ETHGas Raises $12M as It Launches Ethereum’s First Blockspace Futures Market

Ethereum’s fee market has always been fast, opaque, and reactive. Gas prices spike without warning, validators chase MEV, and users are forced to compete at the last second for block inclusion. ETHGas is betting that this entire dynamic can be redesigned.

With a fresh $12 million seed round and $800 million in liquidity commitments from Ethereum validators and block builders, ETHGas is launching what it calls Ethereum’s first blockspace futures market. The goal is simple but ambitious: turn blockspace into a predictable, tradable commodity rather than a real-time scramble.

ETHGas Raises $12 Million to Build a Blockspace Futures Market

ETHGas raised $12 million in a seed funding round led by Polychain Capital, with participation from Stake Capital, BlueYard Capital, Lafayette Macro Advisors, SIG DT, and Amber Group. The round began in July and closed last month, according to founder Kevin Lepsoe.

The funding was structured entirely as a token round using a Simple Agreement for Future Tokens. ETHGas had previously raised an unannounced pre-seed round of around $5 million in mid-2024 using the same structure. Lepsoe declined to disclose the project’s valuation and confirmed that no board or advisory seats were granted as part of the deal. What makes this round stand out is not just the capital raised, but what came alongside it.

$800 Million in Validator and Builder Commitments

Alongside the funding, Ethereum validators, block builders, and relays have committed roughly $800 million in liquidity to the ETHGas marketplace. These are not cash investments. Instead, they represent blockspace supplied directly into the platform.

In exchange, participants aim to earn higher and more predictable yields. According to Lepsoe, this incentive alignment is central to why validators are willing to participate at scale. By selling blockspace ahead of time rather than only at the moment of block production, validators gain better revenue certainty and greater MEV capture.

How the ETHGas Blockspace Futures Market Works

At its core, ETHGas allows Ethereum blockspace to be bought and sold in advance.

Blockspace is the capacity within each Ethereum block that determines which transactions are included, in what order, and at what cost. Traditionally, this capacity is auctioned every 12 seconds when a block is produced. ETHGas shifts this process upstream.

The protocol plugs into Ethereum’s existing proposer-builder separation model rather than replacing it. Validators can sell blockspace futures up to 64 blocks, roughly 12.8 minutes, ahead of time.

Lepsoe compares the model to traditional commodities markets, where energy producers sell capacity in advance and buyers lock in delivery to reduce risk and volatility. The same logic applies here: less uncertainty, more transparency, and fewer opportunities for manipulation.

Different Types of Blockspace Commitments

ETHGas supports multiple forms of blockspace commitments, giving validators and buyers flexibility.

Validators can sell entire blocks in advance, offer inclusion guarantees that ensure a transaction lands in a specific block, or provide execution guarantees that lock in both inclusion and price conditions. The platform also supports multi-block commitments, such as consecutive blocks or fixed windows of Ethereum time.

According to Lepsoe, these options allow validators to extract significantly more MEV than traditional spot auctions, directly boosting staking yields. That economic upside is a key driver behind validator participation.

What This Means for Users, Apps, and Institutions

From the buyer’s perspective, ETHGas introduces tools that Ethereum has never had at scale.

Traders, applications, and institutions can hedge gas costs, prepay for execution, and avoid sudden fee spikes altogether. Instead of reacting to congestion, they can plan around it.

Lepsoe says ETHGas has already seen interest from traditional finance firms, sovereign funds, and real-world asset issuers exploring Ethereum. As trillions of dollars in assets move onchain, understanding and controlling access to blockspace becomes a strategic concern, not a technical detail.

He also hinted at larger commitments from digital asset treasury companies, with more details expected in January.

Revenue Model and Long-Term Plans

ETHGas currently earns revenue by taking a 5 percent fee on blockspace futures trades. Over time, the team plans to introduce additional fees for applications that require real-time settlement.

This positions ETHGas not just as a marketplace, but as core infrastructure for execution certainty on Ethereum.

A Path Toward Real-Time Ethereum

Beyond futures markets, ETHGas is also pushing a more radical idea: making Ethereum effectively real time.

The protocol has introduced a system that breaks a single block into hundreds of sequential slices, each lasting 50 to 100 milliseconds. This approach can make Ethereum 100 to 200 times faster while dramatically reducing MEV opportunities.

Lepsoe argues that this model redirects value away from MEV extractors and toward applications, liquidity providers, and end users. Automated market makers, for example, could earn billions more annually through near-instant arbitrage without being front-run.

This vision aligns closely with public statements from Ethereum researchers. Justin Drake has argued that pre-confirmations and real-time execution are essential for improving user experience, while Vitalik Buterin has previously called for a trustless onchain gas futures market.

ETHGas now operates two parallel models. One allows traditional MEV players to continue operating, but at higher costs that benefit validators. The other aims to eliminate MEV entirely through real-time sequencing.

The real-time system has already run successfully on Ethereum mainnet, with a broader rollout targeted for the first quarter of next year.

Team, Origins, and What Comes Next

ETHGas has 18 contributors spread across Asia, Europe, and the United States, with roughly half of the team based in Hong Kong. There are no immediate plans to expand headcount.

The project is a spinout from Infinity Exchange, Lepsoe’s earlier fixed-income protocol that is currently paused. Work on ETHGas emerged from attempts to address MEV and liquidation risks that have historically discouraged institutional participation in onchain markets.

What this really means is that ETHGas is not just another Ethereum tooling startup. It is challenging how blockspace itself is priced, allocated, and controlled. If it succeeds, Ethereum could move from a reactive fee auction to a predictable execution layer, and that shift could change how serious capital uses the network.