Eclipse secures $50M ahead of mainnet launch

The Series A round was co-led by Placeholder and Hack VC

article-image

Eclipse founder Neel Somani | Permissionless II by Blockworks

share

Modular blockchain Eclipse has secured $50 million in a Series A funding round led by Placeholder and Hack VC, bringing its total funding to $65 million. 

Other investors including Polychain Capital, Delphi Digital, Maven 11, DBA and Fenbushi Capital also participated in the round.

Blockchain modularity refers to the different design layers of a blockchain stack. These include execution, settlement, consensus and data availability. 

Read more: A spicy salvo launched in the monolithic vs modular debate

For blockchains like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana, this activity is carried out by the same set of nodes. Modular blockchains, on the other hand, divide these different functionalities into separate specialized layers.

Neel Somani, the founder of Eclipse, told Blockworks that he believes that there are no layer-2s on Ethereum today that are built for scale

“There are many theoretical solutions, and plenty of infrastructure being funded which will mitigate the issues of liquidity fragmentation in the coming years, but our view is that there is tons of low-hanging fruit at the execution layer which we will happily incorporate to provide a superior user experience on Ethereum,” Somani said. “Eclipse is intended to be the most performant layer-2.”

Eclipse is built using the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) for execution, Celestia for data availability, and Ethereum for settlement and consensus. 

Read more: Eclipse is using Solana’s virtual machine to launch an Ethereum L2

Although the Dencun upgrade is just around the corner, which will make data posting much more affordable through the introduction of EIP 4844. Somani notes that Eclipse will continue to use Celestia for data availability however, at least for the time being.

“Despite the Polymarket poll saying blobs will be practically free after Dencun, I find it unlikely that this will actually be the case,” Somani said. 

The team may consider publishing some data to Ethereum following full Danksharding, like state diffs. 

Read more: For Ethereum rollups, dealing with data remains a bottleneck

Despite these considerations, Somani notes that publishing all transactions onto a data availability layer, even for zk rollups, has advantages. This approach ensures transparency, enabling anyone to promptly verify if a zk proof system has been tampered with or compromised.

“We are constantly monitoring DA advancements on the Ethereum layer-1. At the same time, for infrastructure it’s always wise to place a premium on any dependencies that are stable and live today,” he said.

The company noted that it will launch mainnet in Q2 of 2024. It has so far released a devnet and testnet version of its protocol, with several dapps already testing out its infrastructure. These include NFT marketplace Rarible, oracle infrastructure Pyth Network and lending protocol Solend.

Following its mainnet launch, the company said it would sponsor hackathons and accelerators and organize community events for its users.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates (19).png

Research

Suilend has grown into the top money market and liquid staking provider on Sui. STEAMM, Suilend’s Superfluid AMM, presents a compelling avenue for growing market share within Sui’s DEX landscape and revenue generation for the protocol. Suilend’s multi-product suite position it well for owning market share across key verticals. While current metrics across the Sui ecosystem are likely inflated due to Sui Foundation incentive programs, SEND trades at amongst the lowest multiples in the lend/borrow sector, suggesting that a bull case for continued growth in the ecosystem may be mispriced.

article-image

Decentralized money was a “very unpopular goal” when concepts were proposed in the ’90s, said Nick Szabo

article-image

Cove aims to deliver “risk-adjusted yield” through curated DeFi vaults

article-image

The best capital markets are open to the most people — and crypto capital markets are open to everyone

article-image

Post-conference musings on Firedancer, Kraken, Solana Mobile and Trump

article-image

Executives expect others to follow SharpLink Gaming’s lead in purchasing an asset that has surged this past month

article-image

After a weekend of tariff policy shifts, investors appear confident that trade deals are underway