Original Title: "AICoin Founders and Arthur Hayes' Fancy Argument Show"
Original Author: jk, Odaily Planet Daily
On November 29, BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes publicly criticized Monad, which had just launched its mainnet 6 days prior, during an interview with Altcoin Daily, stating that it "could drop 99%" and labeling it as "another high market cap, low circulation VC coin." This statement quickly escalated, and Monad co-founder Keone Hon responded directly on X, leading to an intense public confrontation between the two.
Below is the complete record of their dialogue.
Full Dialogue
· Keone Hon, Monad Founder
Dear @CryptoHayes, I respect everything you have built for this industry. Perpetual contracts are an amazing innovation, and I believe they will continue to grow rapidly. You have had a tremendous impact on our industry.
I have seen you comment on Monad multiple times over the past few days. While I am sure some comments may have been taken out of context, I thought you might be interested in understanding what makes Monad different and why it is not just another L1.
I believe you had to deal with a lot of FUD when you innovated at BitMEX, and you just responded to those comments head-on and moved on. I intend to do the same.
Here are some points on why Monad is different:
· It is really fast. When you withdraw funds from Coinbase, they arrive in 1-2 seconds. This experience is almost magical.
· It is built on an entirely new tech stack that makes this speed possible in a highly decentralized network. Currently, there are 170 globally distributed validator nodes, and there will be more in the future.
· This is important because while everyone is saying that blockchains must be centralized and must be data center chains (or single sequencers) to achieve high performance, Monad proves the opposite is possible. Enterprises, asset issuers, and global developers want decentralization and trusted neutrality—they do not want to be at the mercy of a single sequencer.
· Monad's codebase is completely open-source and audited, built entirely from scratch using C++ and Rust, incorporating many high-frequency trading style optimizations.
· Monad introduces MonadBFT, a cutting-edge consensus mechanism that addresses the tail end fork problem of pipelined consensus. This alone is a huge advancement because BFT consensus itself requires multiple rounds of communication; pipelined (interleaved) block production is the only way to achieve fast block times; previously, pipelining was vulnerable to a single block reorganization (tail end fork) attack, leading to MEV attacks. But that is no longer the case!
· Monad introduces asynchronous execution, allowing consensus and execution to occur in independent lanes, further enhancing efficiency. Ethereum is attempting to adopt this technology.
· Monad also has a range of other technological innovations, such as a complete JIT compiler that compiles EVM bytecode to native code, a new database (MonadDb), a new block propagation mechanism (RaptorCast), and parallel execution.
The ecosystem is just getting started, but there is already a batch of new applications being built by a group of young, energetic builders.
· The Monad Foundation and Category Labs team are fully committed to continuing to drive the development of this field. Research contributions in areas such as asynchronous execution, gas pricing, and privacy will continue to push the industry forward. This is the 6th day since the mainnet launch, and our excellent team will continue to do things differently.
· Finally, MON is the first token on the Coinbase token sale platform, aimed at allowing as many people as possible to acquire tokens before the public launch. The token sale adopts a "bottom-up filling" approach, so whales cannot snatch up the entire share like in many other issuances.
If you want some MON to try out this network, let me know, and I would be happy to send you some. Thank you again for your contributions to this field, see you on-chain.
· Arthur Hayes, BitMEX Founder, KOL
I know nothing about your technology. I believe it is good, and everyone who mentions you and your team says you are incredibly smart. But your tokenomics almost guarantees that MON will only go down from here.
Tell your community how this chain can absorb 90% of the tokens without crashing. Tell your community how much real usage is needed to create organic demand to absorb the selling pressure after early investors and team members unlock their tokens. They can sell without any problem; your early supporters and team members took risks and deserve good returns. Tell the community how you will maintain this price level with about 1% inflation per month just from staking rewards. Go fuck yourself and educate me. I don’t care what your technology does; I’m a trader. Write me a long paragraph about cash flow that makes me look like an idiot.
