Monad's Ambition: From Parallel Execution to Large-Scale Applications

This article was co-authored by K1 Research and Klein Labs. Key points: 1. Monad is a Layer 1 public chain focused on "high performance and full EVM compatibility." With over $240 million in funding, its mainnet is expected to launch by the end of 2025. Monad is poised to disrupt the public chain market's "performance and compatibility" dilemma, driven by its optimistic parallel EVM design. 2. Using the "MonadBFT consensus + optimistic parallel EVM" architecture, it achieves single-round speculative finality of 0.8-1 seconds and parallel execution of 70%-80% of transactions. However, its performance stability in complex scenarios remains to be further verified after the mainnet launch. 3. Compared to competing EVM projects, Monad differentiates itself with its independent Layer 1 architecture, full EVM native compatibility, and over $240 million in funding. Its testnet phase has already demonstrated the potential for 0.5-second block intervals. 4. The ecosystem has attracted over 280 projects, with cumulative funding reaching $1.32 billion. Support mechanisms such as hackathons and dedicated accelerators have been used to promote a cold start for the ecosystem, with capital flows focused on DeFi infrastructure and core application layers. 5. Monad's core strategy of "Builders First" attracts developers. Despite facing controversy over mainnet progress and validator decentralization, its ecosystem-friendly nature and technological innovation underpin its long-term value. Future breakthroughs will be needed to meet performance promises and maintain user retention. 1. Monad, the Rising Public Chain Star: Background and Development Milestones 1.1 Game Changer Monad: Positioning, Origins, and Vision Looking back at the history of public chain development, Ethereum built the largest ecosystem thanks to its EVM compatibility, but performance bottlenecks have consistently constrained its large-scale adoption. Solana, with its ultra-high TPS, once hailed as the epitome of "high-performance public chains," but faced a crisis of trust due to insufficient decentralization and technical stability issues. The experiences and lessons learned from these two leading public chains provide a clear framework for Monad's positioning. Monad was born to address the core pain point of the current public chain sector: the inability to achieve both performance and compatibility. Its core positioning is to be a "Layer 1 public chain that combines extreme performance with full EVM compatibility." Unlike some public chains that sacrifice EVM compatibility for performance, or even compromise performance for EVM compatibility, Monad addresses this dilemma from a fundamental architectural perspective. It achieves breakthrough performance through innovative consensus mechanisms and execution-layer optimizations, while maintaining seamless compatibility with the Ethereum EVM. This allows developers to migrate their applications to Monad without refactoring, while also providing users with a low-latency, low-cost transaction experience. From its origins, Monad's birth directly addresses the real bottlenecks of the Ethereum ecosystem. With the explosive growth of applications like DeFi, NFTs, and GameFi, the Ethereum network frequently experiences peak transaction times of less than 15, gas fees soaring to tens or even hundreds of dollars, and transaction confirmation delays exceeding 10 minutes. For example, during the 2021 bull market, gas fees for a single NFT transaction on OpenSea peaked at $196, forcing ordinary users to withdraw from high-frequency trading. Clearing transactions in DeFi protocols frequently fail due to network congestion, resulting in user asset losses. While Ethereum's Layer 2 scaling solution has alleviated some of this pressure, the interaction costs and cross-chain complexity between Layer 2 and the mainnet remain unresolved. The Monad team, comprised of engineers with years of experience in underlying blockchain development, including extensive experience optimizing Ethereum's core protocol and debugging Solana's performance, recognizes that achieving large-scale commercial blockchain adoption requires simultaneously addressing the three key challenges of performance, compatibility, and decentralization at the Layer 1 level. This served as the core motivation for launching the Monad project. Monad's long-term vision isn't simply to replace an existing public chain, but to build a universal platform for the next generation of blockchain infrastructure. On the one hand, through performance targets