Monad Reveals Mainnet and Token Launch Date Following Airdrop Claim

Layer-1 blockchain Monad will launch its mainnet and MON token on November 24, the network’s foundation announced on Wednesday, with the token airdrop for early users expected to take place alongside the rollout.

The Solana and Ethereum competitor has raised more than $240 million to bring its highly scalable network to fruition, highlighted by a $225 million raise led by crypto venture fund Paradigm last year. 

Founded in 2022, the Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible network launched its testnet earlier this year to give users a taste of what to expect upon mainnet launch. 

Like other competing networks, it aims to fill the scalability gaps that Ethereum mainnet has, offering high speeds and low fees like Solana, but with Ethereum compatibility. According to its website, the Monad mainnet is expected to offer 10,000 transactions per second (TPS) with near-zero gas fees and 800 millisecond finality. 

Last month, Monad began signaling it was close to the mainnet launch, first teasing users with details of the highly-anticipated MON token airdrop before ultimately providing them with insight into their respective token allocations as October drew to a close. 

MON tokens were allocated to nearly 225,000 active crypto users identified after a strong anti-sybil sweep, which weeds out users or bots performing low-value activities in an attempt to “farm” the airdrop. 

Some users eligible for the claim, which was open until November 3, included users of DeFi protocols on-chain, high-value DEX traders, and long-term holders of notable NFTs like CryptoPunks and Pudgy Penguins.

Although specific tokenomic details have not yet been released, unofficial pre-market trading of the token is taking place on popular perps DEX Hyperliquid, where MON is currently changing hands around $0.06—up about 48% in the last 24 hours on more than $14 million in trading volume as crypto markets have rebounded

Official trading of the token will begin upon mainnet launch, with centralized crypto exchange Kraken already announcing that the token will be available on its platform on day one.