A must-see dApp after Monad mainnet launch.
Written by @100y_eth
Compiled by AididiaoJP, Foresight News
Key Takeaways
The highly anticipated Monad mainnet launch is almost here. Monad has garnered significant attention from investors and the user community for its high-performance EVM-based technology stack. While fully compatible with the EVM, Monad promises to provide a smoother and more scalable user experience.
With its cutting-edge technology, Monad enables new types of decentralized applications that are impossible to build on other EVM networks. There are already a large number of dApps in the Monad ecosystem, but this article focuses on those that are truly native to Monad.
The long-awaited Monad is online
The Secret Behind Monad's Popularity
The long-awaited moment is finally here. Monad officially announced its airdrop claim portal on October 14th, and user excitement is at an all-time high. Monad garnered significant attention when it announced its seed round in Q1 2023, but the mainnet hasn't launched in over two and a half years.
There are several reasons behind Monad's popularity, such as investment from prominent venture capital firms and its unique community culture, but at its core is the technology behind it. Achieving a parallel EVM is an extremely ambitious goal, and this alone is enough to attract the attention of investors, the community, and users.
Monad is a high-performance, EVM-compatible L1 network with the following technical features:
- MonadBFT: An optimized BFT consensus algorithm that achieves 10,000 transactions per second (tps) and sub-second finality even in environments with hundreds of consensus nodes. Unlike traditional BFT systems, MonadBFT only requires a single round of consensus to reach near-finality.
- RaptorCast: A method that allows leaders to efficiently transmit large blocks to other validators. The leader uses erasure coding to split the block proposal into multiple parts, first sending each part to non-leader nodes, which then further propagate it. This reduces the leader's load while maintaining security, as erasure coding allows data to be recovered even from partial fragments.
- Asynchronous execution: In most blockchains, consensus and execution are bundled together, a major source of inefficiency. Monads decouple the two, so nodes first agree on the order of transactions before executing them, giving them ample time to process.
- Parallel execution: Monad uses optimistic execution to first process transactions in parallel and re-execute only those transactions that conflict.
- MonadDb: Unlike Ethereum's architecture, MonadDb is built on a Merkle Patricia Trie (composed of three node types: extension nodes, branch nodes, and leaf nodes), which allows direct access to nodes. It processes read and write requests asynchronously, making it well-suited for parallel execution. It also offers optimizations such as file system bypass and concurrency control.
Thanks to these core blockchain technology optimizations, Monad achieves exceptional scalability, enabling the construction of dApps that would be impossible on other EVM networks. Because Monad is fully EVM-compatible, its developer environment is also top-notch. These advantages enable developers to easily build anything they want on Monad without worrying about scalability limitations.
An ecosystem of Monads, built by Monads, and for Monads
With the Monad mainnet launch imminent, what kind of services can users expect to see on it? As of October 11, 2025, the Monad ecosystem directory lists 293 dApps. These include well-known projects such as 0x, Balancer, Euler, Farcaster, Lombard, Magic Eden, OpenSea, Pancake Swap, Stargate, StakeStone, Uniswap, and Wormhole.
However, Monad differs significantly from existing blockchain networks. This means we can expect many unique and innovative services to emerge on the Monad Network. Therefore, this section will highlight some of the most popular dApps in the Monad ecosystem, as well as winning projects from the Monad Accelerator Program and hackathon.
