MEGA cuts 20% of staff after rebrand and AI pivot

MEGA cut 20% of its workforce after several months of restructuring. Co-founder Shuyao Kong announced the layoffs in a Nov. 13 post on X. She thanked departing employees and offered to introduce them to potential employers.

The cuts affected teams working in blockchain development, wallet operations, ecosystem support and communications. MEGA did not disclose the number of affected employees or provide figures for individual teams. The company’s founders and core engineers remain committed to the project, Kong wrote.

On Nov. 10, the MegaETH Foundation announced its rebrand and a $30 million investment in new products, funded from MEGA’s existing treasury. The blockchain will retain the MegaETH name, and each product will operate on the network.

The first planned product is an artificial intelligence marketplace. Customers could pay providers to run trained AI models. MEGA has not identified the providers or models expected to be available at launch. Details are expected when the marketplace launches.

A November white paper by Yilong Li and Lei Yang identified problems that buyers can face when checking which models unfamiliar providers use and how those providers handle customer data. The proposed marketplace would allow multiple suppliers to offer comparable AI services.

In July, MegaETH announced that it would close its Mega Mafia accelerator and focus on developing its own applications. About 20 teams participated in two cohorts and raised a combined $80 million. Kong wrote that most of the accelerator’s successful applications were already being developed elsewhere.

Reviewed and fact-checked by Alex Panasenko on November 14.