Future repurchases will follow a preset schedule and be routed through on-chain markets.
The MegaETH Foundation completed its first MEGA buyback on May 7, deploying all net rewards accrued from the network’s USDm stablecoin issuer through the end of April.
The circulating supply of USDm, the MegaETH-native stablecoin built in partnership with Ethena, currently stands at $480 million, the foundation said. The sharp climb from roughly $63 million in USDm in circulation at the time of MEGA’s token generation event on April 30 reflects a wave of post-TGE capital inflows into Layer 2’s DeFi ecosystem.
The foundation said future MEGA buybacks would be programmatic, with no discretionary calls on timing or sizing. However, the size of the initial buyback and the average price paid were not disclosed, sparking some backlash from the community.
Repurchases will also shift to onchain markets once operational infrastructure is in place, with the foundation signalling its intent to route flows through MegaETH’s own DeFi protocols rather than centralized venues.
The buyback mechanism is central to the economic design that MegaETH unveiled ahead of its TGE, which ties MEGA’s value capture to USDm adoption rather than transaction fees. Yield generated by USDm reserve assets flows to the foundation, which uses the proceeds to acquire MEGA on the open market.
The foundation also noted that buyback amounts will fluctuate because USDm supply tracks user demand, and the reward share is sensitive to prevailing returns on the underlying reserve assets.
MegaETH’s mainnet went live on Feb. 9 with Aave deployed from day one, and the network has seen a steep rise in deposits since the MEGA launch, led by USDm-related strategies on Aave’s MegaETH market.
This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.