- Staking: aPriori, FastLane Labs, Magma, Kintsu
- Spot DEX: Kuru, Clober, Crystal, Capricorn
- Perpetual Contract DEX: Drake, Celeris, Narwhal Finance, Perpl, Monday Trade
- Aggregators: Monorail, Mace
- Lending: Townsquare, Modus, Curvance
- Innovative DeFi: Likwid, Timelock, Touch Market
- Prediction Markets: Opinion Labs, Buzzing App, Kizzy, Levr.Bet, RareBetSports, Narrative, Hyperthesis
- Trading terminals/bots: SEER, ChainPro, KiSignals, mevX, Mona Trading Bot
- Meme coin launchpads: CULT, Alloca, nad.fun
- Games: Lumiterra, Omnia, LootGo
- AI: Fortytwo, Symphony, TypeX, AMMO AI, Rayvo
- NFT: Chog, lil chogstars, Monadverse, Purple Frens, Poply
- RWA: Zona, BlockStreet, Mu Digital
Monad Ecosystem dApps Worth Watching
aPriori
Source: aPriori
aPriori is the most well-known liquid staking protocol in the Monad ecosystem. Users can stake MON and receive aprMON, a liquidity staking token. aprMON not only captures regular PoS staking rewards but also captures MEV revenue generated from the network and distributes it to users.
Because Monad is highly scalable, the network will process a large number of transactions, which naturally creates many opportunities for MEV. However, unlike the traditional EVM, which processes transactions one by one, the Monad EVM processes them in parallel, so the way to capture MEV will be very different. aPriori deeply understands this and introduces the concept of probabilistic MEVA.
aPriori secured $2 million in pre-seed funding from Hashed and Arrington Capital in 2023, an $8 million seed round from Pantera, Consensys, and Flow Traders in July 2024, and an additional $20 million from Pantera, HashKey, and IMC Trading in August 2025. This makes it one of the most funded dApps in the Monad ecosystem. Users can stake MON on the testnet to earn aprMON and use it in various DeFi protocols.
FastLane Labs
Source: FastLane Labs
FastLane Labs provides staking and MEV-related infrastructure within the Monad ecosystem and offers the following services:
- shMONAD: A Monad-based liquid staking protocol built on FastLane's MFL and Atlas technologies. It goes beyond simple MEV extraction and is designed to allow MEV revenue to flow back to ecosystem participants.
- shBundler: A bundler for ERC-4337 account abstraction, integrating the role of the bundler directly into the validator node.
- shMonad RPC: A high-performance RPC infrastructure for Monads that allocates network bandwidth based on staked amount. Users with higher shMON balances receive more bandwidth and lower latency, helping to prevent network overloads and Sybil attacks.
FastLane Labs doesn't just run a liquid staking protocol; it builds core infrastructure to help users interact with the network more efficiently and fairly. It has received $6 million in strategic investment from Coinbase Ventures, Figment Capital, DBA, Robot Ventures, Hashkey, Chorus One, and Kiln. Users can stake MON on the testnet to earn shMON, which can then be used in various DeFi applications.
Kuru
Source: Kuru
Kuru is a fully on-chain order book exchange built on Monad, aiming to become a trading hub. This ability to achieve on-chain order book trading is primarily due to the high scalability of the Monad EVM. Kuru utilizes not only CLOBs but also AMM liquidity to ensure smooth trading even when liquidity is low in a particular market.
Kuru offers two modes: Lite and Pro. In Pro mode, users can trade different tokens through the order book and provide liquidity. In Lite mode, users can easily trade tokens using a simple exchange interface that uses order book liquidity.
In July 2025, Kuru successfully raised $11.6 million from Paradigm, Electric Capital, and Credibly Neutral. Users can now try simple swaps in Lite mode on the testnet, explore the trading interface in Pro mode, and even experience providing liquidity to the order book.
other
Other notable projects in the Monad ecosystem include:
Pledge
- Kintsu: A liquid staking protocol where users can stake MON and receive sMON in return.
- Magma: A liquid staking protocol. It offers MEV-boosted yields and uses distributed validator technology so multiple participants can share validator responsibilities.
Spot DEX
- Crystal: An on-chain CLOB DEX where all transactions are processed directly on-chain via smart contracts.
- Capricorn: Capricorn operates both an oracle-based private pool and a CPMM/CLMM liquidity pool, aiming to combine the efficiency of CLOB with the composability of AMM.
- Monday Trade: A DEX that uses a hybrid CLOB/AMM architecture to enable users to trade various types of tokens with CEX-level user experience.