of 10,000 TPS, 1-second finality, and an average gas fee of "less than 1 cent," it will meet the needs of scenarios currently unavailable on Ethereum, such as high-frequency trading, large-scale gaming, and real-time data exchange. On the other hand, through full EVM compatibility, it will integrate developers and project resources from the Ethereum ecosystem, creating a closed-loop ecosystem of seamless migration and efficient operation. Finally, through a dynamic validator mechanism and distributed storage solutions, the network's decentralization will be guaranteed, allowing ordinary nodes to participate in network maintenance. From a broader perspective, Monad aims to propel blockchain technology from niche adoption to mass adoption, providing underlying support for the digital transformation of traditional industries such as finance, logistics, healthcare, and social networking, truly realizing the industry vision of "empowering the real economy with high-performance blockchain."1.2 Overview! Monad's "Growth Surge" TimelineThis timeline clearly demonstrates that Monad's star status is no accident; it is the result of a synergistic combination of capital support, talent, and technological implementation capabilities:In terms of financing, Monad has successfully attracted continued investment from top industry investors thanks to its clear technological positioning and broad development prospects. In 2023, it completed a $19 million seed round of financing led by Dragonfly Capital, and in 2024 it won another $225 million in financing led by Paradigm. The two rounds of financing totaled over $240 million. Well-known institutions such as Coinbase Ventures and Electric Capital are among the investors. The project valuation has simultaneously climbed to $3 billion, laying a solid financial foundation for technical breakthroughs, team expansion and ecological layout. At the team level, the core members are all from leading financial and technology institutions such as Jump Trading and Goldman Sachs. They have deep accumulation in distributed system design, low-latency transaction optimization and other fields. Some members have also been deeply involved in the iteration of Ethereum core protocols and Solana performance debugging. The professional technical background provides a key guarantee for the project to break through the industry pain points of "performance - compatibility - decentralization"; At the technical implementation level, the performance of the test network stage further confirms its potential - the peak TPS after going online reached 5200, processing over 334 million RPC requests within 12 hours, and surpassing 300 million total on-chain addresses. This not only validates the feasibility and stability of core technologies like the Parallel EVM and MonadBFT, but also demonstrates its strong appeal to users and developers. The organic combination of capital, talent, and technological implementation capabilities is the core driving force behind Monad's rapid growth in the public blockchain sector, enabling it to stand out amidst fierce competition. 1.3 Uncertainties and Future Outlook While Monad faces challenges during its development, these challenges also provide opportunities for the project to refine its technology and drive ecosystem growth. Currently, uncertainties surrounding Monad primarily focus on the timing of its mainnet launch, fluctuations in user activity, and the efficient use of raised funds. However, with the continued operation of the testnet and the gradual launch of the mainnet, further clarity will be provided on the project's progress and potential. The community's skepticism is more based on differing expectations and typical early-stage issues, rather than any fatal flaws within the project itself. Moving forward, as we monitor Monad's development, we must not only closely monitor its promised high performance targets, but also pay particular attention to the progress of its technical delivery, the effectiveness of its decentralized execution, and the actual implementation of its ecosystem. With the mainnet launch approaching, these factors will determine Monad's true competitiveness in the public blockchain space. We will conduct an in-depth analysis of Monad from multiple perspectives, including network data and operational metrics, technical analysis, competitive landscape and advantage analysis, ecosystem development, and community culture and builder motivations, to comprehensively assess its development potential and long-term risks. 