Monad launched its mainnet and deployed its native token MON with a total supply of 100 billion units, accompanied by a community-targeted airdrop. The launch aims to address key performance bottlenecks for high-frequency DeFi applications and provides a first read on adoption and the network’s economic design.
Monad presents itself as a Layer 1 EVM-compatible chain designed for extreme throughput, claiming capacity for 10,000 transactions per second, finality in 0.8 seconds and block times of 0.4 seconds. EVM-compatible means the chain accepts contracts written for the Ethereum Virtual Machine, easing migration of existing development. The key technical basis is parallel EVM execution, which allows processing multiple transactions simultaneously instead of sequentially, an approach intended to reduce latency and increase performance for high-speed applications.
In the first 24 hours after launch the network recorded more than 16,800 unique addresses and 414,000 transactions, as well as the creation of more than 980 meme tokens, according to on-chain activity records. These early metrics indicate demand and experimentation, and also expose the protocol to operational risks tied to load spikes and to the quality of integrated oracles and staking solutions.
MON tokenomics, airdrop and ecosystem impact
The total supply of MON is 100 billion; at launch 10.8 billion (10.8% of the total) entered circulation combining public sale allocations and the airdrop. From the total supply, approximately 3.3 billion were distributed among more than 225,000 verified addresses as part of the airdrop.
The claim portal opened on Oct. 14, 2025 and closed on Nov. 3, 2025 at 13:00 UTC, with an eligibility snapshot taken on Sept. 30, 2025 at 23:59 UTC. The team applied an aggressive Sybil purge to filter bots and illegitimate recipients; the measure aims to preserve fairness, although it raises questions about the criteria and transparency of the filters.
MON will function as gas, staking collateral and a governance token; transaction fees include a burn mechanism intended to balance the inflationary model. Locked tokens were excluded from initial staking rewards and their scheduled unlock in Q4 2029 will add future variables to circulating supply and to pressure on price and liquidity.
The immediate integration of DeFi solutions, including liquid staking options like Magma and shMON, and interoperability with networks like Solana via native bridges, facilitated access to liquidity from day one. This “co-opetition” with existing infrastructures can accelerate adoption, but also requires continuous audits and oversight regarding cross-chain risk fragmentation.
Monad has launched an ambitious technical proposition and tokenomics designed for broad community reach; its ability to sustain volume, manage future unlocks and demonstrate operational security will be decisive.
