Eden Network, a blockchain protocol aimed at reducing the negative effects of maximal extractable value (MEV) in Ethereum transactions, has announced it is shutting down operations and will distribute its remaining funds to its token holders.
“Despite early momentum and success, Eden was unable to maintain its position in the more mature MEV landscape,” the team said in a post on X. “After careful consideration and consultation with community members, a difficult decision has been made to retire Eden Network.”
The closure, effective immediately, means all core services from Eden Network have been stopped, including Eden RPC, Eden Rocket RPC, Eden Bundles, Mempool Stream, Tx Explain, Eden Public Data and 0xProtect. Eden has also suggested alternative tools for users, such as Flashbots Protect for MEV protection and Blocknative Mempool Explorer for mempool data.
Archer DAO’s Rebranding to Eden Network
This network was launched in 2020 as Archer DAO to create new income streams for Ethereum miners through MEV capture. But in 2021, after Ethereum’s EIP-1559 upgrade reduced miners’ revenue potential, it rebranded as Eden Network to keep supporting miners while shielding users from the harmful effects of MEV.
At its height, Eden’s miner partnerships made up over half of Ethereum’s hashrate, with thousands of transactions processed through its RPC each day. Following Ethereum’s move to proof-of-stake (PoS) in 2022, the network became known as an MEV-Boost relay operator, at one point recording the highest average block rewards among all relays.
Over time, the relay and block building sector grew fiercely competitive and expensive, leaving only a small number of operators able to turn a profit.
EDEN Holders to Share 2,000 ETH Treasury
As part of the shutdown, Eden will distribute its treasury of 2,000 ETH to EDEN token holders under a token retirement programme. The swap is open now and will close on 30 September at 23:59 UTC.
Each EDEN will be exchanged at a fixed rate of 0.00001506 ETH, with only the circulating supply of about 132.8 million tokens eligible. All treasury-held and unvested contributor tokens have been burned.
The distribution is limited to non-U.S. residents. Holders with tokens staked in Eden’s app will need to unstake them to be eligible. Any ETH left after the programme ends will go towards covering the company’s wind-down costs.
Eden has directed users to its retirement portal for the swap process and to its blog for more details on the shutdown.
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