Powering 25% of Ethereum's Rollup ecosystem, Caldera launches ERA token to advance the "Internet of Rollups"
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Powering 25% of Ethereum's Rollup ecosystem, Caldera launches ERA token to advance the "Internet of Rollups"
The雏形of a Rollup internet is taking shape.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: ChandlerZ, Foresight News
Ethereum has accelerated into the modular scaling phase over the past three years, with rollups taking over a significant portion of transaction execution. However, cross-chain interaction experience and efficiency remain bottlenecked. Caldera has accumulated years of expertise in rollup deployment and operations, currently providing underlying technical support for approximately one-quarter of Ethereum's rollup ecosystem. In July 2025, its native token ERA launched alongside Metalayer—a network designed to break down isolation between rollups and enable single-chain-like interoperability across multi-chain environments. On July 17, Binance Alpha and Bitget listed Caldera (ERA), while Bitget Launchpool simultaneously launched ERA with over 2.6 million tokens in rewards.
To date, networks supported by Caldera have processed nearly 953 million transactions across more than 28 million unique addresses, with a total value locked (TVL) reaching $440 million. The platform has established a complete product stack spanning rollup deployment, operation, and cross-chain communication.
ERA Token Functionality
The total supply of ERA is 1 billion tokens. Allocations for the team and early investors are locked for one year, followed by a 24-month linear release. The market’s first-day fully diluted valuation exceeded $1 billion, with daily trading volume reaching $1 billion.
The token’s design serves four core functions:
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Cross-chain Gas: Within Metalayer, ERA is used to pay transaction fees across different rollups, eliminating the need for users to prepare multiple gas assets when interacting across chains.
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Governance: Token holders can participate in decisions regarding protocol upgrades and fee adjustments on Metalayer.
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Staking and Security: Holders can stake tokens to validate cross-chain messages, supporting fraud proofs and data availability verification, and earn staking rewards.
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Ecosystem Coordination: Tokens are distributed as incentives to developers, liquidity providers, and other ecosystem participants.
These four use cases cover key operational aspects of Metalayer. As cross-chain functionality expands, demand for ERA will become directly correlated with network activity.
Rollup Engine: Infrastructure Platform for Rollups
If traditional cloud computing models like AWS were applied to blockchain, Caldera’s Rollup Engine would be their closest equivalent. The platform standardizes the complex rollup deployment process into a one-click operation, enabling developers to launch customized L2 or L3 networks within minutes.
In terms of technical stack support, Caldera is compatible with major frameworks including OP Stack, Arbitrum Nitro, and ZK Stack, with upcoming support for Solana’s SVM. This multi-stack strategy allows developers to select the most suitable technology based on specific needs without being constrained by a single framework.
Market data confirms the effectiveness of this model. To date, Caldera has deployed over 100 chains, including 31 public mainnets and 21 active testnets. These networks have collectively processed 953 million transactions and served over 28 million users. In terms of TVL, Caldera’s ecosystem holds $440 million in total value locked, accounting for approximately 25% of Ethereum’s rollup market share.
In terms of first-mover advantage, Caldera was the first platform in the market to achieve large-scale rollup deployment and the first to offer full support for both Optimistic and ZK rollups. Its recent collaboration with EigenCloud further strengthens its technological leadership, having jointly integrated EigenDA V2 to achieve a data throughput of 100 MB/s.
Metalayer: Intent-Driven Cross-Rollup Execution Network
While rollup technology has addressed Ethereum’s scalability issues, new challenges have emerged: individual rollups remain isolated, creating a “fragmentation effect.” Native bridges prioritize security but involve long wait times returning to L1, with optimistic rollups typically suffering from a 7-day delay that limits capital efficiency. Third-party bridges reduce latency but lack consistency in security and asset standards, leading to fragmented liquidity. User assets become trapped across different networks, and developers must build separate bridging solutions for each rollup, significantly weakening the ecosystem’s network effects.
Caldera’s Metalayer directly addresses this pain point. Built on an intent-based architecture, it allows users to simply express their goals, after which the system automatically selects the optimal path to execute the action. For example, if a user wants to transfer 100 USDC from Network A to Network B, Metalayer automatically calculates the best route, factoring in cost, latency, and security.
At the architectural level, Metalayer consists of three core components. The execution layer handles intent parsing and route optimization, pulling real-time quotes from partners such as Across, Eco, and Relay to automatically determine the optimal execution path. The settlement layer is built on the Hyperlane protocol, responsible for cross-chain message passing and final settlement confirmation. The developer toolkit provides SDKs, APIs, and UI components, enabling development teams to quickly integrate Metalayer functionality.
On security, Metalayer employs configurable Interchain Security Modules (ISM), allowing developers to choose different security assumptions based on application requirements. The system supports two confirmation modes: soft confirmation completes cross-chain operations within seconds, suitable for everyday transactions; hard confirmation waits for finality on L1, ideal for high-value transfers.
Currently, Metalayer has launched testnet support on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, ZKsync, and Optimism, with confirmed integrations from projects including ApeChain, Manta Pacific, Zero Network, Sanko, Kinto, and B3.
Future Outlook: Internet-Scale Rollup Ecosystem
To date, Caldera has raised a total of $24 million in funding from investors including Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund, Dragonfly, and Ethereal Ventures. The $15 million Series A round completed in July 2024 was allocated to upgrading Rollup Engine and promoting Metalayer, ensuring financial backing for product iteration and network expansion.
Research reports from Binance Research and Messari have identified Caldera as a leading player in the Rollup-as-a-Service sector. On the technical front, Hyperlane provides the cross-chain messaging protocol for Metalayer, while EigenCloud delivers high-throughput data availability services—both integrations are now entering mainnet deployment.
According to the official roadmap, Metalayer will introduce user-side liquidity provisioning in summer 2025, enabling individual users to supply funds for cross-chain routes and earn yield. Future versions will expand support to Arbitrum, BNB Chain, Sophon, and other networks, broadening the scope of interoperability. Technically, Caldera is developing support for Solana SVM and evaluating new data availability solutions to accommodate diverse application types.
The launch of the ERA token provides a unified economic unit for network governance and cross-chain settlement, transforming Caldera from a deployment tool into a coordination hub for the multi-chain ecosystem. For developers, the platform offers end-to-end capabilities from rollup creation to interoperability. For Ethereum’s ecosystem, this model demonstrates the feasibility of modular scaling—achieving performance gains without compromising security.
As more networks and applications integrate, the early shape of a rollup internet is beginning to emerge.
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