Key Takeaways

• The highly anticipated launch of the Monad mainnet is just around the corner. Monad has been getting a lot of attention from both investors and retail users because of its high-performance EVM-based tech stack. Even though it’s fully compatible with the EVM, Monad is expected to offer a much smoother and more scalable user experience.

• With its cutting-edge technology, Monad makes it possible to build new kinds of decentralized apps that couldn’t exist on other EVM networks. There are already plenty of dApps in the Monad ecosystem, but this article takes a closer look at the ones that are truly native to Monad.

1. The Long Awaited Launch of Monad

1.1 The Secret Behind Monad’s Popularity

Source: Monad

At last, the moment everyone has been waiting for is almost here. Monad has officially announced its airdrop claim portal on October 14, and excitement among users is sky high. It is no surprise since Monad gained huge attention when it announced its seed funding back in the first quarter of 2023, but the mainnet has not launched for more than two and a half years since then.

There are a few reasons behind Monad’s hype such as big name VC investments and its unique community culture, but at the core of it all is Monad’s technology. Back then, implementing a parallel EVM was an extremely ambitious goal, and that alone was enough to grab the attention of investors, the community, and users alike.

Monad is a high performance, EVM compatible Layer 1 network with the following technical features:

• MonadBFT (MonadBFT): An optimized BFT consensus algorithm that enables 10,000 tps and sub second finality even in an environment with hundreds of consensus nodes. Unlike traditional BFT systems, MonadBFT can reach a “near final” state in just one round of consensus.

• RaptorCast (RaptorCast): A method that lets the leader efficiently transmit large blocks to other validators. The leader uses erasure coding to split a block proposal into multiple pieces, sends each piece to non leader nodes first, and those nodes then propagate them further. This reduces the leader’s load while staying safe since erasure coding allows data recovery even from partial pieces.

• Asynchronous Execution (Asynchronous Execution): In most blockchains, consensus and execution are tied together which makes things inefficient. Monad separates the two so nodes agree on the transaction order first and execute later, giving plenty of time for processing.

• Parallel Execution (Parallel Execution): Monad uses optimistic execution to process transactions in parallel first and only re executes the ones that conflict.

• MonadDb (MonadDb): Unlike Ethereum’s structure, MonadDb is built on a Merkle Patricia Trie that allows direct access to trie nodes. It handles read and write requests asynchronously, making it great for parallel execution. It is also optimized with features like filesystem bypass and concurrency control.

Thanks to these blockchain core optimizations, Monad achieves exceptional scalability, making it possible to build dApps that simply could not exist on other EVM networks. Since Monad is fully EVM compatible, its developer environment is also top notch. These strengths make it easy for developers to build whatever they want on Monad without worrying about scalability limits.

1.2 An Ecosystem of Monad, by Monad, for Monad

So, with the mainnet launch of Monad just around the corner, what kind of services can users expect to see on it? As of October 11, 2025, the Monad Ecosystem Directory lists a total of 293 dApps. These include well-known names like 0x, Balancer, Euler, Farcaster, Lombard, Magic Eden, OpenSea, Pancake Swap, Stargate, StakeStone, Uniswap, and Wormhole.

However, Monad is quite different from existing blockchain networks. This means that we can expect more unique and creative services to emerge on the Monad network. For that reason, this section takes a closer look at some of the most talked-about dApps in the Monad ecosystem, as well as the winning projects from Monad’s accelerator programs and hackathons.

Since there are quite a few projects, if you are simply looking for dApps worth trying after the mainnet launch, you can check the quick summary below. If something catches your eye, scroll down for more details.