2. Network Data and Operational Metrics 2.1 Performance Metrics Transaction Throughput and Success Rate: The Monad Testnet Overview Dashboard shows that as of the end of August 2025, the testnet had processed approximately 255 million successful transactions, with a 90-day average success rate of 98.18%. Institutional validator Twinstake's nodes achieved a 100% block production rate and a 100% block proposal rate in Testnet-2, verifying an average block production rate of approximately 98.75%, demonstrating stable consensus efficiency while maintaining high performance. Source: Twinstake | Monad in the Wild: Institutional Insights from Testnet Deployment ●TPS and Fees: The panel shows that the TPS peak reached 300–350 TPS between March and April 2025 (average of about 100 TPS per week). The actual throughput is still far from the officially claimed theoretical value of 10,000 TPS. The median transaction fee in the past 90 days was about 0.0028. MON. ●Block Latency: While the dashboard doesn't directly provide average block times, the stable transaction throughput and lack of widespread failures between June and July 2025 indicate that block intervals remained sub-second, validating the stability of the testnet's parallel execution architecture. 2.2 On-Chain Data●Address and Wallet Activity: The Monad Foundation dashboard counts 310,630,141 unique addresses. The BlockRaptor dashboard defines an "active wallet" as an address that has issued at least one successful transaction, resulting in approximately 309,903,696 active wallets, with an average of approximately 7 transactions per wallet. Source: https://dune.com/monad_foundation/monad-testnet-overview-dashboard●Transaction distribution and time evolution: BlockRaptor’s “Active Wallets & Tx By Month” chart shows that the growth of testnet users showed a significant “high-rise and fall” feature: in March, there were 86.92 million active wallets, which surged to 215 million in April, and then dropped to 11.28 million in May, and then fell to 11.28 million in June-August. Monthly transactions stabilized at around 4 million; the corresponding number of transactions per wallet fell from 6 in March to 3 in April, before recovering to 29, 83, and 111 in May. This data reveals that the initial surge in registrations driven by "airdrop expectations" did not translate into sustained activity. ● Smart Contracts and Contract Creators: The official dashboard shows that as of the end of August, 36,108,124 contracts had been deployed, generated by 2,975,837 contract creators. Monthly statistics from the BlockRaptor dashboard show that contract creation peaked in March and April (60,000–80,000 new contracts per month), then declined, but the cumulative number continued to grow steadily. ● Wallet Behavior Distribution: The BlockRaptor dashboard breaks down monthly active wallets by transaction count: In April, 209.5 million wallets, representing 97.5% of all active wallets, performed only one transaction; only 0.9% of wallets executed more than 10 transactions during the month. Overall, by August, 293,597,158 of all active wallets had only one transaction, representing approximately 89% of all active wallets, further demonstrating that testnet users are primarily short-term, "participatory" users. 2.3 Decentralization: ● Validators and Contract Creators: The Monad testnet currently has approximately 186 active validators. As can be seen from the validator table, all validators have a uniform staking amount of 200 units, and the success rate is generally close to 100%, demonstrating strong consistency. Validators come from various countries, including Romania, Germany, Ireland, South Korea, and Singapore. This demonstrates that Monad has achieved a preliminary balance between performance and decentralization, leaving room for scaling the validator base during the mainnet phase. Source: https://www.gmonads.com/validatorsFrom the comprehensive data of the Monad testnet in terms of performance, user participation and developer activity: billions of cumulative transactions and more than 300 million active wallets reflect early market interest, but user stickiness and real activity are relatively low; on average, only a few users maintain high-frequency trading each month, and the transaction success rate is stable at more than 98%, and the transaction fees are extremely low, indicating that the core technical architecture can support high load but is still in the climbing stage. 