Perpetual Contract DEX
- Narwhal Finance: A perpetual order book DEX built on Monad. It allows the use of aprMON as collateral and supports trading synthetic assets such as stocks, indices, and forex.
- Perpl: Leveraging Monad's superior scalability to build a CLOB-based perpetual futures DEX. In May 2025, it raised $9.25 million in funding from Dragonfly, Ergonia, and Brevan Howard.
Aggregator
- Mace: A Monad-native DEX aggregator that routes transactions across multiple DEXs to find the optimal transaction path.
Borrowing
- Townsquare: A lending protocol in the Monad ecosystem, a finalist for Monad Madness.
- Modus: A protocol that positions itself as an on-chain prime broker and serves as the native lending protocol within the Monad ecosystem. Modus offers more than just simple lending services; it provides modular features such as vaults and delta-neutral strategies. The project has received investment from Yzi Labs.
- Curvance: Users can use various assets within the Monad ecosystem as collateral to obtain loans on Curvance.
New DeFi:
- Timelock: A protocol built on Uniswap V3 liquidity, offering exchange and trading functionality, providing a leveraged trading experience with no liquidation. In the future, it plans to launch additional services such as futures, options, and meme tokens.
- Touch Market: A protocol that offers a new trading experience where users can set a price and timeframe on a chart and earn a profit if the price “touches” that level. It provides an intuitive investing interface and stands out by offering up to 1,000x leverage.
Prediction Market
- Opinion Labs: One of the most popular prediction markets in the Monad ecosystem, raised $5 million in seed funding from YZi Labs, Animoca, and Amber.
- Narrative: A prediction market designed to allow users to trade or invest in assets based on narratives and emerging trends.
- Hyperthesis: While not much public information is available yet, it appears to be developing a prediction market within the Monad ecosystem.
Trading Terminal/Robot
- MevX: A multi-chain trading platform focused on Meme and Alpha tokens. It offers features like sniping and copy trading, and plans to support the Monad mainnet.
- Mona Trading Bot: A trading bot made specifically for the Monad ecosystem.
Meme Coin Launchpad
- Nad.fun: A meme coin launchpad and trading platform with a simple interface similar to pump.fun that is easy for anyone to use.
game
- Lumiterra: A multiplayer online open world survival crafting game where players explore the world through activities such as gathering, crafting, combat, and farming.
- Omnia: A Monad-native game that combines adventure and pet-based combat.
- LootGo: A walk-and-earn mobile app that provides a gamified experience through gameplay similar to Pokémon GO.
NFT
- Poply: An NFT marketplace focused on the Monad community.
RWA
- Zona: Supports the issuance and trading of tokenized or synthetic assets of real-world assets, which can also be used as collateral for loans.
- Block Street: A project building on-chain execution and lending infrastructure for tokenized equity, providing an RFQ system and risk engine. It raised $11.5 million in funding in October 2025 from HackVC, DWF, and others.
other
- Accountable: A real-time financial verification protocol that allows companies, protocols, and stablecoins to share transparent asset and liability information while maintaining privacy.
Monad officially recommended projects
Monad introduced a number of projects through five articles on its official blog. Since these projects are recommended on Monad's own platform, they are definitely worth paying attention to.
Fortytwo
Fortytwo is a decentralized AI network built on Monad. It runs many small language models simultaneously on consumer-grade hardware and combines their outputs through a consensus process to produce a final inference result. In short, Fortytwo aims to create a more powerful AI system by connecting multiple smaller models together.
The approach of using multiple smaller SLMs instead of a single large LLM is not new and has been widely used in AI research. For example, autonomous driving systems are typically not built with a single large AI model, but rather with many specialized submodules, each handling a specific task to create a more complete system.
Source: Fortytwo White Paper
Fortytwo works fairly straightforwardly. When a user sends a query to the network, participating nodes independently generate an answer, evaluate each other's responses, and the answer with the highest weighted score becomes the final consensus result. To ensure fairness, all answers are encrypted before submission and revealed only afterward. To prevent Sybil attacks, nodes must stake a certain amount of tokens to participate, and Monad is used as the coordination layer for settlement and reward distribution.
