MegaETH ICO sees massive 8.9x oversubscription

Ethereum layer-2 network MegaETH’s initial coin offering reportedly “sold out” within minutes and is now oversubscribed by about $400 million, as users scramble to get an allocation of its MEGA token. 

The Ethereum layer-2 network opened the auction for its MEGA token on Monday with a raise cap of just under $50 million, but the auction has since seen more than $450 million in commitments in just a matter of hours.

In total, the initial coin offering (ICO) will allocate 5% of the total 10 billion token supply, with a maximum bid amount of $186,282 and a minimum bid of $2,650, offering the option to select a 1-year lock-up for a 10% discount.

Because it’s oversubscribed, when the countdown timer ends in two days, a “special allocation mechanism” will be used to decide each user’s allocation, according to the auction FAQ, which takes into account past engagement in the MegaETH and Ethereum communities, and whether a lock-up was selected. 

The project’s white paper lists the token launch date as January 2026. The token will be tradeable on announced centralized exchanges and decentralized exchanges operating on MegaETH, and function as a standard ERC-20 token, but also act as an “economic engine for a pair of novel infrastructure features, including sequencer rotation and proximity markets.” 

MegaETH token sale spike: Conviction or FOMO?

Reports on X indicate that the tokens were oversubscribed within minutes, and in just two hours, had already reached five times the cap with 819 addresses committing the maximum bid, according to blockchain analytics platform Arkham.

An analyst with the onchain analytics platform Santiment, Brian Q, said on Tuesday, “Such aggressive, synchronized buying can be a red flag.” 

“When too many participants are moving in the same direction at once, it can amplify speculative pressure, elevate the risk of a sharp reversal, and may reflect more of a social momentum than fundamentals,” he said. 

“The sheer volume of max contributions in such a short window raises the question: are buyers driven by long-term conviction in MegaETH’s technology, or by a fear of missing out (FOMO)?”

MegaETH’s promise could also be a factor 

However, he also said it could be driven by the project’s lofty promises. MegaETH’s creators, known as MegaLabs, have raised large amounts of funding and are backed by some of the most influential names in the industry, including Ethereum co-founders Vitalik Buterin and Joe Lubin. 

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The project, following the launch of its testnet in March, aims to achieve millisecond-level transaction speeds. 

“In the end, MegaETH is getting so much hype because it promises something everyone in crypto wants: a blockchain that’s as quick and smooth as a regular app, but still connected to Ethereum’s trusted network,” Brian Q said. 

“If the team delivers on its goals, it could become one of the most useful Ethereum extensions yet. But like all early-stage crypto projects, it’s still experimental — so traders and investors should stay curious, not careless, while the story unfolds.”

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