Celestia Labs buys Sovereign Labs to build custom blockchains, names new CTO
Celestia Labs, the core engineering team behind the modular Layer 1 blockchain Celestia, has acquired the technology and talent of Sovereign Labs. The deal brings six team members across, extending Celestia Labs' reach from Layer 1 through the execution and application layers. Terms were not disclosed.
Founded in 2021 by Cem Ozer and Preston Evans , it has been part of the Celestia ecosystem since launch. Its Sovereign SDK is a framework for application-specific, high-performance blockchains.
The SDK powers Relay, the top bridge by volume with over $8.5B in transfers, and Bullet, a perpetuals exchange that clears orders in 1.2 milliseconds and processes over 30,000 transactions per second.
Sovereign co-founder Preston Evans joins Celestia Labs as chief technology officer. "I'm excited to keep building on the legacy Celestia Labs has created, and push the boundaries of blockchain infrastructure engineering," he said.
Demand for custom blockchains is rising as general-purpose chains hit limits on scale and speed. Together, the combined teams have shipped more than 25 production blockchains.
Celestia Labs wants to position itself as a full-stack partner for companies that need their own chains. "Internet-scale applications, from agentic payments solutions to global exchanges and prediction markets, require custom infrastructure that only a highly experienced implementation team can provide," said chief executive officer Nick White .
The market is already moving this way. Hyperliquid built its own chain to cut latency, and Polymarket — which processed $6B in volume in H1 2025 — is migrating to a custom chain to ease congestion. Celestia Labs, which has raised over $155M from backers including Bain Capital Crypto and Coinbase Ventures, is betting that appetite grows.
Read more: mpost