3. Technical Analysis3.1 Consensus Layer: MonadBFT — Making High-Performance Consensus More ReliableMonad's high performance is driven by its proprietary MonadBFT consensus mechanism. Based on the 2018 HotStuff consensus improvements, this mechanism addresses message congestion issues associated with increased node count in traditional BFT protocols (such as PBFT) and corrects the common "tail fork" vulnerability in HotStuff, laying the foundation for high performance across the entire chain. 3.1.1 Four Core Innovations of MonadBFT1. Anti-tail fork: The new leader must first re-propose the previous valid block, and only propose a new block when the majority of validators have "not seen the block", to ensure that valid blocks are not lost; 2. Fast confirmation: A single vote is "basically confirmed" the transaction, which is completed within a few hundred milliseconds and will not be rolled back unless the proposer violates the rules; 3. Flexible response: There is no fixed block time, the network takes 200-300 milliseconds to reach consensus, and fast switching is available when the leader fails; 3.2.3 Differentiated advantages from Ethereum Rollups3.3 The value of technical synergy: advantages and practical considerations from an objective perspectiveMonad's consensus layer and execution layer attempt to break the public chain trilemma of "performance, compatibility, and decentralization" through technical collaboration, but its actual value needs to be viewed objectively in combination with technical characteristics and implementation challenges. 3.3.1 Proven core advantages: solving clear industry pain pointsFrom the test network performance and technical design, Monad's technology combination has demonstrated targeted improvement value:● User experience: Transaction confirmation is compressed from "minutes" to "milliseconds", and the gas fee is only 1/20-1/30 of Ethereum, taking into account both speed and stability;● Developer-friendly: Zero migration cost, making it possible for applications that are difficult for Ethereum to support, such as high-frequency trading and blockchain games;● Ecosystem inheritance: Directly connect to Ethereum's US$52 billion TVL and massive developer resources to accelerate the maturity of the ecosystem. 3.3.2 Real challenges to be observed: uncertainty in technology implementation● Performance in complex transaction scenarios: the main network needs to verify the processing efficiency of multiple cross-dependent transactions;● Decentralization of validators: balancing the participation threshold of ordinary nodes and consensus efficiency;● Ecological differentiation: attracting Ethereum second-layer developers to migrate and strengthening scenario advantages. 4. Competitive Landscape and Advantage Analysis4.1 Comparison of Core Public Chain Performance and Ecosystem: Monad & MegaETH & BSC & Sei4.2 Comprehensive Review: Monad’s Core Competitiveness and Breakthrough Challenges in the High-Performance EVM Public Chain TrackIn the differentiated competition in the high-performance EVM track, Monad has obvious advantages in capital strength, technical routes, and ecological compatibility, laying a solid foundation for its rapid growth in the track. Core Barriers in Competition1. The Dual Moats of Capital and Ecosystem Migration: Monad has raised approximately $244 million in cumulative funding, far exceeding MegaETH (approximately $43 million) and Sei, providing strong support for technical development and ecosystem launch. More importantly, Monad's 100% compatibility with Ethereum bytecode provides a nearly zero-cost contract migration path: developers don't need to rewrite contracts, and users don't need to change their wallets or habits. This feature significantly lowers the barrier to migration from Ethereum to Monad, giving it the potential to rapidly attract DeFi and dApps. 2. Performance Advantages of an Independent Public Chain: As an independent L1, Monad utilizes its proprietary MonadBFT consensus and Optimistic Parallel EVM, targeting a throughput of 5,000–10,000 TPS and finality of 0.8–1 seconds, striving to achieve high performance without sacrificing decentralization. In comparison, MegaETH pursues sub-millisecond latency through a single sequencer, but faces significant centralization controversy. BSC's PoSA model has only 21 validators, resulting in limited decentralization. While Sei v2 can offer batch processing throughput of 28k+ TPS, it still requires verification on Mainnet. Monad's positioning makes it more attractive for scenarios requiring an independent security boundary. Overall, Monad, with its ample capital, complete EVM compatibility, and high-performance positioning as an independent public chain, has established a clear advantage in the high-performance EVM race. If it can successfully deliver on its performance targets, enhance decentralization, and cultivate an application ecosystem, it is poised to become a benchmark for independent public chains offering both high performance and full compatibility. 