In March 2025, Fortytwo successfully raised $2.3 million in pre-seed funding from Big Brain Holdings, CMT Digital, EV3, Chorus One, and Mentat Group. Anyone can set up and run a node with a decent home desktop computer, and as of the testnet stage, the network has 739 active nodes. For users interested in the Monad-based AI ecosystem, running a Fortytwo node will be a great experience once the Monad and Fortytwo mainnet launch.
Multisynq
Multisynq aims to build a new internet protocol for real-time synchronization. Today, there's no standardized protocol for real-time synchronization, so applications like game servers and video conferencing tools must build their own solutions from scratch. In a centralized client-server setup, the server handles all computation, creating a single point of failure.
Source: Multisynq
Multisynq solves this problem by removing the server-centric architecture. Instead, each user's device executes application logic locally, while synchronizer nodes on the Multisynq network handle coordination. Synchronizers don't store data and can't read encrypted message content; they simply manage synchronization.
The real-time synchronization protocol developed by Multisynq fills a major gap in the modern internet. When combined with blockchain, it can help build a truly decentralized web. This could one day make it possible to run massively multiplayer online role-playing games with hundreds of thousands of players or map services based on real-time traffic data from millions of users. Multisynq acts as the synchronization layer in this decentralized internet and plans to integrate Monad Blockchain to handle synchronization state and registries.
In April 2024, Multisynq raised $2.2 million in seed funding from Manifold Trading and Republic Capital, and raised $350,000 in a community funding round through Echo in February 2025. Users can currently run synchronizer nodes and earn points.
Likwid
Likwid is a Monad-based DeFi protocol that combines AMMs and lending into a single system, allowing users to provide liquidity, borrow other assets, or open long and short positions within a single platform. Likwid's most notable feature is that it achieves these functions without relying on centralized exchanges, oracles, or counterparties.
Traditionally, opening a short position in a new token using DeFi protocols has been difficult. Users need to deposit collateral into a lending protocol, borrow the token, and then sell it. However, new tokens often lack oracle data or are not supported by lending protocols. Even when supported, liquidity is often low.
Source: Likwid
In Likwid, the liquidity pool itself acts as both a market and a lending platform, acting as a counterparty. Liquidity providers not only provide liquidity and earn fees like in AMM DEX, but also act as lenders and derivatives liquidity providers.
For example, in the MON/LIKWID liquidity pool, users can deposit MON as collateral and open a short position in LIKWID in one step. This process involves borrowing and selling LIKWID tokens within the same pool.
Once the Monad mainnet is live, users will be able to perform basic operations on Likwid such as token swaps, liquidity provision, and lending, as well as open long or short positions on new tokens to capture early ecosystem trading opportunities.
Clober
Source: Clober
Clober is a fully on-chain order book DEX built on Monad. In addition to the scalability of Monad, it also introduces its own LOBSTER (Limit Order Book with Segment Trees for Efficient Order Matching) mechanism, allowing for gas-efficient and fast order matching.
Building an on-chain order book on the EVM presents several technical challenges. For example, when a user places a buy order, it must be matched sequentially with multiple sell orders. Using a for loop or similar structure to handle this consumes a significant amount of gas. LOBSTER addresses this issue through delayed execution: each sell order covers a specific price range, and based on the size of the buy order, the system determines whether it will be filled. The seller then settles their trade.
On-chain order books also suffer from inefficiencies when large market orders must scan many price levels. LOBSTER uses a tree-based data structure to search only price levels where there are actual orders, improving performance and gas efficiency.
Thanks to these innovations, Clober achieves AMM-level efficiency and CEX-level precision within on-chain constraints. Leveraging the scalability of Monad, it builds a state-of-the-art architecture capable of matching the performance of centralized exchanges. Users can trade tokens through the order book, place limit orders, and provide liquidity directly on the Clober platform.
