MNX raises $6.4M at $40M valuation to build AI futures on MegaETH

MNX closed a $6.4 million pre-seed round at a $40 million valuation to create a decentralized futures exchange focused on the AI economy on the MegaETH Layer 2 network. Village Global led the round, which included Cambrian, North Island Ventures, Finality Capital, Relay Digital and angel investors such as Dwarkesh Patel, Byrne Hobart, Matt Liston and Scott Moore. The company plans a mainnet launch later this summer.

The financing was structured as a simple agreement for future equity with token warrants. MNX began fundraising in March, closing an initial tranche within weeks and completing a second tranche after additional investor interest. No investors received board, advisory or observer seats.

MNX was founded last fall by Stephen Grugett and Ian Philips, who previously co-founded prediction markets platform Manifold Markets. The exchange will offer products tied to the AI sector: dated valuation futures for private companies, equity perpetuals for AI-related public firms including foreign-listed names, compute perpetuals using indices from SemiAnalysis, and AI-focused prediction markets linked to benchmarks, product releases and company results.

For private company valuations the platform will use dated futures rather than perpetual contracts, citing illiquidity that makes perpetuals less suitable. MNX plans to offer leverage on select markets.

Trading will run through 200-millisecond batch auctions enabled by MegaETH’s sub-millisecond block times. The design aims to reduce latency competition and maximum extractable value while ensuring trades executed in the same auction receive the same price.

MNX is operating in private beta on the MegaETH testnet with institutional partners. To seed liquidity, the company will create a single Hyperliquidity Provider–style vault managed by the team. The new capital will also fund hires across development and growth. MNX currently has the two co-founders and a few part-time non-technical contractors and plans to add three to six full-time employees over the next three months.

Grugett described MNX as “a one-stop shop to trade/hedge across the entire AI value chain, from compute to electricity prices to AI benchmark numbers to copper prices to public equities to private lab valuations.” He added that MNX does not plan to expand beyond MegaETH and that Philips is stepping back from Manifold Markets to focus on MNX.