wanted people to be genuinely bought into the Mega vision and the power of our technology," Kong said.

This no-equity approach backfired. "In many ways, the Mega Mafia was the best incubator of this cycle. But very little of that value has trickled to Mega," Kong wrote, noting that most successful applications are no longer building on the network.

The migration of well-funded projects highlights a recurring challenge for emerging blockchain networks: subsidizing third-party development often fails to secure long-term ecosystem lock-in. Global Token Exchange raised $25 million before deciding to build its own chain. Noise, which secured a $7.1 million seed round led by Paradigm in January 2026, launched on Base. HelloTrade migrated to Monad, while Avon and Valhalla appear to have shut down entirely. Stablecoin project Cap, which launched on MegaETH in early 2026, is now pursuing a multichain strategy.

For investors, the exodus is a structural headwind. MegaETH tied its April MEGA token launch to the performance of these accelerator apps following its February mainnet debut. The departure of high-profile portfolio companies directly undermines the network's transaction volume and user acquisition targets.

In response, MegaETH will redirect its capital and engineering resources toward building consumer-grade applications in-house. "Where MegaMafia was indirect, betting on other teams to build value we'd eventually capture, first-party apps let us build direct relationships with end users ourselves, with all the upside and accountability that comes with owning the outcome," Kong wrote.

The network will now focus exclusively on supporting "OMEGA" applications. These are products that Kong said are only possible on MegaETH. They will leverage the network's specific wallet infrastructure and stablecoin.