• Staking: aPriori, FastLane Labs, Magma, Kintsu

• Spot DEX: Kuru, Clober, Crystal, Capricorn

• Perp DEX: Drake, Celeris, Narwhal Finance, Perpl, Monday Trade

• Aggregator: Monorail, Mace

• Lending: Townsquare, Modus, Curvance

• Novel DeFi: Likwid, Timelock, Touch Market

• Prediction Market: Opinion Labs, Buzzing App, Kizzy, Levr.Bet, RareBetSports, Narrative, Hyperthesis

• Trading Terminal/Bot: SEER, ChainPro, KiSignals, mevX, Mona Trading Bot

• Meme Coin Launchpad: CULT, Alloca, nad.fun

• Gaming: Lumiterra, Omnia, LootGo

• AI: Fortytwo, Symphony, TypeX, AMMO AI, Rayvo

• NFT: Chog, lil chogstars, Monadverse, Purple Frens, Poply

• RWA: Zona, BlockStreet, Mu Digital

2. Monad Ecosystem dApps You Should Keep an Eye On

2.1 aPriori

Source: aPriori

aPriori is the most well known liquid staking protocol in the Monad ecosystem. Users can stake MON and receive aprMON, a liquid staking token. aprMON captures not only the regular PoS staking rewards but also the MEV revenue generated from the network and distributes it to users.

Because Monad is highly scalable, the network will handle a huge number of transactions, which naturally creates many MEV opportunities. However, unlike traditional EVMs that process transactions one by one, Monad EVM handles them in parallel, so the way MEV is captured will be very different. aPriori understands this well and introduces the idea of probabilistic MEVA.

aPriori raised $2M in pre seed funding in 2023 from Hashed and Arrington Capital, $8M in seed funding in July 2024 from Pantera, Consensys, and Flow Traders, and an additional $20M in August 2025 from Pantera, HashKey, and IMC Trading. This makes it one of the most funded dApps in the Monad ecosystem. Users can stake MON on the testnet to get aprMON and use it across various DeFi protocols.

2.2 FastLane Labs

Source: FastLane Labs

FastLane Labs provides staking and MEV related infrastructure within the Monad ecosystem and offers the following services:

• shMONAD: A Monad based liquid staking protocol built on FastLane’s MFL and Atlas technologies. It goes beyond simple MEV extraction and is designed so that MEV revenue flows back to the ecosystem participants.

• shBundler: A bundler for ERC-4337 account abstraction that integrates the bundler’s role directly into validator nodes.

• shMonad RPC: A high performance RPC infrastructure for Monad that allocates network bandwidth based on staking amount. Users with higher shMON balances get more bandwidth and lower latency, helping prevent network overload and Sybil attacks.

FastLane Labs goes beyond running a liquid staking protocol by building core infrastructure that helps users interact with the network more efficiently and fairly. It raised $6M in strategic investment from Coinbase Ventures, Figment Capital, DBA, Robot Ventures, Hashkey, Chorus One, and Kiln. Users can stake MON on the testnet to get shMON and use it in various DeFi applications.

2.3 Kuru

Source: Kuru

Kuru is a fully on chain order book exchange built on Monad that aims to become a trading hub. The main reason it can implement on chain order book trading is thanks to Monad EVM’s high scalability. Kuru uses not only CLOB but also AMM liquidity to ensure smooth trading even when certain markets have low liquidity.

Kuru offers two modes, Lite and Pro. In Pro mode, users can trade different tokens through the order book and also provide liquidity. In Lite mode, users can trade tokens easily using a simple swap interface that uses order book liquidity.

In July 2025, Kuru successfully raised $11.6M from Paradigm, Electric Capital, and Credibly Neutral. Users can now try simple swaps through Lite mode on the testnet, explore the trading interface in Pro mode, and even experience providing liquidity to the order book.

2.4 Others

Other notable projects in the Monad ecosystem include (Fyi, the protocols not covered in section 2.4 will be discussed in the next section):

Staking

• Kintsu: A liquid staking protocol where users can stake MON and get sMON in return.

• Magma: A liquid staking protocol where users can stake MON to mint gMON. It offers MEV boosted yield and uses distributed validator (DV) tech so multiple participants can share validator duties.

Spot DEX

• Crystal: An on chain CLOB DEX where all trades are handled through smart contracts directly on chain.

• Capricorn: Capricorn operates both an oracle-based private pool and CPMM/CLMM liquidity pools, aiming to combine the efficiency of CLOBs with the composability of AMMs.