Drake
Source: Drake
Drake is a fully on-chain perpetual DEX built on Monad, designed to deliver CEX-level performance while combining the transparency and composability of DeFi. Drake's order book, matching engine, risk engine, and treasury are all on-chain.
Unlike other perpetual DEXs, Drake can run every component of its order book entirely on-chain, thanks to the scalability of Monad. Its parallel execution and low transaction costs enable efficient matching of many orders and state updates, thus achieving a truly on-chain perpetual DEX.
Drake also stands out for its hybrid order book model, which primarily uses on-chain liquidity but can draw from AMM liquidity as a fallback when order book liquidity is low, thus ensuring deeper liquidity overall.
Drake raised no venture capital funding and follows a community-driven approach, which is becoming a popular trend among new perpetual DEXs. Monad users can already try Drake on the testnet.
Celeris
Source: Celeris
Celeris is a trading platform based on a new order book called PLOB (Parallelized Liquidity Order Book). In the CLOB system, liquidity is fragmented across independent markets, but in PLOB, a shared liquidity pool supports all markets simultaneously, greatly improving capital efficiency.
Because PLOB offers deeper liquidity than CLOB, traders experience less slippage. It is also better for liquidity providers because the same total locked value can be distributed across more markets, resulting in higher overall fees.
Implementing PLOB requires real-time management and synchronization of the state of many markets, which is extremely complex on-chain. However, Monad's parallel EVM and MonadDB enable parallel processing of transactions and efficient handling of many markets, providing a perfect environment for the operation of PLOB.
Users can deposit Monad testnet tokens into Celeris to trade perpetual contracts across various markets, as well as experiment with liquidity provision and lending features.
Hackathon Winning Projects
Monad is known not only for its strong community, but also for its active support for early-stage projects in its ecosystem. Through various accelerator programs and hackathons, Monad provides resources and exposure to many new teams.
While most of the teams participating in these initiatives are still in their early stages, the projects that have been awarded at official Monad events are definitely worth keeping an eye on. Let’s take a quick look at some of them.
Monad Founder Residency Program
Source: Monad
The Monad Founder Residency is a three-week sprint program for early-stage crypto startups building on the Monad blockchain ecosystem. Following the three-week sprint, participating teams have the opportunity to pitch to global venture capital firms at Demo Day. The program offers growth activities, retention strategies, mentorship, and networking support, helping startups scale in a variety of ways.
So far, the Monad Founder Residency Program has had two cohorts, each selecting up to ten projects. Below is a brief overview of the selected projects:
First issue
- Symphony: Allows users to optimize trading strategies and explore investment opportunities across different networks using Symphony AI agents.
- Chog NFT: An NFT project based on Monad’s mascot character Chog, which has received strong support from the community.
- Meow Finance: A Monad-based treasury protocol that tokenizes locked treasury assets as NFTs so they can be used elsewhere.
- Zona Finance: A platform that brings RWAs to the chain, focuses on real estate investments, and allows users to borrow stablecoins using these assets as collateral.
- Monorail: A native Monad exchange aggregator that allows users to trade assets via the most optimal path.
- The Vape Labs: A DePIN project built around smart e-cigarette devices with a “Vape to Earn” model.
- Rayvo: A Web3 smart glasses project with a “wear and earn” model where users can earn tokens by wearing the glasses and providing POV data that can be used for AI or on-chain systems.
- Fans3 AI: A platform that allows creators to build and operate emotionally intelligent AI characters to interact with fans and generate revenue.
Second issue
- TypeX Keyboard: A project to create an AI and Web3-friendly smart keyboard that connects the typing interface directly to AI and Web3 services.
- Sonzai Labs: A studio combining Web3, AI, and gaming to create immersive experiences, developing mini-app games on Telegram.
- Buzzing App: An opinion-based prediction market where users can bet on questions like “Will ETH exceed $10,000 by December?”
- Agra: A protocol that allows users to trade, borrow, and invest using their assets on multiple networks as collateral.
- SEER: A trading platform that brings together market insights, social trends, and trading tools in one place.
- Yap.market: A marketplace connecting content creators (yappers) with projects.