5. Ecosystem Development: Leading Projects Receive Favor from Tier-1 Capital As a new-generation Layer 1 public chain with over $240 million in cumulative funding and a valuation exceeding $3 billion, Monad's inherent capital appeal is also being reflected in its ecosystem. Its leading ecosystem projects have already received significant investment from leading institutions such as Pantera Capital and Binance Labs, providing strong momentum for the ecosystem's initial launch. Currently, Monad ecosystem projects are primarily seed and angel rounds, with investment focused on areas with strong technical adaptability and clear application scenarios. The following will review representative projects within the ecosystem from multiple sectors, showcasing its diverse portfolio. 5.2 Ecosystem Expansion: Portal Acquisition and Stablecoin Development In July 2025, the Monad Foundation completed the acquisition of Portal, marking a key step in Monad's strategic development in the stablecoin and payment infrastructure sectors. Portal provides cross-chain stablecoin wallets and payment solutions, and its platform already supports millions of dollars in daily stablecoin settlements through this acquisition. The Monad Foundation's acquisition has the following strategic implications: 1. Rapid entry into the stablecoin market and reduced reliance on external stablecoins; 2. Strengthening underlying financial infrastructure to provide reliable support for DeFi, payment, and trading scenarios; 3. Through direct investment by the Foundation, signaling to the ecosystem the focus on developing stablecoins and payment scenarios. Overall, the Portal acquisition represents not only a capital investment but also a forward-looking layout for Monad's financial infrastructure and stablecoin ecosystem prior to its mainnet launch, providing solid support for the subsequent implementation of DeFi and payment scenarios. 5.3 Ecosystem Scale: Pre-Mainnet Layout and Growth Potential According to Monad's official statistics from 2025, its official ecosystem catalog has included nearly 280 projects, covering a variety of fields such as DeFi, infrastructure, AI, games, payments, and DePIN, forming a layout characterized by "full track coverage and emphasis on key areas." It is worth noting that although the mainnet has not yet been officially launched, Monad has attracted a large number of high-quality entrepreneurial teams with its technical advantages of "high performance (high throughput, low latency) + full EVM compatibility" and the industry influence of top capital endorsements. At present, the ecosystem has gradually transitioned from the early "concept incubation" stage to the critical preparation period of "application function testing and implementation scenario polishing" - for example, many core applications in the DeFi field have completed test network iterations, and infrastructure projects have also achieved initial adaptation to the ecosystem, laying a solid foundation for the rapid growth of user scale and transaction volume after the subsequent mainnet launch. 5.4 Ecosystem Composition: Multi-track Project Matrix and Core CasesThe Monad ecosystem presents a pattern of "DeFi as the core, and multiple tracks extending in coordination": DeFi projects lead the way with 12 projects, becoming the most active core track in the ecosystem; Wallet, as the key entrance for users to access the ecosystem, has gathered 4 projects; at the same time, "underlying infrastructure" tracks such as Identity, Data Analysis (Analytics), Infrastructure (Infra), as well as innovative tracks such as AI and Prediction Market (Prediction Market) have all launched projects, reflecting the expansion logic of the ecosystem from "core financial scenarios" to "underlying support + diversified applications". Source: MonadCombining financing dynamics and official support priorities, the following focuses on the core projects in the Monad ecosystem that are intensively financed and officially promoted, and analyzes the development potential and implementation progress of each track. 5.4.1 DeFi Infrastructure and Core Applications (Funding-Intensive Areas) 1. aPriori (@apr_labs) ● Funding: Seed round + strategic investment totaling over $30 million (led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Yzi Labs). ● Positioning: A MEV-optimized LSD derivatives platform focused on the Monad native staking ecosystem. ● Highlights: Reduces gas costs by over 30% through MEV capture technology, supports the issuance of multiple types of staking derivatives; receives key support from the Monad Foundation's "Fundraising & Foundry Program," making it a benchmark project for the DeFi ecosystem. 