• Monday Trade: A DEX that enables users to trade various types of tokens with a CEX-level user experience, utilizing a hybrid CLOB/AMM architecture.

Perp DEX

• Narwhal Finance: A perpetual order book DEX built on Monad. It allows using aprMON as collateral and supports trading synthetic assets like stocks, indices, and forex.

• Perpl: Building a CLOB-based perpetual futures DEX leveraging Monad’s exceptional scalability. In May 2025, it raised $9.25 million in funding from Dragonfly, Ergonia, and Brevan Howard.

Aggregator

• Mace: A Monad-native DEX aggregator that routes trades across multiple DEXs to find the most optimal trading path.

Lending

• Townsquare: A lending protocol in the Monad ecosystem that was a finalist in Monad Madness.

• Modus: A protocol that positions itself as an on-chain prime brokerage and serves as a native lending protocol within the Monad ecosystem. Modus offers more than simple lending and borrowing services; it provides modular features such as vaults and delta-neutral strategies. The project has received investment from Yzi Labs.

• Curvance: Users can use various assets within the Monad ecosystem as collateral to take out loans on Curvance.

Novel DeFi:

• Timelock: A protocol built on Uniswap V3 liquidity that provides swap and trading functionality, offering a liquidation-free leveraged trading experience. In the future, it plans to launch additional services such as futures, options, and meme tokens.

• Touch Market: A protocol that offers a new trading experience where users can set a price and timeframe on a chart and earn profits if the price “touches” that level. It provides an intuitive interface for investing and distinguishes itself by offering up to 1000x leverage.

Prediction Market

• Opinion Labs: One of the most popular prediction markets in the Monad ecosystem that raised $5M in seed funding from YZi Labs, Animoca, and Amber.

• Narrative: A prediction market designed to allow users to trade or invest in assets based on narratives and emerging trends.

• Hyperthesis: Although not much public information is available yet, it appears to be developing a prediction market within the Monad ecosystem.

Trading Terminal/Bot

• MevX: A multi chain trading terminal focusing on meme and alpha tokens. It offers features like sniping and copy trading and plans to support Monad mainnet.

• Mona Trading Bot: A trading bot made specifically for the Monad ecosystem.

Meme Coin Launchpad

• Nad.fun: A meme coin launchpad and trading platform with a simple interface similar to pump.fun that anyone can use easily.

Gaming

• Lumiterra: A multiplayer open-world survival crafting game where players explore the world through activities such as gathering, crafting, combat, and farming.

• Omnia: A Monad-native game that combines adventure and pet-based battles.

• LootGo: A walk-to-earn mobile application that offers a gamified experience through gameplay similar to Pokémon GO.

NFT

• Poply: An NFT marketplace focused on the Monad community.

RWA

• Zona: Enables the tokenization of real-world assets or the issuance and trading of synthetic assets, which can also be used as collateral for borrowing.

• Block Street: A project building on-chain execution and lending infrastructure for tokenized equities, offering an RFQ system and risk engine. It raised $11.5 million in funding from HackVC, DWF, and others in October 2025.

Others

• Accountable: A real time financial verification protocol that lets companies, protocols, and stablecoins share transparent asset and liability information while keeping privacy.

3. Projects Featured on the Official Monad Blog

Monad has introduced several projects through five articles on its official blog. Since these were featured on Monad’s own platform, they are definitely worth paying attention to.

3.1 Fortytwo

Fortytwo is a decentralized AI network built on Monad. It runs many small language models (SLMs) simultaneously on consumer-grade hardware and combines their outputs through a consensus process to produce one final inference result. In short, Fortytwo aims to create a stronger AI system by connecting multiple smaller models together.

The approach of using multiple smaller SLMs instead of a single large LLM is not new. It is already widely used in AI research. For example, autonomous driving systems are usually built not with a single large AI model but with many specialized submodules that each handle specific tasks to create a more complete system.

