Wrapped Monad: High-Performance EVM-Compatible Layer 1 Blockchain

Wrapped Monad (WMON) Project Introduction: Tailored for Blockchain Beginners

Hello friends! Today, let’s talk about a blockchain project called **Wrapped Monad (WMON)**. You might find the term “blockchain” unfamiliar—don’t worry, I’ll explain it in the simplest and most vivid way. Imagine blockchain as a huge, publicly transparent digital ledger, where every page records transaction information, and once written, these pages cannot be altered. The Monad we’re introducing today is like a “highway” in this digital ledger world, and WMON is a special “currency” circulating on this highway.

1. What is Wrapped Monad

Simply put, Wrapped Monad (WMON) is the “wrapped” version of Monad’s native token MON. Sounds a bit confusing, right? Let’s use an analogy:

You may have heard of Ethereum, the most famous blockchain, whose native currency is ETH. Sometimes, to make ETH more usable in other decentralized applications (dApps), people “wrap” it into WETH (Wrapped ETH). WETH is like a “voucher” for ETH—it represents the same value as ETH but can circulate and be used in more places. The relationship between WMON and MON is similar. WMON is the ERC-20 standard token version of MON, which means it can be recognized and used in a wider range of Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible environments, just like a gift card that can be used in different stores.

So, when we talk about WMON, we first need to understand its core project—Monad. Monad is a high-performance “Layer 1 blockchain”—think of it as a brand-new, super spacious, ultra-fast blockchain highway. Its goal is to solve the congestion, slow speeds, and high fees faced by existing blockchains (especially busy “old roads” like Ethereum).

Target Users and Core Scenarios:

• Developers: Programmers who want to build decentralized applications (dApps) on the blockchain. Monad provides a platform that is both familiar (Ethereum-compatible) and highly efficient.
• General Users: Those who want to experience faster, cheaper blockchain transactions, participate in decentralized finance (DeFi), NFT trading, or blockchain gaming.
• Typical WMON Usage Flow: You can trade WMON on decentralized exchanges (DEXs), stake WMON to earn rewards, and participate in the governance of the Wrapped MON ecosystem.

2. Project Vision and Value Proposition

The vision of the Monad project is ambitious—it aims to greatly improve blockchain performance without sacrificing decentralization or security.

• Core Problems Addressed: Existing blockchains, especially Ethereum, face slow transaction speeds, limited processing capacity (low throughput), and high transaction fees. It’s like a single-lane road that gets completely jammed when traffic increases. Monad aims to solve these “traffic jam” issues.
• Project Vision: Monad is committed to accelerating decentralization, building a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain as infrastructure for the next generation of decentralized applications. It wants to make decentralization stronger and eliminate the perceived trade-off between “decentralization” and “high performance.”
• Value Proposition: Monad promises up to 10,000 transactions per second (TPS), block confirmation time of just 0.4 seconds, finality in about 0.8 seconds, and extremely low transaction fees. This means your transactions are almost instant and cost very little.
• Differences from Similar Projects: There are many high-performance blockchains on the market, but Monad’s uniqueness lies in achieving high performance while maintaining full compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). It’s like building a brand-new highway that can directly use all the cars and gas stations from the old highway, allowing developers to easily migrate existing Ethereum applications without starting from scratch.

3. Technical Features

Monad achieves such high performance thanks to a series of innovative technical architectures. You can think of these technologies as advanced facilities on the highway, making traffic smoother.

• EVM Compatibility: Monad is fully compatible with Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) bytecode and Ethereum Remote Procedure Call (RPC) APIs. This means developers can use familiar tools and code to easily deploy Ethereum applications on Monad, just like running old apps directly on a new phone.
• Optimistic Parallel Execution: Most blockchains process one transaction at a time, like a single-lane road. Monad introduces parallel execution, allowing multiple transactions to be processed simultaneously. It’s like turning a single lane into multiple lanes, greatly improving efficiency.
• MonadBFT Consensus Mechanism: This is Monad’s self-developed Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus algorithm, an optimized version of the HotStuff protocol. This mechanism enables network nodes to agree on transaction order faster and more efficiently, ensuring rapid finality.
• Asynchronous Execution: Monad separates transaction ordering (consensus) from execution. Imagine planning your route while waiting at a red light, instead of waiting for the green light to start thinking. This separation improves efficiency.
• MonadDB: A custom database system for Monad, designed for efficient storage and management of blockchain state data. Its design enables faster data access and lowers hardware requirements for running nodes, allowing more people to participate in network maintenance.
• RaptorCast: A network layer technology for efficient block transmission.
• Open Source Codebase: Monad’s core codebase is fully open source, written in C++ and Rust, increasing project transparency and community participation.

