Your Dreams Don't Have to Die (Pt. 2)

The biggest mistake an ecosystem can make is collapsing into a top-down monoculture.

The chain becomes the protagonist by dictating narratives, aesthetics, language, audience, etc., while every app gets relegated to a supporting role. Builders end up pigeonholed and ultimately forced to abandon any sense of individuality in order to conform to the standards of where they build.

The best analogy I've found for how we guide Megamafia and the broader buildout of the MegaETH ecosystem isn't other accelerators or some existing ecosystem playbook – it's A24. (For those unfamiliar, A24 is the studio and distributor behind Uncut Gems, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Lady Bird, The Smashing Machine and more. Yeah, not exactly your typical crypto reference.)

I don't come from a film background, nor do I consider myself a film aficionado. But what I do admire about A24 is that it's not defined by a single genre or aesthetic – it's defined by a feeling. Each of its films has its own identity, speaks to its own audience, and unapologetically optimizes for its own distinct experience.

And yet, there's this hard-to-pin-down thread that ties them all together. One where you can instantly feel something is an A24 film without even being told it's an A24 film.

It's difficult to explain exactly what that feeling is, but it begins with how deliberately they curate who they work with. They back wildly – and often time stylistically divergent – creative minds like the Safdie brothers, Greta Gerwig, Barry Jenkins, the Daniels and others well before they break into the mainstream. Their focus isn't on imposing a house style or dictating the creative process; it's on backing the talent and letting those individuals lead the direction. Through a clear and consistent sense of taste, they've cultivated an audience that trusts them. They've found a way to build a brand through curation, where cohesion comes from the individuality of each voice rather than forcing everything into a single mold.

That's the ethos we try to channel with the Mafia, especially with 2.0. We're not here to predefine a single builder profile or hardcode a category or vertical that the cohort is obligated to build in. Instead, we're assembling a group of builders we believe will shape the cultural and economic layers that are starting to take shape onchain. Pair that curation with the technical unlocks of MegaETH, and you arrive at something that feels distinct. You won't need to be told that something is built on MegaETH; you should simply feel it, the same way you instinctively know you're watching an A24 production.

This second batch captures the multiplicity of builders on Mega – five new teams, each unique in their own right, spanning institutional DeFi to culturally charged consumer experiences. All unmistakably Mafia.

Benchmark ( @BenchmarkFi)

Credit layer for real-time markets

Benchmark is creating the unified USDm Liquidity Engine for MegaETH.

Isolated lending pools and curated yields, structured by veterans from Blackrock and Goldman to bring TradFi-grade risk curation to DeFi.

Brix ( @brix_money)

Emerging capital markets

Brix enables a fundamentally new class of tokenized, yield-bearing stablecoins and assets.

Bringing these opportunities onchain will enable anyone to access the most lucrative emerging-market yields across DeFi.

Kumbaya ( @kumbaya_xyz)

Cult formation venue

Kumbaya dares you to create culture, and price it in real-time.

Unleashing the culture-value flywheel on the fastest, most liquid DEX on MegaETH: coordination games go harder than ever.

Rocket ( @userocket_app)

Call any price. Win from any move.

Rocket is creating the concept of redistribution markets, unlocking unlimited position sizes on any price feed in crypto with returns that compound with conviction.

Transform price speculation from a static experience into something dynamic, social, and addictive mobile-first experience.

stomp.gg ( @stompdotgg)

Build your team and battle it out

Stomp is an onchain native gaming experience. Collect, strategize, and compete in real-time.

Unlimited customization, unbounded potential.