Source: Fortytwo whitepaper

Fortytwo works in a pretty straightforward way. When a user sends a query to the network, participating nodes each generate an answer independently, evaluate each other’s responses, and the answer with the highest weighted score becomes the final consensus result. To ensure fairness, all answers are encrypted before submission and revealed afterward. To prevent Sybil attacks, nodes must stake a certain amount of tokens to participate. Monad is used as the coordination layer for settlement and reward distribution.

In March 2025, Fortytwo successfully raised $2.3M in pre-seed funding from Big Brain Holdings, CMT Digital, EV3, Chorus One, and Mentat Group. Anyone can run a node with a decent home desktop setup, and as of the testnet phase, there are 739 active nodes in the network. For users interested in the Monad-based AI ecosystem, running a Fortytwo node after the Monad and Fortytwo mainnet launches would be a great experience.

3.2 Multisynq

Multisynq aims to build a new internet protocol for real-time synchronization. Today, there is no standardized protocol for real-time sync, so applications like game servers and video conferencing tools must build their own solutions from scratch. In centralized client-server setups, the server handles all computations, which creates a single point of failure.

Source: Multisynq

Multisynq solves this problem by removing the server-centered structure. Instead, each user’s device executes the application logic locally, while synchronizer nodes on the Multisynq network handle coordination. Synchronizers do not store data, cannot read encrypted message content, and only manage synchronization.

The real-time sync protocol developed by Multisynq fills a major gap in the modern internet, and when combined with blockchain, it can help build a truly decentralized web. This could one day make it possible to run massive applications like MMORPGs with hundreds of thousands of players or map services based on live traffic data from millions of users. Multisynq serves as the synchronization layer in this decentralized internet and plans to integrate the Monad blockchain to handle synchronization state and registries.

In April 2024, Multisynq raised $2.2M in seed funding from Manifold Trading and Republic Capital, and in February 2025, it held a community round through Echo, raising $350K. Users can currently run synchronizer nodes and earn points.

3.3 Likwid

Likwid is a Monad-based DeFi protocol that combines AMM and lending in one system, allowing users to provide liquidity, borrow other assets, or open long and short positions all within a single platform. The most notable feature of Likwid is that it enables these functions without relying on centralized exchanges, oracles, or counterparty traders.

Traditionally, it has been difficult to open a short position on a new token using DeFi protocols. Users would need to deposit collateral into a lending protocol, borrow the token, and sell it. However, new tokens often lack oracle data or are unsupported by lending protocols. Even when supported, liquidity is usually low.

Source: Likwid

In Likwid, the liquidity pool itself acts as both the market and the lending platform, serving as the counterparty. Liquidity providers not only supply liquidity and earn fees like in an AMM DEX but also act as lenders and derivatives liquidity providers at the same time.

For example, in a MON/LIKWID liquidity pool, a user can deposit MON as collateral and open a short position on LIKWID in one step. This process involves both borrowing and selling LIKWID tokens within the same pool.

Once Monad mainnet launches, users will be able to perform basic actions like token swaps, liquidity provision, and lending on Likwid, as well as open long or short positions on new tokens to capture early ecosystem trading opportunities.

3.4 Clober

Source: Clober

Clober is a fully on-chain order book DEX built on Monad. In addition to Monad’s scalability, it introduces its own LOBSTER (Limit Order Book with Segment Tree for Efficient oRder-matching) mechanism, allowing for gas-efficient and fast order matching.

Building an on-chain order book on EVM comes with several technical challenges. For instance, when a user places a buy order, it must be matched with multiple sell orders sequentially. Processing this with a for-loop or similar structure would consume a lot of gas. LOBSTER solves this by deferring execution: each sell order covers a specific price range, and based on the size of the buy order, the system determines whether it will be filled. Sellers later settle their trades.

On-chain order books also face inefficiencies when large market orders must scan many price levels. LOBSTER uses a tree-based data structure to search only for price levels that actually have orders, improving performance and gas efficiency.

Thanks to these innovations, Clober achieves AMM-level efficiency and CEX-level precision within on-chain limits. Leveraging Monad’s scalability, it builds an advanced structure capable of matching centralized exchange performance. Users can trade tokens through the order book, place limit orders, and provide liquidity directly on the Clober platform.

