ETHGas just raised $12 million in seed funding, and the timing is not a coincidence.
The round was led by Polychain Capital, landing just as Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin revived discussion around on-chain gas futures and new ways to price and allocate Ethereum blockspace. Together, the funding and the renewed debate point to a growing push to rethink how Ethereum handles fees, speed, and execution guarantees.
A Platform Built Around Tradable Blockspace
ETHGas describes itself as a blockspace trading platform, but the ambition goes further than that. The company wants to change how Ethereum allocates blockspace by introducing tradable commitments that users can buy in advance.
At launch, ETHGas says it secured $800 million in blockspace commitments from validators, builders, and other ecosystem participants. The core argument is simple. Ethereum’s current fee market is reactive, unpredictable, and poorly suited for users who need certainty.
ETHGas is betting that blockspace should be something you can reserve, hedge, and trade.
Today, we’re excited to announce that ETHGas has raised a $12M seed round, led by @Polychain, to build Ethereum’s blockspace futures market.
— ETHGAS (@ETHGasOfficial) December 17, 2025
We’ve also received $800M in commitments from leading Ethereum builders to support ETHGas’ marketplace and product development. pic.twitter.com/OHe8O8trh7
Why Vitalik’s Gas Futures Comments Matter
Buterin recently discussed the idea of on-chain gas futures markets, a concept that would allow users to lock in future fees and better manage cost volatility. His comments quickly reignited debate around fee hedging, futures-style products, and more structured resource markets on Ethereum.
ETHGas fits directly into that conversation. By turning blockspace into a forward-looking product, the platform aims to give users clearer pricing signals while reducing uncertainty around execution.
Inside “Real-Time Ethereum”
ETHGas’ technical vision is called Real-Time Ethereum, and the goal is speed.
The system splits each Ethereum block into 240 slices of 50 milliseconds, allowing for guaranteed sub-block transaction times. Founder Kevin Lepsoe says users can purchase pre-confirmations, which are blockspace commitments that guarantee execution at specific time windows.
These commitments operate upstream of existing block production systems, including the infrastructure typically used by MEV bots.
Faster Blocks, Less MEV
According to Lepsoe, this approach results in near-zero MEV and an Ethereum experience that feels dramatically faster, with effective block times closer to 50 milliseconds. While the system can run faster, ETHGas aims to stay within thresholds that maintain 99.9% validator support.
The platform claims it can process over 10,000 transactions per second, with users able to choose exactly where their transactions land inside a block.
Pre-confirmations come in several forms. Users can reserve entire blocks, secure top-of-block placement, or guarantee simple inclusion. Capacity is limited for now, but expands as more validators participate.
Execution Guarantees and What Comes Next
The most advanced feature is execution guarantees, which lock in both inclusion and pricing or position within a block. Lepsoe points to use cases like complex trade sequences or bundles where predictable outcomes matter more than raw speed.
These guarantees have already been tested on Ethereum mainnet, though ETHGas does not expect broad deployment until January or February 2026.
Validator Incentives and Centralization Risks
Validators back pre-confirmations by posting collateral in ETH or restaked Ether via EigenLayer. If a validator fails to honor a commitment, they face slashing proportional to the amount of blockspace sold, with collateral transferred to the buyer.
Lepsoe acknowledges that centralization risks exist. Today, a handful of builders and relays already handle a significant share of Ethereum blocks, possibly around 50%. ETHGas plans to mitigate this by running multiple nodes with leader-election mechanisms, though doing so will require sustained effort and community buy-in.
A Broader Shift in How Ethereum Thinks About Fees
ETHGas is not just pitching faster transactions. It is pushing a different mental model for Ethereum itself, one where blockspace becomes a financial product rather than a last-minute auction.
With $12 million in new funding and renewed interest from Ethereum’s co-founder, the idea of gas futures and tradable blockspace is moving from theory toward reality. Whether the network adopts it at scale remains an open question, but the conversation has clearly shifted.
