Written by: Noveleader, Francesco
Translated by: LlamaC
After a long wait, Monad is finally here, 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 make your work easier by covering the projects in the Monad ecosystem that interest you most, so anyone can know how to leverage their airdrop throughout the ecosystem. Since a broader crypto community is eligible for the token airdrop, many users will be looking for available opportunities.
Even if you missed the airdrop (which is not a huge loss for you), this can serve as a guide to understanding native protocols.
We’ve made this report quite practical: The first part briefly introduces Monad, then we focus on some projects, and finally conclude with some thoughts on the mainnet launch.
Ladies and gentlemen, enjoy the 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 is, relying on existing infrastructure will inevitably lead to some bottlenecks.
Without delving into the details, Monad’s tech stack is unique for including the following components:
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MonadBFT: Monad created an optimized version of the BFT consensus model, which helps the network achieve 10k TPS and sub-second finality, even with a large number of consensus nodes. With this consensus model, Monad achieves speculative finality in one round, full 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 preventing potential malicious behavior.
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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 transforms block proposals into erasure-coded chunks, a process performed by the leader. Each of these chunks is sent to all validators via a two-level broadcast tree, where the first level targets a single non-leader node for a set of chunks, proportional to the validator’s stake weight. These first-level nodes 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.
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Asynchronous Execution: Monad decouples consensus from execution. Monad first reaches consensus on block ordering without executing transactions. Thus, once a block is finalized, every node in the network can execute the block’s transactions to produce the latest state. This is better than the interleaved execution approach of executing before reaching consensus.
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Monad DB: This is a custom key-value database based on the Patricia Trie data structure, simplifying synchronization between readers (RPC requests) and writers (execution). It’s important to understand that while writers update the database, many readers may need to access it. MonadDB’s design ensures this by following an immutable Patricia Trie design: whenever data is updated, new versions of nodes on the branch are created, while maintaining the persistence and readability of the previous state.
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Transaction Parallelization: Most blockchains execute transactions sequentially, which guarantees correctness but is slow in practice. To address this, Monad adopts an optimistic execution approach, where all transactions, whether conflicting or not, are executed in parallel. In the case of conflicting transactions, such as two that change the same account balance and may execute in a conflicting order, Monad resolves this by tracking their state changes and re-executing these transactions as needed.
In addition to being a pioneer among high-performance L1s, 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 for years as part of its community, contributing as much as they can, and in some cases even becoming team members. While many criticize this level of involvement, there’s no doubt that this focus helps build a very loyal community.
Many networks face a similar problem at launch: not enough applications go live, or not enough unique apps are available for users to decide to stay after mainnet or token generation event (TGE) launches. To avoid this, there are different approaches to handling the issue. Some prefer to curate and incubate projects within their ecosystem, while others remain completely neutral.
Monad takes a middle ground, letting things develop naturally while also providing broad support to ecosystem projects to help them succeed. However, its involvement is always limited to ecosystem coordination, not venture capital or incubation.
Monad had ample time to launch with a vibrant ecosystem that has also undergone natural selection over time.
For any user wondering how to handle their MON airdrop, here’s the answer.
Monad Ecosystem
As of now, there are over 300 projects in the ecosystem, 78 of which are exclusive to Monad.
Due to time constraints, we will only analyze a small portion of the total, divided into several verticals:
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Decentralized Finance
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Gaming
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Consumer Applications
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AI
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NFTs
DeFi
Perpl
Perpl is a CLOB-based perpetual contract exchange. Perpl aims to provide deep liquidity and efficient markets for seamless trade execution, with a strong focus on excellent user experience.
Perpl recently launched on testnet:
They follow the slogan “Trade Perpetuals on Perpl” and deployed multiple markets for trading on the first day of mainnet. Additionally, they raised $9.25 million from DragonFly and Ergonia Trading.
Drake
Drake is a hybrid perpetual decentralized exchange (DEX) that leverages both the central limit order book (CLOB) model and the standard automated market maker (AMM) model to provide liquidity in specific markets.
Drake positions itself as “bringing CEX into Perp DEX,” which is fair considering their hybrid model prioritizes best order execution. In this model, CLOB liquidity is prioritized, with AMM liquidity as a backup to complete orders. In some cases, the model can split orders to leverage both CLOB and AMM liquidity for the best possible price.
