MegaETH debuts 'real-time' mainnet, targets 40,000 TPS and 10 ms blocks

The MegaETH mainnet launched on Monday with more than 50 live applications, according to the network's interface. The so-called "real-time blockchain" aims for a throughput of over 40,000 transactions per second and 10-millisecond block times, a significant technical claim in the Ethereum scaling sector.

According to a statement shared with The Block, MegaETH's design specifically targets blockchain latency, which the team identifies as a primary bottleneck for user experience. The project developed a new system called SALT, or Small Authentication Large Trie, which keeps critical data in memory to circumvent traditional storage delays.

“MegaETH leverages Ethereum for settlement and security, while separating out execution to push past the performance ceiling that traditional architectures impose,” the team wrote in the statement. “The goal was never to be an L1 or an L2. The goal was to build the most performant chain possible, and this architecture is the logical conclusion of blockchain design.”

Founded in 2022, MegaETH raised $20 million in a seed round led by Dragonfly Capital in June 2024, with participation from Ethereum co-founders Vitalik Buterin and Joseph Lubin. 

The launch follows a testnet last year and a January “global stress test” that sought to process 11 billion transactions over a seven-day period to validate the network's throughput and latency under sustained load. It also follows an oversubscribed public token sale in October 2025, which drew $1.39 billion in commitments.

Real-time performance and token mechanics

MegaETH said its low-latency design enables two novel applications: entirely new assets traded onchain and new ways for users to interact with them, including gamified, tap-based, and walletless experiences. The network’s in-house accelerator, MegaMafia, has produced teams that raised more than $70 million in venture funding from Franklin Templeton, Robot Ventures, Maven11, and Figment Capital, according to the statement. 

Notably, the project has decoupled its mainnet event from the generation of its native MEGA token. The MEGA token will launch seven days after the fulfillment of any one of three measurable Key Performance Indicators, the MegaETH team said. 

These KPIs include reaching a $500 million circulating supply of USDM over a 30-day average, having 10 MegaMafia applications active on mainnet, or seeing three apps generate more than $50,000 in daily fees for 30 consecutive days.

According to the statement, the tokenomics are tied to these metrics through two primary mechanisms. "Proximity Markets," where users lock MEGA for colocated sequencer access to reduce latency, and a buyback program where all yield from the USDM stablecoin is used to purchase and remove MEGA from circulation.