On January 14, Noise, an early incubation project of MegaETH, announced the completion of a $7.1 million seed round led by Paradigm. However, the focus of this funding round is not the amount, but rather Noise’s unexpected decision to pivot to Base instead of continuing to stay with MegaETH. This defection of a core project adds more uncertainties to MegaETH’s ecosystem development.
Betting on the attention economy, completing seed round funding led by Paradigm
After just six months, the New York-based startup Noise has caught the attention of capital once again.
On January 14, Noise officially announced the completion of a $7.1 million seed round. This round was led by renowned VC firm Paradigm, with follow-on investments from Figment Capital, Anagram, GSR, JPEG Trading, and KaitoAI, as well as participation from angel investors including Jordi Hays, Dan Romero, and Kain Warwick.
The funds will be primarily used to accelerate the construction of trading infrastructure and advance the mainnet launch process. Prior to this, Noise completed a pre-seed round in July 2025 with participation from Figment Capital and Anagram.
According to official introduction, Noise is a trend trading platform focused on relevance, designed to capture the people and things the internet is currently paying attention to. Here, users can go long or short on contracts about trends, brands, and ideas, just like trading stocks. Trading activity generates prices that not only serve as numbers but become objective standards for measuring cultural relevance.
This price mechanism stems from two signals: data and trading. Noise aggregates activity data from X (formerly Twitter) and calculates a transparent attention index for each trend, measuring the real-time heat of social interactions across the network. When users put real money into establishing positions, they are essentially voting with capital, optimizing the quality of information driving prices. Ultimately, Noise forms a market combining objective data performance with subjective trader beliefs.
For users, Noise provides a new tool for quantifying trends. For example, toy brand managers can use it to hedge attention risks from marketing spending; fashion brands can discover emerging talent by observing who is climbing the leaderboards; investors can express their firm beliefs about which AI lab is gaining the most cultural momentum. Essentially, Noise provides users with a new type of daily news feed, transforming previously vague trending heat into clear tradeable assets.
Over the past year, the explosive popularity of prediction markets has proven that binary questions can support enormous economic activity. In terms of market positioning, Polymarket and Kalshi offer “yes or no” options for specific dates, while Noise focuses on the real-time evolution of relevance, providing “what is the current heat level” and “where will this heat trend,” making it a complement and alternative to prediction markets.
Noise’s model has undergone preliminary validation during the testnet phase. In the Beta version launched in May of last year, 1,300 users across 14 markets not only contributed trading volume but demonstrated remarkable stickiness. Three months later, the month-one active retention rate still reached 62%, with average session duration of 17 minutes, further proving the authentic demand for attention trading.
Ecosystem projects strike out independently one after another, MegaETH faces head-on retention challenges
Compared to the backing of investment lineups and funding amounts, the news of Noise’s decision to go independent seems to draw more market attention.
According to plans, Noise will launch its mainnet on Base in the coming months, opening to the public for the first time and supporting real transaction activity with actual funds. However, this strategic pivot has sparked considerable controversy in the community.
As is well known, Noise was one of the star projects under the MegaETH accelerator Megamafia. But upon “graduation,” Noise chose to abandon MegaETH and instead brought its funding to the Base ecosystem.
This move has been viewed by many as a backstab, facing the risk of cold-starting anew on a different chain, and MegaETH officials even unfollowed Noise’s founder’s account on the day the funding news was announced. However, some argue that the attention economy track is essentially a traffic business, and compared to MegaETH—which is technically solid but has an early-stage ecosystem—Base, backed by a massive user base and liquidity, may be better positioned to support Noise’s launch and growth.
In fact, this is not the first time MegaETH has experienced core projects flying solo.
As early as June 2025, DEX GTE announced a $15 million Series A funding round exclusively led by Paradigm, bringing its cumulative funding to over $25 million. The community interpreted this as a major positive for MegaETH ecosystem rise. However, just two months later, the plot took a sharp turn, with GTE announcing a “breakup” and leaving a meaningful statement: “GTE has grown up, and now it’s time to leave Megamafia,” subsequently announcing plans for an independent mainnet. It’s worth noting that the project’s testnet once attracted over one million users within just several months.
Another stablecoin project Cap also received capital recognition, completing $11 million in funding from institutions including Franklin Templeton and Triton Capital. While it hasn’t completely separated, it has adopted a “prioritizing Ethereum, with MegaETH as backup” dual-chain parallel strategy, seen as lacking sufficient confidence in native ecosystem liquidity.
With the successive loss of key players, MegaETH undoubtedly faces formidable ecosystem retention challenges at this early stage. However, from another perspective, this has also allowed MegaETH to flex its muscles, proving its incubation capabilities.
