Enter the Monad Arena
Written by: Noveleader, Francesco
Compiled by: LlamaC
After a long wait, Monad has finally arrived, with the mainnet set to launch on November 24.
The promise of a high-performance L1 is finally being realized with the MON TGE and the upcoming mainnet.
To welcome users receiving MON tokens, a well-developed ecosystem is already available, offering a wide range of activities to keep them engaged.
We aim to make your job easier by reporting on the projects within the Monad ecosystem that interest you the most, so that anyone can know how to leverage their airdrops throughout the ecosystem. As a broader crypto community qualifies for token airdrops, many users will be looking for available opportunities.
Even if you missed the airdrop (which is not a significant loss for you), this can serve as a guide to understanding the native protocol.
We have made this report quite practical: the first part briefly introduces Monad, then we highlight some projects, and finally conclude with reflections on the mainnet launch.
Ladies and gentlemen, enjoy this journey.
Introduction to Monad
To realize the vision of building a high-performance blockchain, Monad decided to develop its tech stack from scratch. No matter how high the performance of a blockchain, relying on existing infrastructure inevitably leads to some bottlenecks.
Without delving into the details, Monad's tech stack is unique due to the inclusion of the following components:
MonadBFT: Monad has created an optimized version of the BFT consensus model that helps the network achieve 10k TPS and sub-second finality, even with a large number of consensus nodes. Through this consensus model, Monad achieves speculative finality in one round, complete finality in two rounds, and has tail fork resistance. This means that the leader of a new block cannot fork off its previous block, thus avoiding potential malicious behavior.
RaptorCast: Efficiently sending block proposals to all validators in the network is crucial for a high-bandwidth network like Monad. RaptorCast is designed specifically for MonadBFT to address this issue. It is a specialized messaging protocol that converts block proposals into erasure-coded chunks, a process executed by the leader. Each of these chunks is sent to all validators through a two-level broadcast tree, where the first level consists of a single non-leader node for a set of chunks, proportional to the validator's stake weight. These first-level nodes then propagate the chunks to second-level receivers (the second hop). Through this method, Monad effectively reduces the latency for validators to receive block proposals and reach consensus on transaction ordering.
- Asynchronous Execution: Monad decouples consensus from execution. Monad first reaches consensus on block ordering without executing transactions. This way, once a block is finalized, every node in the network can execute the transactions of that block to produce the latest state. This is better than the interleaved execution method of executing first and then reaching consensus.
Monad DB: It is a custom key-value database based on the Patricia Trie data structure, simplifying synchronization between readers (RPC requests) and writers (execution). It is important to understand that while the writer updates the database, many readers may need to access it. The design of MonadDB ensures this by following the immutable Patricia Trie design: whenever data is updated, a new version of the node is created on the branch while maintaining the persistence of the previous state for reading.
Transaction Parallelization: Most blockchains adopt sequential execution of transactions, which guarantees correctness but is slow in practice. To address this issue, Monad employs an optimistic execution approach, where all transactions, regardless of conflicts, are executed in parallel. In the case of conflicting transactions, such as two transactions changing the same account balance and potentially executing in conflicting orders, Monad resolves this by tracking the state changes during their execution and re-executing these transactions.
In addition to being one of the pioneers of high-performance L1, Monad is also one of the earliest networks to focus on community engagement.
Monad created a Discord version of Kaito for its community. Many people have worked hard as part of its community for years, contributing as much as they can, and in some cases even becoming team members. While many criticize this level of practice, there is no doubt that this focus helps build a very loyal community.
Many networks face a similar problem at launch: not enough applications are live, or there are not enough unique applications for users to truly decide to stay after the mainnet launch or token generation event (TGE). To avoid this, there are different approaches to handling the issue. Some prefer to curate and incubate projects within their ecosystem, while others prefer to remain completely neutral.
Monad occupies a middle ground, allowing things to develop naturally while also providing extensive support for ecosystem projects to help them succeed. However, its involvement is always limited to ecosystem coordination rather than venture capital or incubation.
Monad has ample time to launch with a vibrant ecosystem that has also undergone natural selection over time.
For any users wondering how to handle their MON airdrop, here are the answers.
Monad Ecosystem
As of now, there are over 300 projects in the ecosystem, with 78 being unique to Monad.
Due to time constraints, we will only analyze a small portion of the total, which will be divided into several verticals:
Decentralized Finance
Gaming
Consumer Applications
AI
NFTs
DeFi
Perpl
(https://x.com/perpltrade)
Perpl is a CLOB-based perpetual contract exchange. Perpl aims to provide deep liquidity and efficient markets for seamless trade execution while focusing on an excellent user experience.