3.5 Drake

Source: Drake

Drake is a fully on-chain perpetual DEX built on Monad that aims to deliver CEX-level performance combined with DeFi’s transparency and composability. Drake’s order book, matching engine, risk engine, and vaults are all on-chain.

Unlike other perpetual DEXs, Drake can run every component of its order book fully on-chain thanks to Monad’s scalability. Its parallel execution and low transaction costs make it possible to match many orders and update states efficiently, enabling a truly on-chain perpetual DEX.

Drake also stands out for its hybrid order book model. It primarily uses on-chain liquidity but can draw from AMM liquidity as a backup when order book liquidity is low, ensuring deeper liquidity overall.

Drake has not raised VC funding and is following a community-driven approach, which is becoming a popular trend among new perpetual DEXs. Monad users can already try Drake on the testnet.

3.6 Celeris

Source: Celeris

Celeris is a trading platform based on a new type of order book called PLOB (Parallelized Liquidity Orderbook). In CLOB systems, liquidity is fragmented across separate markets, but in PLOB, a shared liquidity pool supports all markets simultaneously, greatly improving capital efficiency.

Because PLOB offers deeper liquidity than CLOB, traders experience less slippage. It is also better for liquidity providers since the same total value locked (TVL) can be distributed across more markets, resulting in higher overall fees.

Implementing PLOB requires managing and syncing the states of many markets in real time, which is extremely complex on-chain. However, Monad’s parallel EVM and MonadDB make it possible to process transactions in parallel and handle many markets efficiently, providing the perfect environment for PLOB to work.

Users can deposit Monad testnet tokens into Celeris to trade perpetuals across various markets and also try liquidity provision and lending features.

4. Hackathon Award Winning Projects

Monad is well known not only for its strong community but also for actively supporting early stage projects in its ecosystem. Through various accelerator programs and hackathons, Monad has provided resources and exposure to many new teams.

Although most of the teams participating in these programs are still in their early stages, the projects that have won awards at official Monad events are definitely worth paying attention to. Let’s take a quick look at some of them.

4.1 Monad Founder Residency

Source: Monad

The Monad Founder Residency is a three week sprint program for early crypto startup teams building on the Monad blockchain ecosystem. After the three week sprint, participating teams get the chance to pitch to global venture capital firms at a demo day. The program offers growth campaigns, retention strategies, mentorship, and networking support to help startups scale in multiple ways.

There have been two cohorts of the Monad Founder Residency so far, with each cohort selecting up to ten projects. Here is a brief look at the selected ones:

Cohort 1

• Symphony: Lets users optimize trading strategies and explore investment opportunities across different networks using the Symphony AI agent.

• Chog NFT: An NFT project based on Monad’s mascot character Chog, strongly supported by the community.

• Meow Finance: A Monad based vault protocol that tokenizes locked vault assets as NFTs so they can be used elsewhere.

• Zona Finance: A platform that brings RWAs on chain, focusing on real estate investments and allowing users to borrow stablecoins using those assets as collateral.

• Monorail: A native Monad swap aggregator that lets users trade assets through the most optimal routes.

• The Vape Labs: A DePIN project built around smart vape devices featuring a vape to earn model.

• Rayvo: A Web3 smart glasses project with a wear to earn model where users can earn tokens by wearing the glasses and providing POV data that can be used for AI or on chain systems.

• Fans3 AI: A platform that lets creators build and operate emotionally intelligent AI personas that interact with fans and generate income.

Cohort 2

• TypeX Keyboard: A project creating an AI and Web3 friendly smart keyboard that connects typing interfaces directly to AI and Web3 services.

• Sonzai Labs: A studio combining Web3, AI, and gaming to create immersive experiences, developing mini app games on Telegram.

• Buzzing App: An opinion based prediction market where users can bet on questions like “Will ETH surpass $10K by December?”

• Agra: A protocol that allows users to trade, borrow, and invest using their assets across multiple networks as collateral.

