Ethereum scaling project MegaETH has officially ended its flagship Mega Mafia accelerator program after two years and two cohorts. Core team member Shuyao Kong announced the decision in an X post on July 16, 2026, stating that the program was built on assumptions that "no longer hold."
The accelerator, which supported roughly 20 hand-picked teams through co-living, co-building, and direct technical, managerial, and market-making support, helped those startups raise approximately $80 million from pre-seed to Series A stages. Kong described it as "the best incubator of this cycle." Yet she admitted that "most of those applications are no longer being built with us."
Key graduates have migrated elsewhere. Global Token Exchange (GTE), the first cohort’s flagship, opted to build its own chain after raising $25 million. Social attention market Noise launched on Base after a $7.1 million seed round led by Paradigm. HelloTrade moved to Monad, and projects like Avon and Valhalla shut down. Stablecoin project Cap, which debuted on MegaETH in early 2026, is now pursuing a multichain strategy.
MegaETH took no equity, tokens, or governance rights in the incubated startups, a policy meant to foster genuine alignment. However, Kong noted that "very little of that value has trickled to Mega." The project's MEGA token launched in April 2026 only after 10 Mega Mafia apps demonstrated significant value-add to the network.
Instead of a third cohort, MegaETH will redirect resources toward first-party applications targeting consumer-grade experiences. Kong explained: "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." The focus will be on wallet infrastructure and its own stablecoin.