4. Tokenomics

The native token of the Monad blockchain is MON. WMON is the wrapped version of MON, and its value is pegged to MON. Our focus is mainly on MON’s economic model.

Basic Token Information

• Token Symbol: MON (native token), WMON (wrapped token)
• Issuing Chain: Monad blockchain. WMON can also exist as an ERC-20 token on other EVM-compatible chains, such as the Sepolia testnet.
• Total Supply: MON’s total supply is fixed at 100 billion tokens.
• Current and Future Circulation:
  • At mainnet launch, about 10.8 billion MON tokens (10.8% of total supply) will be in circulation, mainly from public sale and airdrops.
  • Including ecosystem allocations, a total of about 49.4 billion MON tokens (49.4% of total supply) will be unlocked at mainnet launch.
  • All locked tokens are expected to be fully unlocked by Q4 2029.

Token Utility

• MON Utility:
  • Transaction Fees (Gas): Just like cars need gasoline to run, any operation on the Monad blockchain requires MON as transaction fees.
  • Staking: MON holders can stake tokens to participate in network security, become validators or delegate to validators, and earn rewards.
  • Governance: MON token holders have voting rights and can participate in decisions on the future development of the Monad protocol, such as upgrade proposals and transaction fee adjustments.
• WMON Utility:
  • Trading: Trade on decentralized exchanges (DEXs).
  • Staking and Governance: WMON can also be staked to earn rewards and participate in the governance of the Wrapped MON ecosystem, influencing future token allocations, etc.

Token Allocation and Unlock Information

MON token allocation aims to balance community participation, team incentives, and ecosystem development:

• Public Sale: 7.5% of tokens sold publicly via Coinbase at $0.025 per token.
• Airdrop: 3.3% of tokens allocated for community airdrops, rewarding early participants.
• Ecosystem Development: 38.5% of tokens allocated for ecosystem development, managed by the Monad Foundation, used to fund projects, incentivize developers, and build the community.
• Team: 27% of tokens allocated to team members, with a 1-year lockup and 3-4 year vesting period.
• Investors: 19.7% of tokens allocated to early investors, with a 1-year cliff and 4-year vesting period.
• Category Labs Treasury: About 4% of tokens reserved for the Category Labs treasury, used for future employee compensation, following a similar 4-year lockup as investors.
• The next Category Labs treasury unlock is expected on January 24, 2026.

5. Team, Governance, and Funding

Core Members and Team Features

The Monad core team consists of experts with extensive experience in blockchain and high-frequency trading:

• Keone Hon (CEO): Chief Executive Officer, a seasoned blockchain researcher and mathematician.
• James Hunsaker (CTO): Chief Technology Officer, focused on cryptographic protocols and distributed systems.
• Eunice Giarta (COO): Chief Operating Officer, responsible for operational framework, partnerships, and strategic planning.

Team members have worked at renowned high-frequency trading firms such as Jump Trading and Jump Crypto, with rich experience in building high-performance systems.

Governance Mechanism

Monad adopts a community-driven governance model. The Monad Foundation is an independent organization dedicated to promoting the development and adoption of the Monad protocol. Its main responsibilities include:

• Facilitating validator-led governance and community-driven improvement proposals.
• Providing developer documentation.
• Participating in ecosystem development, marketing, and consulting services.

MON token holders participate in governance through voting, deciding on key matters such as protocol upgrades and transaction fee adjustments.

