MegaETH’s much-awaited ICO has become one of 2025’s biggest crypto fundraising moments, pulling in nearly $1 billion in commitments. The Ethereum Layer-2 project, which aims to deliver real-time blockchain performance, capped its raise at $50 million but saw over twenty times that amount vying for a MEGA token allocation before the sale closed at 9 a.m. EST on October 30.
The ICO took place via Sonar and marked MegaETH’s third community raise after the 2024 Echo round and its February “Fluffles” NFT drop. Participants could lock tokens for one year to earn a 10% discount. All U.S.-based investors had to accept this lock-in. Moreover, allocations will depend on each participant’s onchain history and ecosystem involvement, though some believe lock-ins may improve their odds of larger allocations.
Explosive investor demand
According to a community dashboard, the ICO attracted $945.25 million in total commitments from 38,974 bidders. The average contribution was $24,250, while the smallest was $2,650 and the largest hit $186,300. Nearly 72% of investors contributed less than $10,000, showing that retail participants strongly supported the sale. Additionally, about 5.1% of all investors chose to lock their tokens, accounting for $85.82 million in total locked value.
Launched on October 27, MegaETH ICO activity hit its peak with $256.06 million raised in just three hours. Even though things slowed down afterwards, the sale still brought in about $41.1 million every three hours, showing steady interest and strong support from the community.
Trading and market sentiment
In secondary trading, prices moved in different directions. On Hyperliquid, MegaETH traded at $0.4183, falling about 9%, while on WhalesMarket, it dropped to $0.33, a steeper 14% decline. However, compared with presale prices, these represented 4.19x and 3.30x gains, respectively. As trader Grail.eth noted on X, “Haven’t seen 1B+ commitments into ICOs since the OG days of the 2017 wave! What a narrative win.”
The project, which targets 100,000+ transactions per second with 10-millisecond block times, previously raised $20 million in seed funding. Its testnet launch in March showcased transaction speeds that “make Ethereum feel instant,” according to early users.
MegaETH’s huge ICO turnout shows that investors remain interested in faster Ethereum-based networks, reflecting growing focus on practical blockchain scalability.
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