Businessupdated 26m ago2 min read
MEGA Cuts 20% of Staff, Pledges $30M for AI Inference Push
“Kong did not explicitly link the layoffs to the AI-driven strategic shift.”
“MegaETH parent cuts 20% of staff amid restructuring, AI push”
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MEGA laid off about 20% of its staff. Three days after pledging $30 million for AI products.
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MEGA cuts 20% staff
MEGA, formerly known as the MegaETH Foundation, cut roughly 20% of its positions as part of a restructuring disclosed three days after the organization earmarked $30 million from its treasury for an AI inference push. Shuyao Kong, MEGA’s co-founder, said in a November 13 post on X that the departures spanned blockchain, wallet, ecosystem support and communications functions, while the founders, the original cohort of employees and the core engineering group would stay committed.
MEGA did not disclose the total headcount or how the cuts break down by team, leaving the absolute number of affected workers unknown. MEGA said it planned to launch an AI inference marketplace in December, with the marketplace running on the MegaETH chain and supported by network upgrades already planned to speed up transaction finality.
AI inference marketplace plan
Yilong Li and Lei Yang argued in a white paper that buyers often cannot verify which model a budget provider is actually running or how their data is handled, which keeps cheaper suppliers from winning business. MEGA framed its proposed fix as “Purified Intelligence,” meant to make inference services interchangeable across providers that customers would otherwise have little reason to trust.
Kong told The Block that operational details, including which providers and models will be offered, were being withheld until launch, so the commercial upside remained unquantified. The Block said MEGA’s cuts followed the rebrand from MegaETH to MEGA and a $30 million commitment to new products, including AI inference, with Kong describing the workforce reduction as the result of reorganizing teams.
Stakes amid crypto slowdown
MEGA’s restructuring landed as MegaETH’s value locked on November 13 stood near $9.8 million, down from a peak above $245 million, and the MEGA token changed hands around $0.045, far below its April high of roughly $0.209. BigGo Finance said the token went live on April 30 after 10 ecosystem applications hit the project’s first performance milestone, and it reported a fixed supply of 10 billion MEGA with 53.3% allocated to performance-linked staking rewards.
Crypto Briefing said MegaETH’s TVL peaked above $245 million in May 2026 and had fallen to approximately $12 million, and it described the $30 million as a reallocation from MEGA’s existing treasury rather than a fresh raise. Kong said MEGA’s founders, early employees and core engineering team remained committed, while the layoffs narrowed the team at the exact moment it was taking on a new product line starting with a public inference marketplace in December.