- Kizzy: A Monad-based social media prediction platform that allows users to bet on metrics like YouTube video views or influencer follower growth.
- Rug Rumble: A Monad-based GameFi project where two players wager Meme coins and battle in a card game.
- CULT: A Meme Coin exchange that makes it easy to launch and trade new Meme Coins on Monad, with a reputation system for selective pre-sales.
- Mu Digital: A platform for investing in tokenized RWAs across Asia, backed by UOB, Signum Capital and CMS.
- Levr.Bet: A Monad-based, on-chain leveraged sports betting platform. Prediction markets are heating up, and LEVR.BET stands out by offering up to 5x leverage.
Monad Madness
Source: Monad
Monad Madness is a global pitch competition for developers and startups, aimed at discovering and supporting innovative projects within the Monad ecosystem. It offers a $1 million prize pool and, through partnerships with several venture capital firms, up to $60 million in potential venture capital investment opportunities.
Monad Madness has so far been held in New York, Bangkok, and Hong Kong. Let's take a look at the top three events from each event.
EarnOS (First Place, New York): EarnOS is the first application built on OS (OpenSystem), a blockchain-based payment orchestration protocol. It is a rewards and advertising platform designed to address the inefficiencies of the traditional advertising market, which generates high clicks and impressions but lacks clarity on actual results, with consumers treated as mere targets. On EarnOS, brands can directly post tasks to users, and when users complete them, they receive instant rewards such as USDC. Users can register on the EarnOS platform and participate in various activities to earn points.
ChainPro (2nd Place, New York): ChainPro is an on-chain trading terminal, rebranded from SauceGG. It allows users to trade a variety of assets across multiple networks on a single platform. ChainPro makes Meme Coin trading easy with an excellent UI/UX and zero fees. It plans to support the Monad mainnet, making it easy to trade assets in the Monad ecosystem, including Meme tokens.
LEVR.BET (3rd Place, New York): See the second cohort of the Monad Founder Residency Program.
RareBetSports (1st Place, Bangkok): RareBetSports is a Web3-based sports betting prediction market and a native Monad dApp. Its unique feature is that users can form lineups of two to seven players and predict each player's performance, adding a strong strategic element.
Kizzy (2nd Place, Bangkok): See the second cohort of the Monad Founder Residency Program.
SparkBall (3rd Place, Bangkok): SparkBall is a PC-based 4v4 sports and combat hybrid game where players score points while also battling opponents.
AMMO AI (First Place, Hong Kong): AMMO AI is a project building large-scale multi-agent systems on Web3. It creates a reinforcement learning environment where multiple agents can autonomously interact and learn. It has received investments from AMBER and Samsung Next.
GM Network (2nd Place, Hong Kong): GM Network is building a mobile-based AI super app that provides chat services powered by intelligent agents.
TypeX (3rd Place, Hong Kong): See the second cohort of the Monad Founder Residency Program.
Monad evm/accathon
Source: Monad
The Monad EVM/ACCathon was a hybrid hackathon held during ETH Denver, with both in-person and online tracks. The event focused on creative solutions leveraging Monad's high-performance EVM architecture. Five projects were awarded at the EVM/ACCathon.
- KiSignals (1st Place): Built by the KiFi team, KiSignals is an alpha Telegram call aggregator that allows users to trade tokens based on social data. KiFi is a Monad-based mobile trading and SocialFi platform, and users can currently sign up for the beta waitlist.
- StageFun (2nd place): Built by the Blocklive team, StageFun is a crowdfunding platform for events.
- OwnPay (3rd place): OwnPay is a payment service that enables instant on-chain transactions between devices.
Monad Mach 2: NFT
Source: Monad
Monad Mach 2 is an accelerator program designed for NFT builders in the Monad ecosystem, offering one-on-one mentoring, workshops, and masterclasses. A total of 80 NFT projects were selected for Monad Mach 2, and the full list can be found in the official Monad Eco X post. Some notable projects include:
- Monad Nomads NFT: One of the original NFTs in the early Monad ecosystem (started in February 2023). It grants whitelist access through various community activities.
