caldera

$ERA In the world of crypto, it’s easy to get lost in buzzwords. “Modular.” “Scalable.” “Sovereign rollups.” Most of the time, these ideas sound promising but feel like they’re years away from reality.

But what if I told you there’s a platform that’s actually making these ideas work — right now?

Meet @Caldera Official — a rollup-as-a-service platform that lets anyone launch their own blockchain in minutes. Not just any blockchain either, but a fully customizable, fast, low-cost, and interoperable rollup. And they’re not stopping at building better rollups — they’re building something bigger: the Internet of Rollups.

Let’s unpack what that means and why it matters.

🚀 So, What Is Caldera Really?

Imagine you're building a Web3 app — maybe a DeFi protocol, a new NFT ecosystem, or even a real-time on-chain game. You know Ethereum is secure, but it’s slow and expensive. You need your own chain, but launching and maintaining one is… well, a pain.

Caldera fixes this.

It gives developers an easy way to spin up their own custom blockchain — technically, a Layer 2 rollup — in just a few clicks. You choose how it works: the virtual machine (EVM or Solana-style), the token it uses for gas, the data availability layer (Ethereum, Celestia, EigenDA — your pick), and more.

Then? Boom. You have your own chain. And it’s fast. We’re talking millisecond block times, dirt-cheap fees, and total control.

But here’s the real magic: every rollup launched with Caldera is automatically connected to every other @Caldera Official chain through something called the Metalayer. It’s like building your own city, and knowing it’s already wired into the whole country’s road and internet system.

🔗 Meet the Metalayer: Caldera’s Secret Sauce

One of the biggest headaches in crypto is moving assets between chains. Even if you're on two Ethereum-based rollups, you usually need to go through bridges, wait several minutes (or hours), and deal with crazy gas fees.

Caldera flips that on its head.

Thanks to the Metalayer, all Caldera chains can talk to each other natively. That means sending tokens or messages between your appchain and another is almost instant — and no sketchy bridges involved. It uses protocols like Hyperlane and Across to make it all click behind the scenes.

So whether you’re building an NFT marketplace, a DeFi protocol, or even a game, you’re not building on an island. You’re part of an ecosystem where liquidity, data, and users can move freely — like they should in a truly decentralized world.

🧱 Build a Blockchain Like You Build a Website

The best part? You don’t need to be a DevOps wizard to launch your own rollup on Caldera.

They offer something called the Rollup Engine — a sleek dashboard where you pick your stack (execution, settlement, DA layer), upload your contracts, and deploy. Caldera handles the infrastructure — sequencers, validators, node hosting, monitoring — all of it.

You focus on your app. Caldera handles the chain.

And if your app scales up? No problem. You can resize your chain, patch updates, or even upgrade your execution stack. It’s truly “plug-and-play” infrastructure for Web3.

⚡ Real Projects Are Already Using Caldera

This isn’t theory. Caldera already powers dozens of live chains, used by real teams building real apps.

Some highlights:

ApeChain: Launched by the ApeCoin DAO for its NFT and gaming ecosystem.

inEVM: Injective Labs’ EVM-compatible rollup.

Manta Pacific: A high-speed rollup focused on private DeFi.

Ozean by Clearpool: A DeFi lending protocol on its own rollup.

In total, more than 50 rollups are either live or launching soon. The use cases range from DeFi and gaming to DAOs and identity protocols — all benefiting from lower costs, faster speeds, and instant interoperability.

🧬 Why Caldera Stands Out

There are other rollup frameworks out there — Optimism, Arbitrum, zkSync. They’re great, but they’re also a bit... rigid. You usually get locked into their stack, their rules, their gas tokens.

Caldera is different. Here's why:

Feature Caldera Others (OP, Arbitrum, zkSync)

Launch multiple custom rollups? ✅ Yes ❌ No
Use any gas token? ✅ Yes ❌ ETH-only
Choose your own stack (execution/DA)? ✅ Yes ❌ Limited options
Native cross-rollup messaging? ✅ Yes (Metalayer) ❌ Requires bridges
Support for SolanaVM? ✅ Yes ❌ EVM-only

It’s like comparing Squarespace to AWS. Other rollups give you one template. Caldera gives you the full toolbox — and wires your chain into a whole ecosystem while you're at it.

💡 Who’s Behind It?

Caldera was founded in 2022 by Matthew Katz and Parker Jou, two engineers with a clear mission: to make launching a blockchain as easy as launching a website.

Since then, they’ve raised over $25 million, with big-name investors like:

Founders Fund (Peter Thiel’s VC firm)

Sequoia Capital

Dragonfly

Lattice

They’re also backed by top infrastructure players and are working closely with teams behind Hyperlane, Relay, and other messaging layers.

In 2025, they launched their native token, $ERA , which powers cross-chain messaging and will be used for staking and governance across the Metalayer.

📍 What’s Next?

Caldera isn’t slowing down. Here’s what’s coming:

Full Mainnet Metalayer: With staking, governance, and full decentralization.

Support for More VMs: Including ZK-VMs and parallelized runtimes.

Horizontal Scaling: Letting rollups break into subnets for even more scale.

Token Governance: $ERA holders will soon help vote on upgrades, validator sets, and fee structures.

Their goal? To be the default infrastructure for Ethereum’s modular future. Not just faster chains, but smarter, connected, and more composable ones — all powered by rollups.

✨ Final Take

Caldera doesn’t just make rollups easier — it changes what’s possible.

In a world where every app might one day run its own blockchain, Caldera gives developers the tools to build faster, cheaper, and more connected experiences. It offers sovereignty without isolation — and performance without complexity.

The Internet of Rollups isn’t just a vision anymore.

It’s here. And it’s working.

$ERA

#caldera