Another important feature of Drake is its advanced margin system, which supports both cross-margin and isolated margin portfolios, equipped with a universal asset margin engine. This allows different types of collateral to be used across positions, giving users greater flexibility in using assets as margin.
Monorail
Monorail is a spot aggregator on Monad that routes orders on-chain to get users the best possible price. They currently connect 16 exchanges in their routing.
Monorail aims to unify AMMs and order books into a single liquidity framework called the Synthetic Orderbook. This liquidity aggregation framework routes orders in the most optimized way with lower gas costs, resulting in minimal slippage and efficient execution.
A quick look at their UI:
Mace
Mace is another DEX aggregator on Monad, designed to connect liquidity across AMMs, order books, and CEX market makers via a Request for Quote (RFQ) system.
By routing liquidity across multiple paths, Mace aims to ensure optimal trade execution while reducing gas fees and accessing deeper liquidity.
Here’s their UI interface:
Monday Trade
Remember SynFutures, the perpetual DEX on Base and Blast? Monday Trade is built on top of its tech stack.
Monday Trade is a hybrid spot DEX on Monad that combines 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 smooth trades without high slippage.
Example of available pools on Monday:
Kuru
Kuru is a CLOB-based exchange for fast token buying and selling. It also allows users to issue their own tokens, making it ideal for the “launchpad” category.
Users can also provide liquidity for various tokens on the platform within different fee ranges, similar to traditional AMMs. This is especially important for new markets or tokens that lack market maker participation at launch.
Kuru is well-funded, having raised $11.6 million in a round led by Paradigm.
Capricorn
Capricorn is an automated market maker (AMM) that features high-frequency trading-level swap execution on Monad.
It offers CEX-level liquidity, minimized impermanent loss, toxic flow protection for LPs, tighter spreads, and guarantees composability with the rest of the Monad DeFi ecosystem.
Crystal
Crystal is an on-chain CLOB-based spot exchange offering CEX-like performance on Monad. A key differentiator for Crystal is their use of the CLOB model to provide spot liquidity.
Here’s a quick preview of their interface:
Fastlane
FastLane is building Monad’s liquid staking token (LST)—“shMON.”
It aims to provide users with the best staking rewards on Monad and higher yields for their Monad tokens. Fastlane will be the place to earn extra yield beyond Monad while also protecting the ecosystem.
They also released shMonad RPC, an RPC infrastructure service introducing a stake-weighted bandwidth allocation system powered by shMonad.
Townsquare
Townsquare is building a modular money market on Monad, aiming to enable cross-chain lending, access to cross-chain yield markets, and create 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
Modus is a 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 yield. It also introduces a sealed-bid liquidation mechanism that keeps value captured in liquidations within the protocol, preventing leakage to MEV bots.
New features on the platform include:
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Arbiter: Executes liquidations via sealed-bid auctions within the platform and triggers vault strategies such as hedging on perpetual exchanges.
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Sigma Vault: A vault that uses the Arbiter to hedge perpetual positions and capture funding rates, lending spreads, and liquidation rebates. The other side of the hedge is users’ idle deposits, such as ETH and BTC.
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Dynamic Yield Allocator (DYA): If there are any idle assets in the market, it redirects them to the highest-yielding source available in the Modus ecosystem, namely the Sigma Vault.
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Tokenised Stock Lending Infrastructure: Modus will support collateralizing on-chain stock equivalents to borrow assets against them.
A quick look at the platform interface:
Curvance
Curvance is a money market on Monad where users can lend, deposit into auto-compounding vaults and optimized DeFi strategies, and gain broader DeFi exposure in one place.
The platform also provides independent positions tailored for each asset for portfolio risk management. In addition, each market on Curvance uses two oracles, eliminating single points of failure and protecting users if one oracle fails.
Another notable feature is its auction-based liquidation mechanism, allowing liquidators to bid to repay debt, reducing value loss from MEV. This also enables up to 97% LTV (loan-to-value) in specific markets.
A quick look at the user interface:
Zona
Zona is working to solve the composability problem of real-world assets (RWA) in DeFi. The platform aims to enable users to borrow stablecoins against their RWA assets as collateral.
Beyond that, Zona is targeting the $300 trillion real estate market. As part of its future vision, users will be able to borrow and lend with real estate as collateral. They aim to achieve this with their proprietary real estate oracle that frequently prices properties.
