Startups > Celestia Foundation

Celestia Foundation

Celestia provides modular data availability infrastructure for scaling blockchains and rollups.

$204M total Founded 2019 Vaduz, Vaduz 51 employees

Celestia is a modular data availability layer that decouples consensus and data availability from execution, allowing rollups and app-chains to scale without running their own blockchain infrastructure. Built on Data Availability Sampling (DAS), it enables light nodes to verify data availability without downloading full blocks, reducing costs by ~95% compared to monolithic blockchains. Over 56 live rollups use Celestia for DeFi, AI applications, and infrastructure services, positioning it as foundational infrastructure for the modular blockchain stack.

Problem solved

Rollups and app-chains pay 95% of their costs for data availability on monolithic blockchains, forcing developers to choose between high costs and building their own blockchain infrastructure.

Target customer

Rollup developers, Rollups-as-a-Service (RaaS) platforms, app-chain builders, and blockchain infrastructure projects seeking cost-effective, scalable data availability without bootstrapping consensus layers.

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Founders

Mustafa Al-Bassam

Co-Founder & CEO

Ph.D. in Computer Science from UCL focusing on securely scaling blockchain base layers; co-founder of Chainspace (acquired by Facebook 2019); published foundational papers on Data Availability Sampling with Vitalik Buterin.

Ismail Khoffi

Co-Founder

Core blockchain developer with expertise in Cosmos SDK and blockchain stack optimizations.

John Adler

Co-Founder

Ethereum rollups researcher with background in validity proofs and execution layer optimizations.

Funding history

Seed $1.5M March 2021 Led by Interchain Foundation · Binance Labs, Maven 11

Series B $55M October 2022 Led by Bain Capital Crypto, Polychain Capital · Placeholder, Galaxy, Delphi Digital, Blockchain Capital, NFX, Protocol Labs, Figment, Jump Crypto, Balaji Srinivasan, Eric Wall, Jutta Steiner

Series C $100M September 2024 Led by Bain Capital Crypto, Syncracy, 1kx, Robot Ventures, Placeholder · Undisclosed

Total raised: $204M

Industries

Blockchain Cryptocurrency Information Technology Legal Tech

Pricing

Token-based fee structure: developers submit PayForBlobs transactions denominated in TIA (native token). TIA launched at ~$2 per token in October 2023. Usage costs determined by on-chain market dynamics rather than fixed pricing.

Notable customers

Eclipse, Constellation, dYmension, AltLayer, Caldera, Vistara, Gateway, Snapchain, 56+ live rollups (as of November 2025)

Integrations

Rollups-as-a-Service platforms (AltLayer, Caldera, Vistara, Gateway, Snapchain), Cosmos app-chains, Ethereum rollups, dYmension RollApps

Tech stack

React (JavaScript frameworks) Gatsby (Static site generator) Webpack PWA Open Graph Plausible (Analytics) Google Workspace (Email) Cloudflare (CDN) Frontify (Digital asset management)

Website

celestia.org/

Competitors

Avail

Competing modular data availability layer using different validation and sampling mechanisms.

EigenDA

Alternative data availability solution leveraging Ethereum restaking infrastructure rather than independent consensus.

NEAR Protocol

Focuses on sharding-based scaling with execution included, rather than pure modular data availability.

Aptos

Layer 1 blockchain with parallel execution, not a dedicated data availability layer.

Why this matters: Celestia pioneered the modular blockchain thesis and has achieved significant product-market fit with 56+ live rollups and $204M funding, demonstrating that unbundled data availability is a viable, scalable infrastructure primitive. Its ecosystem growth and integration by leading RaaS platforms positions it as the de facto standard for modular data availability.

Best for: Blockchain developers and infrastructure projects building rollups, app-chains, or RaaS platforms who need affordable, scalable data availability without maintaining their own consensus layer.

Use cases

Cost-Efficient DeFi Rollups

DeFi protocols deploy rollups on Celestia to reduce transaction costs by 95% compared to posting data to Ethereum directly. Teams like dYmension use Celestia to enable RollApps with sub-cent transaction fees while maintaining security.

Rollups-as-a-Service Infrastructure

RaaS platforms (Caldera, AltLayer, Gateway) use Celestia as the default data availability layer, allowing clients to launch production rollups in days rather than months. Eliminates the need for clients to run their own blockchain infrastructure.

AI and Computation-Heavy App-Chains

Developers building computation-intensive applications (AI, gaming, heavy compute) can focus execution optimization on Celestia's data availability, reducing overhead to ordering and data proofs only.

Alternatives

Ethereum Calldata Direct posting to Ethereum is more established but 95% more expensive than Celestia's modular approach.

Avail Competing standalone DA layer with different validation mechanisms; less established ecosystem than Celestia's 56+ rollups.

EigenDA Uses Ethereum restaking for validation, offering Ethereum-native security but different trust assumptions and economics.

FAQ

What does Celestia do? +

Celestia is a modular data availability layer that orders transactions and proves data exists without executing them. Rollups and app-chains use it instead of running their own blockchain, reducing costs by ~95% while maintaining security through Data Availability Sampling, which allows light nodes to verify data without downloading entire blocks.

How much does Celestia cost? +

Celestia uses token-based pricing: developers pay in TIA (native token) for PayForBlobs transactions. TIA launched at ~$2 in October 2023. Exact costs vary by market conditions and blob size, determined by on-chain market dynamics rather than fixed pricing.

What are alternatives to Celestia? +

Avail (standalone DA layer with different validation), EigenDA (Ethereum restaking-based), Ethereum calldata (established but 95% more expensive), and building monolithic blockchains (full overhead but complete control).

Who uses Celestia? +

56+ live rollups including Eclipse, Constellation, dYmension, and rollup infrastructure platforms like AltLayer, Caldera, Vistara, Gateway, and Snapchain. Target customers are blockchain developers and infrastructure teams building rollups, app-chains, or RaaS platforms.

How does Celestia compare to building a monolithic blockchain? +

Celestia separates data availability from execution, eliminating 95% of costs and consensus overhead. Teams launch in weeks instead of months. The tradeoff: less control over consensus rules compared to a custom L1, but dramatically faster iteration and lower operational burden.