Treasury and Funding

Monad has received substantial funding, laying a solid foundation for its development:

• Seed Round: In February 2023, Monad raised $19 million in seed funding.
• Series A: In March/April 2024, Monad completed a $225 million Series A led by Paradigm, with a company valuation of $3 billion.
• Total Funding: To date, Monad’s total funding is between $244 million and $248 million.
• Monad Foundation Funds: In 2024, the Monad Foundation received a $90 million donation from Category Labs (formerly Monad Labs) to cover operational costs. As of the whitepaper submission date, the Foundation holds $44.7 million in USD stablecoins.

6. Roadmap

The development history and future plans for the Monad project are as follows:

• February 2022: Project founded.
• February 2023: Completed $19 million seed funding.
• April 2024: Completed $225 million Series A funding.
• December 2024: Monad Foundation established to promote protocol development and ecosystem building.
• Q1 2025: Final testnet phase and security audit completed.
• February 2025: Public testnet launch, providing a platform for developers to deploy dApps.
• Q2 2025: Developer onboarding and ecosystem acceleration program launch.
• November 17, 2025: MON token public sale on Coinbase.
• November 24, 2025: Monad mainnet officially launches, with MON token generation event and airdrop.
• End of 2025: Ecosystem expansion in DeFi, NFT, and gaming, with new grant programs and partner integrations.
• Q4 2029: All locked MON tokens expected to be fully unlocked.

7. Common Risk Reminders

Every blockchain project comes with risks, and Monad is no exception. Before participating in any cryptocurrency project, be sure to conduct thorough research and understand the following potential risks:

• Technical and Security Risks: Although Monad uses innovative technical architecture, any new platform may have unknown technical vulnerabilities or security risks. The complexity of smart contracts may also lead to potential attacks.
• Economic Risks: The cryptocurrency market is highly volatile, and the prices of MON and WMON may be affected by market sentiment, macroeconomic factors, and competition. Monad faces fierce competition from other high-performance blockchains such as Solana, Avalanche, and Ethereum Layer 2 solutions.
• Compliance and Operational Risks: The global regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies is constantly evolving, and future policy changes may impact project operations. There are also operational risks regarding the project’s ability to execute its roadmap and successfully attract developers and users.
• Token Unlock Pressure: Tokens held by the team and investors will gradually unlock in the future. Although there are vesting schedules, large token unlocks may create selling pressure in the market, affecting token prices.

Please note: The above information does not constitute investment advice. Cryptocurrency investment is highly risky, and you may lose all your principal.

8. Verification Checklist

If you want to learn more about Monad and WMON, you can refer to the following information:

• Block Explorer Contract Addresses:
  • WMON (Sepolia Testnet):
    0x5b0c007eE5ec938259beb4C818E5d05663f689b6
  • WMON (Monad Mainnet):
    0x3bd359C1119dA7Da1D913D1C4D2B7c461115433A
  • Monad Mainnet Chain ID: 143
  • Monad Block Explorer (MonadVision):
    https://monadvision.com
• GitHub Activity: Monad’s codebase is open source. You can visit its GitHub repository to check code updates and development activity.
• Official Documentation: Refer to Monad’s official documentation (usually at
  docs.monad.xyz
  or
  monad.xyz
  ) for the most detailed and up-to-date project information.

9. Project Summary

Monad is an ambitious Layer 1 blockchain project aiming to solve the performance bottlenecks of existing blockchains through innovative technical architecture such as parallel execution and custom consensus mechanisms. While maintaining full compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine, it strives for extremely high transaction throughput and low latency, which is crucial for driving large-scale adoption of decentralized applications. The project boasts a strong team background and ample funding, and has already published a detailed roadmap and tokenomics model.

WMON, as the wrapped version of Monad’s native token MON, enables MON to circulate and be used across a broader EVM ecosystem, increasing its flexibility and application scenarios.

However, like all emerging technology projects, Monad faces challenges in technical implementation, market competition, and regulation. Its success will depend on its ability to effectively execute its roadmap, continuously attract developers and users, and stand out in the fiercely competitive blockchain space.

Remember, the above content is for project introduction only and does not constitute investment advice. Always do your own research (DYOR) before making any investment decisions.