1. Project Origin: From Stanford Vision to RaaS Innovation (2022-2023)
Caldera is a leading Rollup as a Service (RaaS) platform, with the core value of helping developers deploy customizable, high-performance Ethereum Layer-2 (L2) and Layer-3 (L3) blockchains at extremely low costs—by simplifying infrastructure complexity, allowing projects to focus on application development while relying on Ethereum for security.
Its core products include the Rollup Engine for 'one-click deployment chains' and the Metalayer protocol for cross-ecosystem (Arbitrum, Optimism, etc.) Rollup interoperability (supporting shared liquidity, cross-chain interactions, and intent-based bridging), which can serve scenarios such as gaming, AI, DeFi, RWA, providing zero-fee transactions, institutional-level availability, and over 100 pre-integrated tools.
The project was established in 2022 in San Francisco, founded by CEO Matt Katz and CTO Parker Jou—who met while studying computer science at Stanford University and previously worked for tech giants such as Nvidia, Apple, and Waymo.
They identified scalability bottlenecks in blockchain (especially the limitations of monolithic chains) and are committed to achieving 'Web-level' scale for Ethereum through the popularization of Rollup deployment. Their vision is to create a 'no-code infrastructure platform' that enables anyone to quickly build application-specific L2s, covering the entire process of deployment, customization, maintenance, and security. The early inspiration came from the trend of 'modular blockchains' (Rollups offload execution while relying on Ethereum for settlement security).
In February 2023, Caldera quickly completed two rounds of seed financing, raising a total of $9 million, led by Sequoia Capital (Shaun Maguire) and Dragonfly Capital (Anirudh Pai), with follow-up investments from institutions like Neo and 1kx.
This round of financing validated the feasibility of its RaaS model (during the rise of Optimism and Arbitrum ecosystems), making it a 'plug-and-play Rollup solution.' In mid-2023, the project initiated collaborative layouts, such as developing inEVM with Injective and achieving decentralized ordering of OP Stack with Espresso Systems, while focusing on integrating ecosystems like Arbitrum Orbit and zkSync to address developers' pain points of 'heavy infrastructure operation and maintenance burdens.'
2. Project Progress: Financing Breakthrough and Ecological Explosion (2024-2025)
1. Financing and Core Technology Implementation (2024)
In July 2024, Caldera completed a $15 million Series A financing round, led by Founders Fund (Joey Krug) under Peter Thiel, bringing total funding to $25 million; existing investors such as Sequoia and Dragonfly increased their investments, with new institutions like Lattice and ArkStream Capital joining.
Funds are mainly used for the development of the Metalayer protocol—this protocol is an 'intent-based interoperability layer' that can solve the fragmentation issues of Rollups (such as the decentralization of stablecoins and insufficient cross-chain liquidity).
The same year saw key milestones: in April, we partnered with ApeCoin and Horizen Labs to launch Arbitrum Orbit L3 'APEChain'; in May, we helped Plume Network build a modular RWA L2; in June, we supported Genso to launch MV CHAIN; in July, we collaborated with NodeOps to deploy Guardian Nodes; in October, we integrated zkSync to support Elastic Chain; in November, we acquired the Hook Protocol team to accelerate Metalayer iterations, aiming to achieve 'millions of interconnected Rollups.'
In addition, in September, we launched the 'Meet the Metalayer' event in collaboration with Layer3, offering a $100,000 incentive to strengthen community building.
2. Scale Expansion and Data Milestones (2025)
In early 2025, Caldera upgraded to Rollup Engine, supporting over 10,000 Ethereum Rollups; core data significantly increased: serving 75+ chains, total locked value (TVL) exceeding $1 billion, processing 550 million transactions, and covering 17 million unique wallets. In terms of technical integration, it connected to EigenDA V2 to achieve 100MB/s throughput and partnered with Manta Network, which has a TVL of $400 million and 250 DApps.
In August 2025, the project achieved another breakthrough: on August 21, the transaction processing volume exceeded 1 billion; the Metalayer protocol expanded cooperation, such as supporting tokenized assets with SoloDePIN and achieving 'intent-based bridging' (seamless stablecoin transfers) with eco; at the same time, we collaborated with SpaceandTimeDB (AI/ZK field) and ROKMCFIREANT (digital asset treasury, DePIN field) to widen application boundaries. By August 2025, Caldera had served ecosystems like Hychain and Cluster Protocol, with X platform fans reaching 402,000 and obtaining Blue V certification.
3. Future Outlook: Dominance Goals in the Modular Track
Caldera plans to consolidate its leading position in the modular blockchain field, focusing on enhancing Metalayer's capabilities in 'Rollup and Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) integration' to improve liquidity depth and diversifying yield strategies.
Currently facing two major challenges: 'standardization of interoperability' and 'industry competition,' but leveraging a lean team of 11-50 people and strong investor background, its goal is to achieve exponential growth in the trend of 'Rollup Internet.'
Summary
Caldera was founded in 2022 by Stanford alumni, starting from solving Ethereum's scalability pain points, rapidly rising with the RaaS model. From 2024 to 2025, through financing breakthroughs, technological iterations, and ecological expansion, it grew to become an industry benchmark serving over 75 chains with a TVL exceeding $1 billion. In the future, it will focus on Metalayer innovation to compete for leadership in the modular blockchain track.