Before that, MON is a hot potato. It’s fun to play short-term, but due to supply and demand, the overall trend will only go down.
· Keone Hon
I’m not sure where you’re getting your information, but it’s incorrect.
The inflation rate is 2% per year, far lower than almost all other L1s.
Locked tokens cannot be staked, which is also unprecedented.
The Coinbase token sale adopts a "retail-first filling" approach, prioritizing retail participants.
Everything is built from scratch to substantively expand the capabilities of a truly decentralized blockchain.
You only live once; it’s worth a try.
I think if you take a close look at what my team and I are doing, you will find that many things are different. We are not just copying the same script.
If you have any specific criticisms of Monad, please let me know; I’m all ears.
· Arthur Hayes
Unlock all the tokens right now, and then you will be different from all the so-called $ETH killers before. If you dare, do it.
· Keone Hon
You didn’t answer my question—what specific criticisms do you have of Monad? I’m pretty sure the companies in your VC portfolio also have locked tokens.
Also, you yourself said you heard our team is talented and the technology is good. What if it actually works? The current blockchain cannot be the final form of blockchain. If we were all like you, everyone should pack up and go home to wash up and sleep early.
· Arthur Hayes
It’s all about the flow, bro. Are you brave enough to unlock all the tokens now and let the market find the true price for your coin?
(As of the time of publication, neither side has further escalated the confrontation.)
Community Reaction: Hayes, You’ve Gone Too Far
This confrontation has sparked a lot of discussion in the crypto community, with many questioning Hayes' critical logic.
Some have dug up Hayes' previous statements and directly asked: Then why did you think it could rise to $10 back then?
@Doudounadz pointed out that Hayes has never asked these questions of the projects he invested in, "Strange, you’ve never asked these questions of any team you invested in. I don’t quite understand this hate, to be honest (though I can probably guess why)."
@gmoneyNFT even directly called out: Then you demonstrate it by unlocking all the tokens of the companies in your portfolio.
Others have viewed this debate from a more macro perspective. @0xMardiansyah believes this reflects the fundamental divide between traders and developers: traders don’t care about technology, only focusing on price; while developers painstakingly build from scratch, considering all aspects including tokenomics, only to be judged by those who only look at K-lines.
@NFT5lut said: Hayes is the Barry Silbert of Monad, he has never done anything other than create panic for people to sell and then buy back at a low price.
MON Price Trend
The Monad mainnet officially launched on November 24, and MON tokens began trading simultaneously.
Notably, MON's performance on the first day was lackluster, with the opening price briefly falling below the public sale price, which is relatively mild for a highly anticipated L1 token. In stark contrast to recent projects like Plasma that sold out in seconds, MON's public sale took longer to complete, but it slowly rose afterward. However, nearly a week after the mainnet launch, the price of MON has dropped from a high of over $0.04 and is currently fluctuating around $0.03.
An Asymmetrical War of Public Opinion
The interesting aspect of this clash is that both sides are not even conversing on the same dimension.
In the arena of public opinion, critics have an advantage over builders. Hayes made it clear from the start: "I know nothing about your technology," "I don’t care what your technology does; I’m a trader." Hayes' argument is not new; "high FDV low circulation VC coins will eventually fall" has been one of the most mainstream narratives in the crypto market over the past two years. Many retail investors have lost money in projects with similar structures, and this collective memory makes any criticism pointing to "VC harvesting" resonate easily, especially during a bear market.
From a dissemination effect perspective, Hayes indeed hit this emotional point.
For Keone, this is a tough situation to win. Technical advantages take time to validate, and ecosystem prosperity requires developers to vote with their feet, while Hayes' doubts are immediate, intuitive, and easy to understand.
This is a debate that will certainly not have a conclusion. The real fate of Monad can only be determined by whether developers truly build something valuable with it in the coming years.
From this perspective, Keone's words are not wrong: "You only live once; it’s worth a try."
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