- Monadverse: An NFT collection centered around Monanimals characters, released in chapters. It has collaborated with over 40 other projects on campaigns, making it one of the core NFT projects in the Monad ecosystem.
- Skrumpeys: A cute pet-themed NFT collection, including 500 Skrumpets NFTs. The team has previewed a rare DN NFT collection, limited to 135 in the future.
- lil chogstars, Chog: Popular PFP projects in the Monad ecosystem, all inspired by the Chog character.
- Breath of Estova: A 2D MMORPG built on Monad that allows players to use NFTs of other items as in-game skins.
- Purple Frens: A series of NFTs issued by Alloca (a Monad-based launchpad that raised $2.5 million from CMS and Cogitent). Holders are expected to receive benefits such as revenue sharing, pre-sale access, and platform privileges.
Monad Momentum
Source: Monad
Monad Momentum is an incentive program designed to accelerate early-stage ecosystem growth. Rather than using a traditional grant system, it employs a matching incentive model. This means that when selected projects contribute their own resources, the program matches them with additional support.
Many L1 and L2 ecosystems have operated grant programs or ecosystem funds in the past but failed to build meaningful dApp ecosystems. However, Monad has learned valuable lessons through its previous programs, such as the Founder Residency Program, the EVM/ACCathon, and Monad Madness. Building on these experiences, Monad aims to reward projects that make genuine contributions to the ecosystem after mainnet launch and foster a sustainable, high-quality dApp environment.
Monad Momentum has strict selection criteria:
- Projects must already have a working product on the Monad testnet or be ready to deploy on the mainnet soon.
- A security audit must have been completed or scheduled.
- Operational sustainability must be demonstrated.
- Meaningful user metrics are a must.
The full list of projects selected for Monad Momentum has not yet been announced, but since MON incentives will be distributed to users of these dApps after the mainnet launch, it is worth keeping a close eye on Monad Momentum's updates.
Final Thoughts
From Bitcoin and Ethereum to the countless L1 and L2 networks that followed, some succeeded, others failed. What truly determines success? While technology and user or developer experience are important, the most critical factor is building a vibrant and sustainable dApp ecosystem, and Monad is no exception.
Ethereum made smart contracts possible, and Solana enables high-performance applications that Ethereum couldn't handle. Monad's biggest differentiator is its "high-performance EVM," and its success will depend on whether enough demanding, performance-intensive EVM applications launch on it to attract users.
Looking at the current monad ecosystem, several key insights emerge:
- Projects leveraging Monad's capabilities: Many existing dApps in the ecosystem, such as the order book DEX and the Meme Coin launchpad, leverage Monad's parallel execution and MonadDb capabilities. Interestingly, while other ecosystems are dominated by AMM-based DEXs, Monad's scalability allows for more CLOB-based DEXes. Beyond trading, areas like social networking, gaming, and streaming are also likely to flourish. Hopefully, we'll see the emergence of killer apps in these areas after the mainnet launch.
- Lack of Stablecoin and RWA Projects: The stablecoin and RWA sectors have become central to the crypto industry and are among the few areas achieving product-market fit. While high scalability isn't crucial for these projects, they are crucial for the foundation of any blockchain ecosystem. Currently, Monad lacks strong players in this category. Given its trading focus, Monad should also develop a strong stablecoin and RWA ecosystem. The Monad Foundation's acquisition of Portal in July is an exciting step in this direction.
- Competition among Liquid Staking Protocol: Even before the mainnet launch, several major liquid staking protocol such as aPriori, FastLane Labs, Magma, and Kintsu are preparing to launch. While their unique differentiators are interesting, having many liquidity staking options can fragment liquidity and impact the user experience. It will be interesting to see how this competitive landscape evolves after the mainnet launch.
The long-awaited journey into monads has just begun. For all those embarking on their first monad adventure, I hope this guide will help you confidently explore and navigate the monad ecosystem.
