Monad has completed a program that allowed select early investors to sell their locked MON tokens ahead of their scheduled unlocks, but nearly all of those offered the opportunity chose to hold on to their tokens.
The Monad Foundation announced Tuesday that it had concluded the initiative, which offered to purchase locked MON from certain early backers at a discount. The Foundation had allocated up to $60 million for the program.
Details of the offer remain undisclosed. The Foundation has not said what discount it offered, how much of the $60 million was actually used or how many investors took part. CoinDesk has requested information on the terms offered to token holders.
The program effectively provided an early liquidity route for investors. Rather than waiting for their tokens to become transferable, participants could sell at a lower price and receive cash sooner. MON acquired through the program, however, will remain subject to the original lockup schedule and therefore will not immediately enter the circulating supply.
Monad is an Ethereum-compatible blockchain designed to support decentralized applications. MON is the network’s native asset and is used to pay transaction fees and support network security.
First Investor Unlocks Are Approaching
Early investors received approximately 19.7 billion MON, representing close to 20% of the token’s initial supply.
Those tokens were locked when Monad launched its public network in November 2025. After a one-year cliff, the holdings are scheduled to unlock monthly over the rest of a four-year vesting period.
That means November will be the first point at which early investors can begin selling their unlocked tokens under the normal schedule.
MON was trading near $0.021 Tuesday, around 16% below its $0.025 public-sale price.
Approximately 11.8 billion MON are currently circulating, putting the token’s market capitalization near $250 million. Its fully diluted valuation is around $2.1 billion.
Despite rising network activity, MON has continued to trade below its public-sale price.
Monad’s DeFi Ecosystem Expands
Activity across Monad’s decentralized finance ecosystem has increased significantly.
DeFiLlama data shows that capital deposited in Monad-based DeFi applications has grown to roughly $895 million from about $360 million on July 2. That represents an increase of nearly 150% in approximately six weeks.
Stablecoins on the network have a combined value of around $707 million, while decentralized exchanges processed roughly $79 million in trading volume over the previous 24 hours.
Still, the increase in network activity does not necessarily explain why investors rejected the Foundation’s offer. Since the exact discount remains unknown, the decision to hold should not automatically be viewed as a bullish signal for MON.
The Foundation said the initiative was designed to provide liquidity to early investors whose financial circumstances or investment objectives had changed, while maintaining a holder base focused on Monad’s longer-term development.
