Monad’s $60M Early Investor Exit Offer Finds Almost No Takers

Monad gave some of its earliest backers an opportunity to sell their locked MON tokens months before they were scheduled to become freely tradable, but almost all of the investors approached chose not to participate.

The Monad Foundation said Tuesday that it had completed a program designed to purchase locked MON from selected early investors at a discount. The initiative had a maximum budget of $60 million.

The Foundation did not reveal the price offered to investors, the amount ultimately spent or the number of participants. CoinDesk has requested additional details about the discount offered to token holders.

The initiative effectively gave investors an early liquidity option. Those willing to accept a reduced price could receive cash immediately instead of waiting for their tokens to unlock. However, MON purchased by the Foundation will remain locked according to its original vesting schedule, meaning the program does not increase the supply of freely tradable tokens.

Monad is a relatively new blockchain designed to support applications compatible with Ethereum. Its native MON token is used for transaction fees and network security.

MON Unlocks Begin in November

Early investors received approximately 19.7 billion MON, representing nearly 20% of the token’s initial supply.

Those tokens were locked when Monad’s mainnet launched last November. After a one-year waiting period, the tokens are scheduled to begin unlocking monthly over the remainder of a four-year vesting period.

November will therefore mark the first time early investors can normally access and sell their unlocked MON tokens.

MON was trading around $0.021 on Tuesday, approximately 16% below the $0.025 public-sale price from last year.

Around 11.8 billion MON are currently in circulation, giving the token a market capitalization of roughly $250 million. Its fully diluted valuation is approximately $2.1 billion.

The token has struggled to gain momentum despite increasing activity across the Monad network.

Monad DeFi Activity Expands

Capital flowing into Monad-based decentralized finance applications has increased significantly in recent weeks.

According to DeFiLlama, the total value deposited into Monad DeFi protocols has risen to approximately $895 million from around $360 million on July 2, representing an increase of nearly 150% in roughly six weeks.

Stablecoins on the network have a combined value of about $707 million, while decentralized exchanges on Monad processed approximately $79 million in trading volume over the previous 24 hours.

However, that growth alone does not explain why most investors declined the Foundation’s offer. Because the size of the discount offered has not been disclosed, the decision by investors not to sell should not automatically be interpreted as confidence that MON will rise.

The Foundation said the program was intended to give early investors greater flexibility if their financial circumstances or investment strategies had changed, while also maintaining a long-term-oriented holder base.

About The Author

ctleditor

See author's posts