Perpl has recently launched on the testnet:
They follow the slogan "Trade perpetual contracts on Perpl" and deployed multiple markets for trading on the first day of the mainnet launch. Additionally, they raised $9.25 million from DragonFly and Ergonia Trading.
Drake
(https://x.com/DrakeExchange)
Drake is a hybrid perpetual decentralized exchange (DEX) that utilizes a centralized limit order book (CLOB) model and a standard automated market maker (AMM) model to provide liquidity in specific markets.
Drake positions itself as "integrating CEX into Perp DEX," and this positioning is fair considering they prioritize optimal order execution through a hybrid model. In this model, CLOB liquidity is prioritized, while AMM liquidity serves as a backup to complete orders. In some cases, the model can split orders to take advantage of both CLOB and AMM liquidity for the best possible price.
Another important feature of Drake is its advanced margin system, which supports cross-margin and isolated margin combinations, equipped with a universal asset margin engine. This allows different types of collateral to be used across different positions, providing users with greater flexibility in using assets as margin.
Monorail
(https://x.com/monorail_xyz)
Monorail is a spot aggregator on Monad that routes orders on-chain to secure the best possible prices for users. They currently connect 16 exchanges in their routing.
Monorail aims to unify automated market makers (AMM) and order books into a single liquidity framework called the synthetic order book. This liquidity aggregation framework routes orders in an optimized manner with lower Gas costs, achieving minimal slippage and efficient execution.
A quick look at their UI:
Mace
(https://x.com/mace_ag)
Mace is another DEX aggregator on Monad, designed to connect liquidity across AMMs, order books, and CEX market makers through a request for quote (RFQ) system.
By routing liquidity through multiple paths, Mace aims to ensure optimal trade execution while reducing Gas fees and achieving deeper liquidity.
Here is their UI interface:
Monday Trade
(https://x.com/MondayTrade_)
Remember the decentralized exchange for perpetual contracts based on Base and Blast, SynFutures? Monday Trade is built on top of its tech stack.
Monday Trade is a hybrid spot decentralized exchange (DEX) based on Monad that combines automated market maker (AMM) liquidity and on-chain order books on a single platform. This hybrid model, combined with its high gas efficiency, makes Monday an ideal platform for executing smooth trades without high slippage.
Examples of liquidity pools available on Monday:
Kuru
(https://x.com/KuruExchange)
Kuru is a CLOB-based exchange that allows for quick buying and selling of tokens. It also enables users to issue their own tokens, making it ideal for the "launchpad" category.
Users can also provide liquidity for various tokens on the trading platform within different fee ranges, similar to traditional automated market makers (AMMs). This is particularly important for new markets or tokens that initially have no market maker participation.
Kuru is well-funded, having raised $11.6 million in a funding round led by Paradigm.
Capricorn
(https://x.com/CapricornDEX)
Capricorn is a market maker automated market maker (AMM) that features high-frequency trading level exchange execution on Monad.
It offers CEX-level liquidity, minimized impermanent loss, toxic liquidity protection for LPs, tighter spreads, and guarantees composability with the rest of the Monad DeFi ecosystem.
Crystal
(https://x.com/CrystalExch)
Crystal is an on-chain central limit order book (CLOB) spot exchange that provides performance comparable to centralized exchanges (CEX) on Monad. A key distinction for Crystal is that they use the CLOB model to provide spot liquidity.
Here’s a quick preview of their interface:
Fastlane
(https://x.com/0xFastLane)
FastLane is building a liquid staking token (LST) on Monad called "shMON."
It aims to provide users with the best staking rewards on Monad and higher yields for their Monad tokens. Fastlane will be a place to earn additional yields beyond Monad while also protecting the ecosystem.
They have also launched shMonad RPC, an RPC infrastructure service that introduces a shMonad-driven, stake-weighted bandwidth allocation system.
Townsquare
(https://x.com/TownSquarexyz)
Townsquare is building a modular money market on Monad aimed at enabling cross-chain lending, accessing cross-chain yield markets, and creating a complete lending and yield stack on a single platform.
Here’s what the platform looks like, including some simulated examples of supported assets:
Modus
(https://x.com/modus_finance)
Modus is the native lending protocol on Monad. It features standard markets like any other lending protocol and provides automated looping strategies for LSTs to earn the highest possible yields. It also introduces a sealed-bid liquidation mechanism that retains the value captured in liquidations within the protocol, preventing it from leaking to MEV bots.