2. Fastlane Labs (@0xFastLane) ● Funding: $6 million in strategic funding (led by Figment Capital and DBA), $2.3 million in seed funding (led by Multicoin Capital). ● Positioning: Provider of low-latency transaction execution optimization solutions. ● Highlights: Compresses transaction confirmation latency to sub-millisecond levels, making it suitable for high-frequency quantitative and derivatives trading; customizes and optimizes transaction packaging logic for the MonadBFT consensus, providing a foundational foundation for ecosystem performance. 3. Kintsu (@KintsuFinance) ● Funding: $4 million in seed funding (led by Castle Island Ventures). ● Positioning: Liquidity staking service platform. ● Highlights: Supports staking of Monad native tokens and multi-chain assets, deeply integrated with the Monad consensus mechanism to ensure the security and efficiency of staked assets; a core project of the Monad ecosystem's "Staking Layer." 4. Curvance (@Curvance) ● Support: Awarded the Monad official "Eco-Pioneer" label during the testnet period and ranked among the top 3 most popular projects in the community. ● Positioning: Multi-chain lending market (with a focus on Monad mainnet development). ● Highlights: Supports lending and borrowing for over 15 assets, integrating Monad's low gas cost advantage, offering borrowing rates 40% lower than Ethereum's Layer 2. With over 100,000 users in its testnet phase, it is poised to become the ecosystem's "lending hub" upon mainnet launch. 5. Perpl (@perpltrade) ● Funding: Strategic/seed round of approximately $9.25 million (led by Dragonfly). ● Positioning: A decentralized perpetual swap exchange (perps DEX), built on the Monad chain, utilizing the EVM architecture and planning to utilize an on-chain limit order book (CLOB) mechanism. ● Highlights: ① Plans to launch a testnet by the end of the year, allowing users to try it out early and help identify bugs; ② Leveraging Monad's low latency and EVM compatibility to improve the trading experience and speed compliance (potentially faster token listings than on traditional exchanges); ③ Centralizing all liquidity in perpetual contracts, rather than spreading it across multiple expiration months (unlike options, which have multiple expiration contracts), to enhance liquidity depth and trading experience. 6. Modus Finance (@Modus_Finance) ● Positioning: A highly capital-efficient and composable DeFi lending protocol, supporting assets such as LST, LRT, LP tokens, and stablecoins. ● Highlights: Providing lending capabilities up to 95% LTV, enhancing leverage and asset utilization efficiency; reducing systemic risk through a modular market, and supporting automatic leverage strategies (Looping Vault) to help users maximize returns, especially suitable for Monad ecosystem reward assets. 5.4.2 Infrastructure and User Access1. Monorail (@monorail_xyz)● Positioning: DEX aggregator (integrating AMM and CLOB liquidity). ● Highlights: The first "all-DEX aggregator" supporting the Monad ecosystem, routing the best prices from CLOBs and AMMs like Kuru and CrystalExchange, with 20% lower slippage than single DEXs; processing over 50,000 transactions daily during the testnet phase. 2. Kuru Exchange (@KuruExchange) ● Funding: $11.6 million Series A (originally $2 million seed round led by Electric Capital, followed by a Series A round led by Paradigm). ● Positioning: Kuru has restructured its business with the launch of the Kuru Flow smart aggregator, while still maintaining an order book with integrated AMMs and access to all major liquidity sources on Monad. Kuru aims to be the best spot trading venue on Monad. ● Highlights: Utilizing a dual architecture of "account custody + Uniswap-style Lite," it caters to both professional traders and novice users; it is one of the DEXes with the highest trading volume within the ecosystem. 3. Clober (@CloberDEX) ● Positioning: A full-chain order book DEX based on the LOBSTER mechanism (Monad native). ● Highlights: Utilizing the Segment Tree-based LOBSTER matching engine and proprietary Octopus Heap data structure, it significantly reduces matching gas costs and improves efficiency. Its asynchronous settlement mechanism decouples transactions from funds, optimizing on-chain execution performance. 