As part of their vision, they have already partnered with Agora to bring AUSD to Monad.
Mu Digital
Mu Digital is an RWA protocol aiming to bring Asia’s best yields on-chain, which are currently unfortunately restricted by national borders and high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs).
Asia offers the best yield environment, with high growth, high returns, good liquidity, safety, and diversification. Mu Digital aims to capture yields from deals with 8-20% returns. These yields will be sourced from large, reputable corporate borrowers in the Asian debt market, providing previously inaccessible APAC exposure on-chain.
Ammplify
Ammplify focuses on capital efficiency, building an LP amplifier to double LP yields. In regular Uni V3 pools, liquidity outside the price range is idle and earns no yield.
Ammplify puts that idle liquidity to work in other yield-earning channels, improving capital efficiency and providing more yield opportunities for end users.
Their goal is to compete with private asset managers and curators while reducing risk and maintaining self-custody and transparency.
SEER
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 combining social and on-chain intelligence to provide users with the most informed trading experience.
Users can view curated feeds, chat, make voice calls, check on-chain metrics, and track trending topics all in one place. It also allows users to create unlimited wallets and route private capital. Additionally, SEER recently raised $300,000 in an echo funding round.
Tread Fi
Tread Fi is a trading terminal that executes or routes perpetual and spot trades across multiple DEXs and CEXs.
It enables users to use various algorithms for algorithmic trading 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 actually occurred. This was initially a convenient feature for traders to prove profitability and has the potential to evolve into more complex products (e.g., lending, dark pools).
Accountable
Accountable aims to change the way asset verification is done.
It leverages Data Verification Networks (DVN) to verify data “directly from the source” while maintaining privacy protection.
Unlike static proof-of-reserves, which usually do not include complete information about “liabilities or real-time solvency,” Accountable provides a continuous, real-time way to verify assets.
Initially, the team plans to focus on stablecoins, on-chain treasuries, and institutional treasuries, with the long-term goal of creating a standard layer for verifying all assets, whether on-chain or off-chain.
Gaming
Lumiterra
Lumiterra is a multiplayer survival game set in an open world.
This game is particularly notable because the team envisions the open world being driven by AI and evolving based on player choices. Through this game, users will be able to own AI agents that “develop with their playstyle and turn mastered skills into on-chain assets.”
From skills to agents to assets.
The game will be designed to have its own economy, allowing anyone to trade these assets across markets.
Here’s a screenshot from their game video:
LootGO
While other games are still in beta or not yet live, you can already play LootGO on iOS and Android!
Similar to its famous “big brother” STEPN, LootGO lets you earn money just by walking:
Omnia
Omnia is a game developed by the Sappy Seals NFT community.
The game focuses on adventure and pet battles.
The team held a playtest for the community a month ago. Those interested in learning more can find more information here.
Breath of Estova
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, in-game $ESTOVA earnings are dynamically adjusted and “tied to progress and asset ownership, limiting large-scale token output and rewarding loyal players.” Additionally, they have a burn mechanism.
The game also includes a series of NFTs, and token holders can directly influence the game’s future development through governance.
NFT
Purple friends
Purple Friends is one of the most iconic NFT collections on Monad because, well, they’re purple.
The collection consists of 1,111 unique NFTs, with a few being 1/1 uniques.
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 generated revenue.
Chog
Chog is one of the earliest meme/NFT projects in Monad.
The founder of Chog is also one of the largest recipients of the Monad airdrop. This may fuel speculation about the collection.
Notably, they recently announced the CHOG token, which will launch shortly after mainnet goes live.
Skrumpeys
Skrumpeys is another OG NFT collection on Monad, based on pixel art, and was minted on the first day of Monad mainnet launch.
Their Discord is very active and a great place to get started.
Consumer Applications
LEVR
Levr is a leveraged sports betting app currently in testing. Inspired by perpetual contract trading, it allows users to bet on various sports events such as NBA, NFL, NCAAB, and MLB, while taking 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 in-app markets, manages risk, and allocates rewards.
RareBetSports
RareBetSports is another sports betting app among Monad’s consumer-facing applications.
With this app, users can bet on player performance in basketball and baseball games, either individually or in parlays.