New features on the platform include:
Arbiter: Executes liquidations through sealed-bid auctions within the platform and triggers hedging strategies like vault strategies for hedging on perpetual exchanges.
Sigma Vault: This vault utilizes the arbiter to hedge perpetual positions and capture funding rates, lending spreads, and liquidation rebates. The other end of the hedge position is the user's idle deposits, such as ETH and BTC.
Dynamic Yield Allocator (DYA): If there are any idle assets in the market, it redirects those assets to the highest yield sources available in the Modus ecosystem, namely the Sigma Vault.
Tokenized Stock Lending Infrastructure: Modus will support collateralization of on-chain stock equivalents to borrow assets against them.
Here’s a quick look at the platform interface:
Curvance
(https://x.com/Curvance)
Curvance is a money market on Monad where users can borrow, deposit into auto-compounding vaults, and optimize DeFi strategies, gaining broader DeFi exposure in one place.
The platform also offers tailored independent positions for each asset to achieve portfolio management under risk. Additionally, each market on Curvance uses two oracles, eliminating single points of failure and protecting users in case one of the oracles fails.
Another notable feature of the platform is its auction-based liquidation mechanism, which allows liquidators to bid to repay debts, thereby reducing value loss from MEV. This also enables up to 97% LTV (loan-to-value ratio) in specific markets.
Here’s a quick look at the user interface:
Zona
(https://x.com/zona_io)
Zona is working to solve the composability issue of real-world assets (RWA) in DeFi. The platform aims to enable users to borrow stablecoins against their RWA assets.
In addition, Zona is targeting the $300 trillion real estate market. As part of its future vision, users will be able to borrow against properties as collateral. They aim to achieve this through their proprietary real estate oracle that frequently prices properties.
As part of their vision, they have partnered with Agora to bring AUSD to Monad.
Mu Digital
(https://x.com/MuDigitalHQ)
Mu Digital is an RWA protocol aimed at bringing the best yields from Asia on-chain, which are unfortunately currently limited by national borders and high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs).
Asia offers the best yield environment, accompanied by high growth, high returns, good liquidity, security, and diversification. Mu Digital aims to capture yields from trades with returns of 8-20%. These yields will be sourced from large, reputable corporate borrowers in the Asian debt market, providing previously inaccessible exposure to the Asia-Pacific market on-chain.
Ammplify
(https://x.com/ammplify_xyz)
Ammplify focuses on capital efficiency, dedicated to building a liquidity provider (LP) amplifier that doubles LP yields. In conventional Uni V3 pools, liquidity that exceeds the price range is simply idle and generates no yield.
Ammplify takes that idle liquidity and provides it to other yield-generating channels, thereby improving capital efficiency and offering end users more yield opportunities.
Their goal is to compete with private asset managers and curators while reducing risk and maintaining self-custody and transparency.
SEER
(https://x.com/seertrade)
Enhance your on-chain trading research with SEER. SEER Beta is now live, offering exclusive access to SEER Founder Pass holders.
At its core, SEER is a platform that combines social and on-chain intelligence, designed to provide users with the most informed trading experience.
Users can view curated information streams, chat, make voice calls, check on-chain metrics, and learn about trending topics all in one place. It also allows users to create unlimited wallets and route private capital. Additionally, SEER recently raised $300,000 through a round of echo financing.
Tread Fi
(https://x.com/tread_fi)
Tread Fi is a trading terminal that executes or routes perpetual contracts and spot trades across multiple decentralized exchanges (DEX) and centralized exchanges (CEX).
It enables users to perform algorithmic trading using various algorithms and manage positions across multiple exchanges, including Binance, Bitget, Hyperliquid, and more.
While Tread Fi is live on multiple exchange platforms, it uses Monad to publish trading data on-chain to verify that trades have indeed occurred. This was initially a feature to conveniently prove profitability for traders and has the potential to evolve into more complex products (e.g., lending, dark pools).
Accountable
(https://x.com/AccountableData)
Accountable aims to change the way asset verification is done.
It utilizes a data verification network (DVN) to verify data "directly from the source" while maintaining privacy protection.
Unlike static proof of reserves that typically do not include complete information about "liabilities or real-time solvency," Accountable provides a continuous, real-time way to verify assets.
Initially, the team planned to focus on stablecoins, on-chain vaults, and institutional vaults, with the long-term goal of creating a standard layer for verifying all assets, whether on-chain or off-chain.