5.4.3 Innovation Scenarios and Segmented Markets 1. CrystalExch (@CrystalExch) ● Positioning: The EVM ecosystem's first on-chain CLOB exchange (Monad native). ● Highlights: Fully on-chain order books, with transparency comparable to centralized exchanges; leveraging Monad's high throughput, matching speeds are 10x faster than Ethereum CLOBs. 2. Zona Finance (@zona_io) ● Positioning: A super application for RWAs (Real World Assets). ● Highlights: Supports on-chain prediction, lending, and trading of RWAs for assets like real estate and commodities. Combined with Monad's low latency, the RWA price oracle updates in seconds, representing a key effort to connect the ecosystem with traditional finance. 3. Levr Bet (@Levr_Bet) ● Supports: Winner of the "Most Innovative Award" at the "Monad Madness" hackathon. ● Positioning: Decentralized leveraged sports betting platform. ● Highlights: Offers 5x leverage for sports betting, achieving "on-chain fair settlement" through smart contracts. During the testnet, it partnered with data providers for events such as the NBA and Premier League, setting a benchmark for the ecosystem's "Web3 Sports" sector. 4. Plato2Earn (@plato2earn) ● Positioning: An “Eat-to-Earn” platform. ● Highlights: Users who upload their receipts after dining at participating restaurants receive $FAT token rewards. Combined with Monad's low-cost nature, on-chain reward settlement costs less than 1 cent in gas fees, making this an innovative example of the integration of the real world and the blockchain. 5. RareBetSports (@RareBetSports) ● Positioning: A daily fantasy sports platform (a Web3 version of DraftKings). ● Highlights: Users create fantasy sports teams on-chain and participate in match predictions through token incentives. During the testnet phase, the platform established API data partnerships with the NFL and MLB, and was ranked in the top 5 of the "most anticipated mainnet launch projects" in a community poll. 6. Kizzy Mobile (@kizzymobile) ● Positioning: Social gambling and mobile entertainment application (Monad native). ● Highlights: Users can predict and bet on social media content and earn rewards through on-chain smart contracts. Combined with Monad's low cost and high throughput, users can instantly claim rewards on-chain for mobile purchases. This represents a significant example of the integration of "real life + blockchain" within the ecosystem. 5.4.4 Community Culture and Blockchain Games 1. Nad.fun (@naddotfun) ● Positioning: Meme coin launchpad (the Monad version of Pumpfun). ● Highlights: Supports user-created custom meme coins, features a built-in "PVP trading competition," and is deeply integrated with the Monad community's "meme culture" (with frequent releases of secondary creation coins like mascots molandak and chog). During the testnet, the community achieved a record-breaking 1,000x increase in a single coin's value in 24 hours. 2. Fantasy (@fantasy_top_) ● Supports the "Best Blockchain Game Award" at the "Monad Madness" hackathon. ● Positioning: On-chain competitive card game. ● Highlights: Combining NFT cards with DeFi staking mechanisms, users can obtain whitelisted NFTs through competitions; the testnet saw over 50,000 users in its first week, making it a core project in the "GameFi + DeFi" ecosystem. 6. Community Culture and Builder Motivations6.1 For Builders: Full-Chain Empowerment and First-Mover OpportunitiesMonad takes "Builders First" as its core strategy. Different from the traditional investor-oriented public chain logic, it integrates "capital-resources-technology-traffic" to form an integrated support system, creating a "Founder Magnet" effect, and providing a low-competition, high-growth development environment for early-stage projects. This is also the key to the rapid expansion of its ecosystem. 6.1.1Full-cycle support: "Close escort" from concept to implementationTo lower the entry threshold for developers, Monad has built a support system covering the entire project life cycle, deeply integrating the native ecosystem drive plan into the builder service:● Funding and resource matching:Through the "Foundry Program", we integrate capital resources, market channels and product strategy guidance to help projects advance from the concept stage to product-market fit (PMF), such as connecting early-stage DeFi projects with institutional capital such as Pantera Capital and Binance Labs;● Technical breakthrough support:Provide a complete EVM-compatible tool chain, SDK and developer documentation to ensure "zero-cost migration" for Ethereum developers; at the same time, we cooperate with Mach Accelerator, evm/accathon Institutions such as CoinMarketCap have launched special accelerators to match teams with senior mentors in the fields of distributed systems, smart contract optimization, etc., to solve technical bottlenecks; ● Traffic and exposure activation: Hosting the "Monad Madness" hackathon (with a prize pool of one million US dollars), focusing on high-performance public chain adaptation scenarios (such as high-frequency trading, real-time blockchain games), attracting hundreds of teams from around the world to participate, and winning projects can obtain community traffic and ecological resources. 