Here’s a quick screenshot of their user interface:
Kizzy
Kizzy is a social media betting app where users can bet on the performance of their favorite influencers and celebrities on social media platforms. Users can bet on influencer performance in various categories, including culture, politics, sports, and more.
Kizzy combines prediction markets and sports betting, building a platform at the intersection of both, allowing users to predict the performance of influencer content they consume daily.
Fluffle
Even Monad has its own Fluffle, a gamified productivity platform that helps turn productivity into rewards.
Every focus session on the app helps earn rewards. Through activities like staying away from your phone, users can earn coins, hatch dragons, develop their island, and unlock rewards for their behavior.
On Fluffle, effort turns into habits, and users can be rewarded for it.
Rumi
Rumi rewards users for watching content. It’s more of 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:
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Data Mode: Just share what you’re watching to help them rank content.
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Audio Mode: Allows Rumi to access the audio of your streaming content, enabling mapping of moments to corresponding emotions.
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Visual Mode: Also lets Rumi watch the content, identifying characters and moments in each piece.
As you might guess, among the three modes, visual mode earns the highest rewards, followed by the others.
Kinetk
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 from unofficial sources.
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 for points to access exclusive content from their chosen creators. This subscription also allows them to chat with these AI characters infinitely, even via voice chat.
Cult
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 building a good reputation through on-chain activity, Cult grants users “Diamond Hand Status,” giving them exclusive privileges as described above.
Platform interface overview:
Nad.fun
Nad.fun is Monad’s pump.fun, where users can seamlessly launch meme coins based on current hot topics. It operates similarly to the pump platform but places great emphasis on revenue distribution among holders.
Just as Pump uses Meteora to deploy liquidity, once a token’s market cap reaches 432 MON, Nad migrates using Uniswap V3.
Here’s a preview of their UI:
AI
FortyTwo
FortyTwo is an AI 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 if it comes from many interconnected models, not one giant centralized model.
As they mention in their paper, “Centralized intelligence has produced specialized tools and ambitious ‘god models,’” each with its own merits. However, decentralized intelligence is opening up new frontiers, most notably group-based systems that scale not by making a single model bigger, but by allowing multiple models to work together as a whole.
The protocol can use collective intelligence to generate datasets and has just released benchmarks showing its models are competitive with centralized ones.
Today, it has over 500 node operators, a GUI application, and a running web browser.
Muku AI
Muku AI is an AI company focused on the audio field. It provides a way for composers and singers to get AI support.
Imagine competing with other users to become the official singer of a song created by AI (or other users). The image below shows the user experience model of their song “matching engine.”
We’ve already seen several experiments with AI music, and although this segment has yet to gain mainstream attention, it’s very interesting in terms of distribution potential.
Kodeus AI
Kodeus provides a framework for creating AI agents for multiple use cases:
Agents can be developed with simple, natural language input and are equipped with tools via MCP.
Particularly interesting is that Kodeus agents can be embedded in third-party applications via Widget and Deep Link deployments.
Rayvo
Rayvo is an AI protocol focused on POV data, helping robots understand and navigate the real world. This type of data is extremely hard 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, enabling you to use your POV data to power AI agents and deploy a voice-first agent directly in the glasses.
Dfusion
At the core of Dfusion is the “dFusion AI Social Truth Data Liquidity Pool (DLP),” a decentralized layer of human-generated social data.
Users can choose to authorize access to their Telegram chat logs 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 with DLP’s public key, allowing DLP to access it. The data is then analyzed and scored in a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE).
In addition, users can create their own subnets, set their own incentives, and attract specific types of data they are interested in. This enables the creation of specialized models in very niche areas.
Conclusion
We hope this report gives you an overview of projects you can explore and enjoy! Monad will launch with a fairly mature ecosystem, including many native protocols.
We noticed many interesting DeFi and consumer applications.
Prediction markets open the door for consumer applications to go mainstream.
What else can we expect from Monad?
The same goes for gaming: strong community elements and gamification, combined with a performance-focused tech stack, make Monad fertile ground for testing new gaming applications.
After reading this report, you should be overwhelmed with options.
Another thing we want to highlight is the applications from the Monad Momentum Program. These apps have confirmed they will receive rewards on mainnet.
Given the MON supply reserved for ecosystem incentives, this might be something you want to keep in mind (if you know, you know).
Obviously, due to time constraints, we may have missed some equally important and interesting standards.
