Ethereum blockspace trading platform ETHGas announced that it has raised $12 million in a seed round led by Polychain Capital.
The funding announcement comes after Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently discussed the concept of an on-chain “gas futures” market, arguing that such a product could give users a clearer signal about expected fees and permit them to hedge future costs.
ETHGas argues that Ethereum “needs a redesign of the way in which blockspace is allocated on the network” and claims that its newly launched Blockspace trading platform is a step in that direction. The company said the market launched with $800 million in commitments from validators, builders and other participants.
ETHGas's Ethereum blockspace trading platform. Source: ETHGas
“Real-time Ethereum”
In addition to creating blockspace a tradable asset, ETHGas goals to make Ethereum significantly faster – an initiative the corporate calls “Real-Time Ethereum.” The company claims that purchasable blockspace commitments, called “pre-confirmations,” allow participants to “ensure execution at defined times.”
ETHGas founder Kevin Lepsoe said this implementation is upstream of the present block production services routinely utilized by Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) bots. Lepsoe explained that Realtime Ethereum splits the block into “240 parts of fifty ms each” to attain guaranteed transaction times for sub-blocks.
“The result’s a near-zero MEV and an Ethereum that feels super-fast with effective 50ms block times. […] We can actually go faster, but these thresholds are generally 99.9% supported.”
Still, Lepsoe admitted that there are “some centralizing vectors” within the system. ETHGas can reportedly increase Ethereum validator rewards by eight to 10 times if all Ethereum were implemented in real time and automatic market makers were paid in exchange for blockspace, incentivizing centralization.
He suggested that this was a continuation of an already existing trend. “Blockbuilders + Relays like Titan and Ultrasound already process about 50% of blocks on Ethereum, so there are already concerns about centralization,” he said.
Assessed data shows that 92.4% of blocks in epoch 414463 are produced with MEV Boost block production. Source: Rated
Lepsoe said that “to the extent we’re successful,” ETHGas will establish multiple nodes with a pacesetter election process to mitigate the risks posed by this centralization. Still, he acknowledged that such an initiative would require additional effort and community commitment.
New ways to send transactions
ETHGas says its system can process over 10,000 transactions per second with custom block placement. Lepsoe said pre-confirmations will be for entire blocks, allowing users to buy a complete block to fill at will, a top-of-block reservation, or a guaranteed inclusion in a block. Still, capability is proscribed until more validators are on board.
The final style of pre-confirmations are execution guarantees, which not only guarantee inclusion but additionally “guarantee a particular price or position throughout the block.”
“For example, I would like to execute this bundle or series of trades and be certain that that the result’s X,” Lepsoe gave for example.
Lepsoe said that execution guarantees have already been tested on mainnet but is not going to be widely deployed until January or February 2026.
He added that validators can guarantee the pre-confirmations and deposit collateral as Ether (ETH) or re-staked Ether via EigenLayer. He said if an agreement isn’t honored, validators could possibly be cut in proportion to the quantity of block space purchased and collateral transferred to the client.
Lepsoe said that validators have accepted 99.96% of preconfirmations to date, but Cointelegraph has not been capable of independently confirm this claim.
“You should trust that ETHGas can mediate and assess the cuts accordingly,” said Lepsoe. “It wasn’t an issue in the intervening time.”