Games
Lumiterra
(https://x.com/LumiterraGame)
Lumiterra is a multiplayer survival game set in an open world.
This game is particularly notable because the team envisions an AI-driven open world that evolves based on player choices. Through this game, users will be able to have AI agents that "develop alongside their play style and convert mastered skills into on-chain assets."
From skills to agents to assets.
The game will be designed to have its own economic system, allowing anyone to trade these assets across markets.
Here’s a screenshot from their game video:
LootGO
(https://x.com/lootgo_official)
While other games are still in beta or yet to launch, you can already play LootGO on iOS and Android!
Similar to its famous "big brother" STEPN, LootGO allows you to earn money just by walking:
Omnia
(https://x.com/ExploreOmnia)
Omnia is a game developed by the Sappy Seals NFT community.
The game focuses on adventure and pet battles.
The team conducted a playtest for the community a month ago. Those interested in learning more can find more information here.
Breath of Estova
(https://x.com/BreathOfEstova)
Breath of Estova is a play-to-earn 2D MMORPG on Monad. Here’s a screenshot of their gameplay:
To address the token dilution issues faced by previous "play-to-earn" games, the in-game $ESTOVA earnings will be dynamically adjusted and "tied to progress and asset ownership, limiting large-scale token output and rewarding loyal players." Additionally, they have a burn mechanism in place.
The game also includes a range of NFTs, as well as the ability for token holders to directly influence the future development of the game through governance.
NFTs
Purple friends
(https://x.com/Purple_Frens)
Purple friends is one of the most iconic NFT series on Monad because, well, they are purple.
The collection consists of 1111 unique NFTs, with a few being 1/1 one-of-a-kind pieces.
In addition to a deep focus on community, they are building an internet capital market launch platform that will benefit NFT holders through staking rewards and 20% of the generated revenue.
Chog
https://x.com/ChogNFT
Chog is one of the earliest meme/NFT projects in Monad.
The founder of Chog is also one of the largest recipients of Monad airdrops. This may fuel speculation about the series.
In particular, they recently announced the CHOG token, which will be launched shortly after the mainnet goes live.
Skrumpeys
(https://x.com/skrumpeys)
Skrumpeys is another OG NFT series on Monad, based on pixel art, and was minted on the first day of the Monad mainnet launch.
Their Discord is very active and is a great place to get started.
Consumer Applications
LEVR
(https://x.com/levr_bet)
Levr is a leveraged sports betting application currently in testing. It is inspired by perpetual contract trading, allowing users to bet on various sports events such as the NBA, NFL, NCAAB, and MLB while establishing leveraged positions on their bets.
The leveraged trading setup is what sets Levr apart, as most prediction markets do not offer this feature due to liquidity and risk management issues. Levr uses an aggregated liquidity vault to support these markets. The vault supports multiple markets within the application, managing risk and distributing rewards.
RareBetSports
(https://x.com/RareBetSports)
RareBetSports is another sports betting application aimed at consumers on Monad.
Through this application, users can bet on player performances in basketball and baseball games, either individually or through parlay bets.
Here’s a quick screenshot of their user interface:
Kizzy
(https://x.com/kizzymobile)
Kizzy is a social media betting application where users can bet on the performances of their favorite influencers and celebrities on social media platforms. Users can bet on influencers' performances across various categories, including culture, politics, sports, and more.
Kizzy combines prediction markets and sports betting, building a platform at the intersection of both where users can predict the performance of influencer content they consume daily.
Fluffle
(https://x.com/fluffleworld)
Even Monad has its own Fluffle, a gamified productivity platform that helps turn productivity into rewards.
Every focused session on the app helps earn rewards. Through activities like staying away from the phone, users can earn coins, hatch dragons, develop their islands, and unlock rewards for their actions.
In Fluffle, effort translates into habits, and users can earn rewards for that.
Rumi
(https://x.com/RumiLabs_io)
Rumi rewards users for watching content. It operates more like a "watch-to-earn" model. Rumi is a Chrome extension that rewards users simply for playing content.
Behind the scenes, Rumi is building an AI-driven media and advertising company. You can share data with Rumi in three modes:
Data Mode: Just share the content you are watching to help them rank the content.
Audio Mode: It allows Rumi to access the audio of the content you are streaming, enabling them to map moments to their corresponding emotions.
Visual Mode: It also allows Rumi to watch the content and identify characters and moments in each content segment.
As you might have guessed, among the three modes, the visual mode earns the highest rewards, followed by the other modes.