• SEER: A trading platform that brings market insights, social trends, and trading tools together in one place.

• Yap.market: A marketplace connecting content creators (yappers) with projects.

• Kizzy: A Monad based social media prediction platform where users can bet on metrics like YouTube video views or influencer follower growth.

• Rug Rumble: A Monad based GameFi project where two players wager meme coins and battle in a card game.

• CULT: A meme coin trading platform that makes it easy to launch and trade new meme coins on Monad, featuring a reputation system for selective presales.

• Mu Digital: A platform for investing in tokenized RWAs across Asia, backed by UOB, Signum Capital, and CMS.

• Levr.Bet: A Monad based on chain leveraged sports betting platform. Prediction markets are heating up, and LEVR.BET stands out by offering up to 5x leverage.

4.2 Monad Madness

Source: Monad

Monad Madness is a pitch competition for developers and startups around the world, designed to discover and support innovative projects within the Monad ecosystem. The prize pool is an impressive $1M, and through partnerships with several venture capital firms, it also offers up to $60M in potential VC funding opportunities.

Monad Madness has been held in New York, Bangkok, and Hong Kong so far. Let’s take a look at the top three projects from each event.

• EarnOS (1st, NYC): EarnOS is the first application built on OS (OpenSystem), a blockchain-based payment orchestration protocol. It is a rewards and advertising platform that aims to fix the inefficiencies of the traditional ad market where clicks and impressions are plenty, but real results are unclear and consumers are treated merely as targets. On EarnOS, brands can directly issue missions to users, and when users complete them, they instantly receive rewards such as USDC. Users can sign up on the EarnOS platform and participate in different campaigns to earn points.

• ChainPro (2nd, NYC): ChainPro is an on-chain trading terminal that rebranded from SauceGG. It allows users to trade a wide variety of assets across multiple networks in one platform. ChainPro makes meme coin trading more accessible with an excellent UI/UX and zero fees. It plans to support the Monad mainnet, which will make it easy to trade assets including meme tokens from the Monad ecosystem.

• LEVR.BET (3rd, NYC): See Monad Founder Residency Cohort 2.

• RareBetSports (1st, BKK): RareBetSports is a Web3-based sports betting prediction market and a native Monad dApp. What makes it unique is that users can form lineups with two to seven players and make predictions on each player’s performance, adding a strong strategic element.

• Kizzy (2nd, BKK): See Monad Founder Residency Cohort 2.

• SparkBall (3rd, BKK): SparkBall is a PC-based 4v4 sports and combat hybrid game where players score goals while also battling opponents.

• AMMO AI (1st, HK): AMMO AI is a project that builds large-scale multi-agent systems on Web3. It creates a reinforcement learning environment where multiple agents can interact and learn autonomously. It has received investment from AMBER and Samsung Next.

• GM Network (2nd, HK): GM Network is building a mobile-based AI super app that provides an agent-powered chat service.

• TypeX (3rd, HK): See Monad Founder Residency Cohort 2.

4.3 Monad evm/accathon

Source: Monad

The Monad evm/accathon was a hybrid hackathon hosted during ETH Denver, featuring both offline and online tracks. The event focused on creative solutions that leverage Monad’s high-performance EVM architecture. A total of five projects received awards at the evm/accathon.

• KiSignals (1st): KiSignals was built by the KiFi team and serves as a Telegram alpha-call aggregator that allows users to trade tokens based on social data. KiFi is a Monad-based mobile trading and SocialFi platform, and users can currently sign up for the beta waitlist.

• StageFun (2nd): StageFun was built by the Blocklive team and is an event crowdfunding platform.

• OwnPay (3rd): OwnPay is a payment service that enables instant on-chain transactions between devices.

4.4 Monad Mach 2: NFT

Source: Monad

Monad Mach 2 is an accelerator program designed for NFT builders in the Monad ecosystem, offering one-on-one mentoring, workshops, and masterclasses. A total of 80 NFT projects were selected for Monad Mach 2, and the full list can be found in the official Monad Eco X post. Some notable projects include:

• Monad Nomads NFT: One of the OG NFTs from the early Monad ecosystem, which began in February 2023. It granted whitelist access through various community events.

