Monad has entered the market with force, securing one of the strongest post-launch performances of any Layer-1 network this year. Its MON token surged more than 50% within two days of going live, even as broader market conditions softened.
Monad’s mainnet activation on November 24, 2025, immediately shifted sentiment. The token opened at $0.026 during its public sale but quickly rebounded from skepticism, accelerating to the $0.04 region. Its climb to $0.045 during peak intraday action translated into gains of more than 100% from early lows, even as Bitcoin and Ethereum slipped.
Market participants responded to clear utilization signals. More than 100 applications went live shortly after launch, contributing to rising on-chain liquidity and stablecoin inflows surpassing $120 million.
Notably, the airdrop played a central role. Over 3.33 billion MON were distributed to roughly 76,000 wallets.
Listings and Exchange Activity Accelerate Monad Momentum
Trading activity expanded across global exchanges within hours, creating a distinctive liquidity footprint. Upbit led the market with more than $400 million in daily volume, accounting for more than 62% of trading in Korean won pairs. Coinbase followed with $233 million, while Bybit contributed another $160 million, underscoring MON’s appeal across regions.
Furthermore, the token’s availability across several chains led to an unusual distribution pattern. Solana-based MON pairs captured nearly 60% of the activity seen on native Uniswap pools, supporting flexible liquidity routing but complicating price consistency.
Daily trading volume eventually exceeded $1.3 billion, marking a more than 600% spike. That placed Monad among the strongest performers of the week, surpassing the momentum seen in projects such as Kaspa, Sui, and Ethena.
Ecosystem Incentives Drive Utility While Tokenomics Draw Scrutiny
Monad’s performance has been supported by aggressive ecosystem programs designed to stimulate borrowing, staking, and yield generation. Lending protocols like Curvance and TownSquare introduced structured leverage options involving MON, stablecoins, and liquid staking tokens. Yield strategies through MON Vault and Upshift’s earnAUSD product created passive return avenues that deepened liquidity.
Liquid staking also contributed to early adoption. Users had the opportunity to earn staking rewards by redeploying LSTs across DeFi, helping bootstrap activity across interconnected pools.
Even so, tokenomics generated debate. With only about 10.8% of the eventual supply in circulation, the fully diluted valuation drew commentary from industry voices.
Nonetheless, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes remarked that he “aped” into the token due to bullish market conditions, signaling an admission of high-risk speculation around a low-float asset.
Funding disclosures added further context. CryptoRank data showed Monad raised $431 million across multiple rounds, including $244 million from earlier fundraising and $187 million from public sales.