Kinetk
(https://x.com/KINETK_AI)
Kinetk brings AI-driven content protection for creators. The platform tracks IP on X, TikTok, and other social media platforms, alerting creators whenever their content appears on unofficial sources.
Fans3 AI
(https://x.com/Fans3_AI)
Fans3 is creating AI characters with emotional intelligence that can interact with fans at any time and earn income for themselves.
On the platform, users can subscribe to earn points, granting them access to exclusive content from their chosen creators. This subscription also allows them to chat endlessly with these AI characters, even voice chat.
Cult
(https://x.com/cultdottrade)
Cult is building a launch platform where users can participate and build reputation to earn rewards, such as early access to future token airdrops.
This reputation can be built by frequently trading cult tokens and holding them long-term. After establishing a good reputation through on-chain activities, Cult grants users "Diamond Hand Status," providing them with the exclusive privileges mentioned above.
Platform interface overview:
Nad.fun
(https://x.com/naddotfun)
Nad.fun is the pump.fun on Monad, where users can seamlessly launch meme coins based on current trending topics. It operates similarly to the pump platform but places a strong emphasis on income distribution among holders.
Just as Pump uses Meteora to deploy liquidity, once the token market cap reaches 432 MON, Nad will migrate using Uniswap V3.
Here’s a preview of their UI:
AI
FortyTwo
(https://x.com/fortytwo)
FortyTwo is an artificial intelligence development lab with over a decade of experience in AI research and development. Their vision is that collective intelligence can only truly be called collective intelligence when it arises from many interconnected models rather than a single massive centralized model.
As they mentioned in their paper, "Centralized intelligence has produced specialized tools and ambitious 'God models,' each with its unique strengths. However, decentralized intelligence is opening up new frontiers, most notably in crowd-based systems that scale not by making a single model larger but by allowing multiple models to work together as a whole."
The protocol can generate datasets using collective intelligence and has just released benchmarks showing its models are competitive compared to centralized models.
Today, it has over 500 node operators, a graphical user interface (GUI) application, and a running web browser.
Muku AI
(https://x.com/Mukusongs)
Muku AI is an artificial intelligence company focused on the audio domain. It provides a way for composers and singers to gain support from AI.
Imagine competing with other users to become the official performer of a song created by AI (or other users). The image below shows the user experience model of their song "matching engine."
We have seen several experiments in AI music, and while this niche has not yet gained mainstream attention, it is very interesting in terms of its distribution potential.
Kodeus AI
(https://x.com/TheKodeusLabs)
Kodeus provides a framework for creating AI agents across various use cases:
Agents can be developed through simple, natural language inputs and tools provided via MCP.
What’s particularly interesting is that Kodeus agents can be embedded into third-party applications through Widget and Deep Link deployments.
Rayvo
(https://x.com/rayvo_xyz)
Rayvo is an AI protocol focused on POV data, helping robots understand and navigate the real world. This type of data is extremely difficult to obtain and provides valuable insights for robots and AI systems about what it means to "be human."
As part of this, Rayvo is expected to release the first Web3 smart glasses, which will enable you to leverage your POV data to power AI agents and deploy a voice-first agent directly within the glasses.
Dfusion
(https://x.com/dFusionAI)
At the core of Dfusion is the "dFusion AI Social Truth Data Flow Pool (DLP)," a decentralized layer of human-generated social data.
Users can choose to authorize access to their Telegram chat history in exchange for incentives, generating real human conversations for training AI models and tools.
Data is loaded into your browser, encrypted, and pinned to IPFS; the encryption key is encrypted using the DLP's public key, allowing DLP access. The data is then analyzed and scored in a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE).
In addition, users can create their own subnetworks, set their own incentive mechanisms, and attract specific types of data they are interested in. This allows for the creation of specialized models in very niche areas.
Conclusion
We hope this report provides you with an overview of the projects you can explore and enjoy! Monad will launch with a fairly mature ecosystem that includes many native protocols.
We have noticed many interesting DeFi applications and consumer applications.
Prediction markets have opened the door for consumer applications to go mainstream.
What else can we expect from Monad?
The gaming space is similar: a strong community element and gamification, combined with a performance-focused tech stack, make Monad a fertile ground for testing new gaming applications.
After reading this report, you should feel overwhelmed.
Another point we want to emphasize is the applications from the Monad Momentum program. These applications have been confirmed to receive rewards on the mainnet.
https://x.com/monad/status/1986795825066901633
Given the reserved MON supply for ecosystem incentives, this might be something you want to remember (those who understand will understand).
Clearly, due to time constraints, we may have missed some equally important and interesting standards.
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