• Monadverse: An NFT series centered around the Monanimals characters, released in different chapters. It has collaborated with over 40 other projects on campaigns, making it one of the core NFT projects in the Monad ecosystem.

• skrumpeys: A cute pet-themed NFT collection with 500 Skrumpets NFTs. The team has teased a rare DN NFT collection, limited to only 135 future releases.

• lil chogstars, Chog: Popular PFP projects in the Monad ecosystem, both inspired by the Chog character.

• Breath of Estova: A 2D MMORPG built on Monad, allowing players to use NFTs from other projects as in-game skins.

• Purple Frens: An NFT collection issued by Alloca, a Monad-based launchpad that raised $2.5M from CMS and Cogitent. Holders are expected to enjoy benefits like revenue sharing, presale access, and platform perks.

4.5 Monad Momentum

Source: Monad

Monad Momentum is an incentive program launched to accelerate early ecosystem growth. Instead of a traditional grant system, it adopts a matching incentive model. This means that when a selected project contributes its own resources, the program matches them with additional support.

Many L1 and L2 ecosystems in the past have operated grant programs or ecosystem funds but failed to establish meaningful dApp ecosystems. Monad, however, has learned valuable lessons through its previous programs such as the Founder Residency, evm/accathon, and Monad Madness. Building on that experience, Monad aims to reward projects that make real contributions to the ecosystem after mainnet launch and foster a sustainable, high-quality dApp environment.

The selection criteria for Monad Momentum are strict:

1. The project must already have a working product on the Monad testnet or be ready for imminent mainnet deployment.

2. It must have completed or scheduled a security audit.

3. It must demonstrate operational sustainability.

4. It must have meaningful user metrics.

The full list of projects selected for Monad Momentum has not yet been revealed, but since MON incentives will be distributed to users of these dApps after mainnet launch, it is worth keeping a close eye on updates from Monad Momentum.

5. Final Thoughts

From Bitcoin and Ethereum to the countless Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks that followed, some succeeded while others failed. So what truly determines success? While technology and user or developer experience matter, the most crucial factor is building a vibrant and sustainable dApp ecosystem. Monad will be no exception.

Ethereum made smart contracts possible. Solana enabled high-performance applications that Ethereum could not handle. Monad’s biggest differentiator is its “high-performance EVM,” and its success will depend on whether enough demanding, performance-intensive EVM applications are launched on it to attract users.

Looking at the current Monad ecosystem, several key insights emerge:

• Projects that fully leverage Monad’s performance: Many existing dApps in the ecosystem, such as order book DEXs and meme coin launchpads, make the most of Monad’s parallel execution and MonadDb capabilities. Interestingly, while other ecosystems are dominated by AMM-based DEXs, Monad’s scalability allows more CLOB-based DEXs. Beyond trading, sectors like social, gaming, and streaming could also thrive. Hopefully, after mainnet launch, we will see killer apps emerge in those areas too.

• A lack of stablecoin and RWA projects: The stablecoin and RWA sectors have become central to the crypto industry and are among the few that have achieved product-market fit. While high scalability is not critical for them, they are essential for the foundation of any blockchain ecosystem. Currently, Monad lacks strong players in this category. Given its trading-focused strengths, Monad should also develop a robust stablecoin and RWA ecosystem. The acquisition of Portal by the Monad Foundation in July is an exciting step in that direction.

• Competition among liquid staking protocols: Even before mainnet launch, several major liquid staking protocols like aPriori, FastLane Labs, Magma, and Kintsu are preparing to go live. While their unique differentiators are interesting, having many liquid staking options could fragment liquidity and affect user experience. It will be interesting to see how this competitive landscape evolves after mainnet launch.

The long-awaited journey of Monad is just beginning. For everyone setting out on this first adventure with Monad, may this guide help you navigate and explore the ecosystem with confidence.