MegaETH再失大将！Noise获Paradigm融资后转战Base
Author: Nancy, PANews
MegaETH ecosystem loses another key player.
On January 14, Noise, an early incubation project of MegaETH, announced the completion of a $7.1 million seed round led by Paradigm. However, the focus of this funding round is not the amount, but rather Noise’s unexpected decision to pivot to Base instead of continuing to stay with MegaETH. This defection of a core project adds more uncertainties to MegaETH’s ecosystem development.
Betting on the attention economy, completing seed round funding led by Paradigm
After just six months, the New York-based startup Noise has caught the attention of capital once again.
On January 14, Noise officially announced the completion of a $7.1 million seed round. This round was led by renowned VC firm Paradigm, with follow-on investments from Figment Capital, Anagram, GSR, JPEG Trading, and KaitoAI, as well as participation from angel investors including Jordi Hays, Dan Romero, and Kain Warwick.
The funds will be primarily used to accelerate the construction of trading infrastructure and advance the mainnet launch process. Prior to this, Noise completed a pre-seed round in July 2025 with participation from Figment Capital and Anagram.
According to official introduction, Noise is a trend trading platform focused on relevance, designed to capture the people and things the internet is currently paying attention to. Here, users can go long or short on contracts about trends, brands, and ideas, just like trading stocks. Trading activity generates prices that not only serve as numbers but become objective standards for measuring cultural relevance.
This price mechanism stems from two signals: data and trading. Noise aggregates activity data from X (formerly Twitter) and calculates a transparent attention index for each trend, measuring the real-time heat of social interactions across the network. When users put real money into establishing positions, they are essentially voting with capital, optimizing the quality of information driving prices. Ultimately, Noise forms a market combining objective data performance with subjective trader beliefs.
For users, Noise provides a new tool for quantifying trends. For example, toy brand managers can use it to hedge attention risks from marketing spending; fashion brands can discover emerging talent by observing who is climbing the leaderboards; investors can express their firm beliefs about which AI lab is gaining the most cultural momentum. Essentially, Noise provides users with a new type of daily news feed, transforming previously vague trending heat into clear tradeable assets.
Over the past year, the explosive popularity of prediction markets has proven that binary questions can support enormous economic activity. In terms of market positioning, Polymarket and Kalshi offer “yes or no” options for specific dates, while Noise focuses on the real-time evolution of relevance, providing “what is the current heat level” and “where will this heat trend,” making it a complement and alternative to prediction markets.
Noise’s model has undergone preliminary validation during the testnet phase. In the Beta version launched in May of last year, 1,300 users across 14 markets not only contributed trading volume but demonstrated remarkable stickiness. Three months later, the month-one active retention rate still reached 62%, with average session duration of 17 minutes, further proving the authentic demand for attention trading.
Ecosystem projects strike out independently one after another, MegaETH faces head-on retention challenges
Compared to the backing of investment lineups and funding amounts, the news of Noise’s decision to go independent seems to draw more market attention.
According to plans, Noise will launch its mainnet on Base in the coming months, opening to the public for the first time and supporting real transaction activity with actual funds. However, this strategic pivot has sparked considerable controversy in the community.
As is well known, Noise was one of the star projects under the MegaETH accelerator Megamafia. But upon “graduation,” Noise chose to abandon MegaETH and instead brought its funding to the Base ecosystem.
This move has been viewed by many as a backstab, facing the risk of cold-starting anew on a different chain, and MegaETH officials even unfollowed Noise’s founder’s account on the day the funding news was announced. However, some argue that the attention economy track is essentially a traffic business, and compared to MegaETH—which is technically solid but has an early-stage ecosystem—Base, backed by a massive user base and liquidity, may be better positioned to support Noise’s launch and growth.
In fact, this is not the first time MegaETH has experienced core projects flying solo.
As early as June 2025, DEX GTE announced a $15 million Series A funding round exclusively led by Paradigm, bringing its cumulative funding to over $25 million. The community interpreted this as a major positive for MegaETH ecosystem rise. However, just two months later, the plot took a sharp turn, with GTE announcing a “breakup” and leaving a meaningful statement: “GTE has grown up, and now it’s time to leave Megamafia,” subsequently announcing plans for an independent mainnet. It’s worth noting that the project’s testnet once attracted over one million users within just several months.
Another stablecoin project Cap also received capital recognition, completing $11 million in funding from institutions including Franklin Templeton and Triton Capital. While it hasn’t completely separated, it has adopted a “prioritizing Ethereum, with MegaETH as backup” dual-chain parallel strategy, seen as lacking sufficient confidence in native ecosystem liquidity.
With the successive loss of key players, MegaETH undoubtedly faces formidable ecosystem retention challenges at this early stage. However, from another perspective, this has also allowed MegaETH to flex its muscles, proving its incubation capabilities.