MEGA co-founder Shuyao Kong announced a 20% workforce reduction on November 13, 2026. The decision to lay off staff followed an internal team restructuring process that had been underway over the past few months.
The layoffs impacted employees across multiple divisions, including blockchain development, wallet, ecosystem, and communications. Some of the affected staff were team members who had joined during the project’s early days.
The staff cuts were announced shortly after the MegaETH Foundation officially rebranded to MEGA on November 10. Alongside the brand transition, the foundation allocated $30 million from its treasury specifically to fund the development of new product lines.
Partners Choose to Leave After $80M Accelerator Inflow
The pivot toward in-house product development came after the MegaETH accelerator program officially wrapped up last July. Running across two cohorts dubbed Mega Mafia, the accelerator had incubated 20 teams and helped raise a combined $80 million in funding. However, the incubation effort hit setbacks as most of its flagship projects chose to depart.
Key partners opted to build across other ecosystems with distinct strategies: Global Token Exchange decided to build its own chain, Noise migrated to Base, HelloTrade moved to Monad, and Cap adopted a multichain approach.
Where the $30 Million Treasury Is Heading
MEGA’s core focus has now shifted to an AI inference market dubbed Purified Intelligence. Conceptualized by Yilong Li and Lei Yang in a white paper published in November, the initiative aims to establish standardized, verifiable AI computing across providers.
Despite the pivot toward artificial intelligence computing, MEGA’s official website still lists MegaETH as its Layer-2 blockchain division. At the same time, the project introduced MOSS, a programmable universal account layer designed to serve both human users and AI agents.
On the tokenomics side, the MEGA governance token was previously launched on April 30 with a fixed supply of 10 billion tokens. Of that amount, 53.3% is designated for performance-based staking rewards. Additionally, the foundation has run a token buyback program since May using yield generated from its USDm stablecoin reserves, which are backed by BlackRock’s tokenized treasury product BUIDL via Securitize.
For MEGA token holders, the 20% staff reduction and the $30 million capital pivot toward AI inference signal a clear strategic shift: from a Layer-2 project dependent on an external partner ecosystem to an independent developer anchored in AI infrastructure.
Reported by crypto.news.
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Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only, not financial advice. Cryptocurrency assets are highly volatile and carry significant risk. Always do your own research (DYOR) and never invest more than you can afford to lose.
