Eclipse

Eclipse is a modular Ethereum Layer 2 network that uses the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) as its execution environment, making it the first general-purpose Ethereum rollup to do so. Launched in November 2024, Eclipse positions itself as a bridge between Ethereum's liquidity and Solana's execution performance, targeting developers and users who want both settlement on Ethereum and high-throughput, low-fee transaction processing.

Architecture

Eclipse is built on a modular stack that separates four key functions across different layers:

Execution: The SVM processes transactions in parallel using Sealevel, Solana's parallel execution engine. This contrasts with the sequential processing of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), enabling far higher throughput under load. Eclipse runs a fork of the Solana Labs client (v1.17) without Proof of History — replacing consensus with Ethereum's finality model instead.

Settlement: Eclipse settles on Ethereum via an embedded verification bridge on the Ethereum mainnet. ETH is the native gas token used for transaction fees on Eclipse, connecting the rollup directly to Ethereum's economic security.

Data Availability: Eclipse uses Celestia for data availability rather than posting all transaction data to Ethereum L1. This choice substantially reduces costs — the Celestia DA layer supports an estimated 9,000–30,000 ERC-20 transfers per second worth of throughput via Blobstream.

Proof Mechanism: Eclipse uses RISC Zero for zero-knowledge fraud proofs, avoiding intermediate state serialization and the costly Merkle tree operations associated with traditional optimistic rollup designs.

This combination results in per-transaction fees of approximately $0.0002 — roughly 10,000 times cheaper than comparable operations on Ethereum mainnet — with a theoretical throughput ceiling of 65,000 TPS and reported sustained performance exceeding 1,000 TPS under real-world load.

EVM Compatibility

Eclipse's native execution environment is the SVM, which means standard Solidity smart contracts do not run directly on the chain. To address this, Eclipse partners with the Neon Stack, which provides an EVM compatibility layer that allows Solidity developers to deploy existing Ethereum applications on Eclipse without rewriting code. This lowers the barrier for EVM-native teams to migrate or deploy on the network.

ES Token

Eclipse has a native utility and governance token, ES, with a fixed total supply of 1 billion tokens. As of early 2026, approximately 132–145 million ES (roughly 14.5% of total supply) were in circulation following a July 2026 Token Generation Event (TGE) for the airdrop and liquidity allocation.

Token distribution is structured as:

• 35% to ecosystem and development (foundation reserves, infrastructure, research)
• 31% to early supporters and investors
• 19% to contributors (team, current and future)
• 15% to airdrops and exchange liquidity (10% community airdrop, 5% liquidity)

ES serves multiple functions: paying gas via a native paymaster mechanism, participating in governance over protocol upgrades and fee structures, staking to applications, and posting fraud-proof bonds. Investor and team tokens carry multi-year lockups, with investor vesting beginning after a one-year cliff post-TGE.

Eclipse airdropped 100 million ES tokens to early users ahead of the TGE.

Funding and Backing

Eclipse has raised significant venture capital. An initial $6 million pre-seed round (led by Polychain Capital) and $9 million seed round (co-led by Tribe Capital and Tabiya) were followed by a $50 million Series A in March 2024, bringing total disclosed funding to approximately $65 million. Investors include Polychain Capital, Placeholder, Hack VC, and Tribe Capital. Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko participated as an angel investor, and Eclipse received a development grant from the Solana Foundation.

Team and Leadership Changes

Eclipse was co-founded by Neel Somani, a former Airbnb engineer and Citadel quantitative researcher. In December 2025, Somani stepped down as Executive Chairman to pursue machine learning research. His departure followed a significant organizational restructuring in August 2025, in which Eclipse Labs reduced its workforce by approximately 65%. Sydney Huang was appointed CEO following the leadership transition.

Ben Livshits, formerly of Matter Labs (the team behind zkSync), joined as CTO. Vijay Chetty was also part of the early executive team.

Ecosystem and Adoption

Eclipse launched its mainnet beta in November 2024 with over 60 decentralized applications live at launch. The ecosystem spans DeFi protocols (DEXs, lending markets, perpetuals), gaming, consumer applications, and infrastructure. By 2026, the project describes itself as having transitioned from an infrastructure-first approach to an application-centric phase focused on driving user activity and sustained demand for the ES gas token.

The network launched access for builders in July 2024, ahead of the broader public mainnet opening in November 2024. Eclipse maintains access to Ethereum's deep liquidity — citing approximately $80 billion in stablecoins and $66 billion in DeFi TVL at the time of mainnet — as a core advantage over standalone SVM chains.

Market Position

Eclipse occupies a niche position as the only general-purpose SVM L2 on Ethereum. It competes with EVM-based Ethereum rollups (Arbitrum, Optimism, Base) on one axis, and with Solana itself on another, arguing that its Ethereum settlement layer offers security guarantees and liquidity access that standalone Solana cannot match.

Risks flagged in independent coverage include the significant July 2026 token unlock for investors, execution uncertainty following the leadership restructuring, and growing competition from newer SVM-based rollup projects. TVL metrics have been volatile since mainnet launch.