MegaETH Parent MEGA Cuts 20% of Staff Amid AI Expansion

20% Workforce Reduction Announced

MEGA, the organization responsible for the Ethereum layer-2 network MegaETH, announced on Friday that it has reduced its workforce by 20%. The company stated that this reduction follows months of internal restructuring and is associated with a strategic expansion into artificial intelligence products.

Shuyao Kong, a co-founder of MegaETH, disclosed the changes in a public statement. “We’ve brought together new capabilities and reorganized our teams, a process that has resulted in a 20% reduction in our staff,” Kong wrote. According to the announcement, the affected employees worked across the blockchain, wallet, ecosystem support, and communications departments.

Kong did not specify the exact number of employees laid off or the precise timeline of when the terminations occurred. However, the company emphasized that the individuals let go were significant to the project’s history. “These are people who helped build MEGA from its earliest days,” Kong said.

Financial Commitment to AI Initiative

The restructuring is part of a broader shift in MEGA’s focus toward developing products on the MegaETH network, specifically within the artificial intelligence sector. The organization has committed $30 million to this new AI initiative. While the layoffs and the AI pivot are occurring simultaneously, Kong did not directly link the workforce reduction to the new strategic direction in his statement.

Despite the staff cuts, MEGA said its founders, early employees, and core engineering team remain committed to the organization. The company is now prioritizing the development of AI services that integrate with its blockchain infrastructure.

Proposed Inference Market

Central to MEGA’s new strategy is the development of an inference market, a concept outlined in a whitepaper by MegaETH co-founders Yilong Li and Lei Yang. The proposed market aims to provide users with access to competing AI service providers directly through the network.

The whitepaper argues that this approach addresses two primary concerns in the current AI landscape: verification of model usage and data handling. Specifically, the system is designed to help users verify whether providers are actually using the advertised AI models and to establish clearer standards for how providers handle customer data.

MEGA plans to launch a public version of this inference market in December. The move positions the Ethereum layer-2 network as a potential hub for decentralized AI services, leveraging its blockchain architecture to manage transactions and verification between users and AI providers.

Strategic Context

The decision to pivot toward AI follows a period of reorganization at MEGA. By consolidating capabilities and reorganizing teams, the company seeks to align its human capital with its new technological roadmap. The $30 million commitment signals a significant financial investment in building out the infrastructure required for these AI services.

As the December launch approaches, the success of the inference market will likely depend on its ability to attract both AI providers and users who value the transparency and verification features outlined in the whitepaper. The company has not released further details on the specific technical mechanics of the market beyond the high-level goals described by the co-founders.