6.1.2 Core Attraction: Superposition of Technological Dividends and First-Mover AdvantageBuilders choose Monad, essentially because of the two-way recognition of “technical performance” and “ecological opportunities”:● Technical Performance Dividend: The “MonadBFT consensus + Optimistic Parallel EVM” architecture, based on full compatibility with EVM, achieves second-level finality and 10,000+ TPS throughput targets, supporting scenarios that Ethereum finds difficult to handle, such as high-frequency trading, complex DeFi, and real-time chain games;● Ecological First-Mover Opportunities: With reference to the cases of Magic Eden and Tensor relying on the early rise of Solana’s ecology, Monad Developers generally see the value of pre-mainnet deployment. Initially, with minimal competition for traffic, projects have the opportunity to quickly establish themselves at the forefront of niche markets (e.g., becoming the first order book DEX or the first liquidity staking platform within an ecosystem), and even define the market for that market. This "first-mover advantage" is difficult for established ecosystems like Ethereum and Solana to offer. 6.2 Community User Refinement and Inclusive Co-creation Monad goes beyond developer services. Through refined user operations and an inclusive community strategy, it builds user consensus, even converting skeptics into members and fostering a unique community dynamic. 6.2.1 Monad Card: Peer-to-peer activation of core users and FOMO effectDuring the 2025 ecological operation period, the Monad team launched the "Monad Card" operation activity, which became a key node for the explosion of community popularity:● Precise screening of core groups: The team manually screened approximately 5,000 influential users (including blockchain OGs, developers, KOLs, investors, etc.) from more than 10,000 X (original Twitter) accounts, and awarded them exclusive Monad Cards in a peer-to-peer manner to strengthen their identity recognition;● Nomination mechanism triggers FOMO: Card holders can nominate others, forming a circle diffusion effect. To gain qualification, non-cardholders actively participated in testnet interactions and project feedback, driving a threefold increase in community activity and significantly enhancing testnet user retention; ● Inclusive strategy transforms skeptics: The team deliberately included critics and skeptics in the card issuance scope, allowing them to shift from "external questioning" to "internal suggestions" due to identity recognition, and even participate in governance discussions, thereby achieving "reducing confrontation and expanding consensus." 6.2.2 Community Tension and Transparent CommunicationThe current Monad community still has a tension between “passionate expectations and rational doubts”, but this tension has become the driving force for community activity:● Supporters’ perspective: They recognize its combination of “EVM compatibility + high performance” and believe it is a benchmark for the next generation of public chains that “makes up for Solana’s compatibility shortcomings and breaks through Ethereum’s performance bottleneck”;● Skeptics’ concerns: Focus on the mainnet launch progress, the efficiency of using huge amounts of financing, and the centralization issues that may be caused by the hardware threshold of validators;6.3 Summary: The Logic of Ecosystem Growth in Both DirectionsThe core of the Monad ecosystem lies in its two-pronged strategy of being "builder-friendly and user-focused": providing builders with full-cycle support and the dual benefits of both technology and first-mover advantages, while designing refined operational mechanisms and an inclusive community atmosphere for users. This strategy avoids both the risk of "focusing on technology over ecosystem" and the short-term pitfall of "focusing on popularity over service." By consolidating both "hard power" (developer empowerment) and "soft power" (user consensus), it builds long-term growth certainty, significantly differentiating itself from public chains that rely solely on capital or technological narratives.