MegaETH mainnet to go live Feb. 9 in major test of ‘real-time’ Ethereum scaling
January 28, 2026
MegaETH mainnet to go live Feb. 9 in major test of ‘real-time’ Ethereum scaling
By Margaux Nijkerk, AI Boost|Edited by Nikhilesh De
Jan 28, 2026, 6:22 p.m.

- MegaETH, the much-watched high-performance Ethereum layer-2 network, announced that its public mainnet will go live Feb. 9, marking a major milestone for a project that has gained a lot of attention in the scaling landscape.
- MegaETH positions itself as a “real-time” blockchain for Ethereum, designed to deliver ultra-low latency and massive transaction throughput.
MegaETH, the much-watched high-performance Ethereum layer-2 network, announced that its public mainnet will go live Feb. 9, marking a major milestone for a project that has gained a lot of attention in the scaling landscape.
MegaETH positions itself as a “real-time” blockchain for Ethereum, designed to deliver ultra-low latency and massive transaction throughput.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
The project has attracted significant attention and capital over the past year. MegaETH has been backed by prominent figures in the Ethereum ecosystem, like Ethereum co-founders Vitalik Buterin and Joe Lubin, and has raised millions of dollars to date. Most recently in October 2025, it completed a $450 million token sale that was heavily oversubscribed, CoinDesk previously reported.
That sale, which offered roughly 5% of the protocol’s 10 billion MEGA supply, saw thousands of investors rush into allocations within minutes, underscoring intense demand for next-generation scaling infrastructure.
The project is being developed by MegaLabs which raised $20 million in a seed round led by Dragonfly in 2024, pitching MegaETH as a new kind of real-time blockchain rather than a traditional scaling solution.
MegaLabs has said that the protocol is designed for applications that need near-instant transaction speeds, such as trading platforms, games and other consumer-facing crypto apps — an area where Ethereum has historically struggled during periods of heavy use.
Read more: MegaETH Raises $450M in Oversubscribed Token Sale Backed by Ethereum Founders
AI Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.
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Plus: Solana’s latest phase, OP token buybacks and EF post-quantum security team.
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Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk’s weekly wrap of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. I’m Margaux Nijkerk, a reporter at CoinDesk.
In this issue:
- Ethereum unveils new rules to make AI agents trustworthy
- Solana’s new phase is “much more about finance,” says Backpack CEO Armani Ferrante
- Optimism community begins vote on OP token buybacks
- Ethereum Foundation makes post-quantum security a top priority as new team forms
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