The foundation behind Ethereum competitor Monad announced on Tuesday that it had finalized a program to repurchase locked tokens from select early investors. The foundation had earmarked up to $60 million for this buyback, yet nearly all approached investors declined the early exit opportunity, according to disclosures. The Monad foundation did not reveal the specific repurchase price, the final amount spent, or the number of participating investors.
This initiative fundamentally offered a channel for early investors to gain liquidity before their tokens were scheduled to unlock, provided they accepted a discounted valuation. Tokens repurchased by the foundation will continue to adhere to the original lockup schedule and will not enter market circulation ahead of time. Monad is a relatively new blockchain network designed for compatibility with Ethereum applications, and its native token MON is used for transaction fees and network security.
Early investors collectively received allocations of approximately 19.7 billion MON, representing nearly 20% of the initial supply. These tokens entered a one-year lockup period following the mainnet launch in November of last year, after which they will unlock in monthly batches over a four-year span. November of this year marks the first point at which early investors can routinely sell their tokens through standard channels. As of Tuesday, MON was trading at approximately $0.021, down roughly 16% from its $0.025 public sale price last year.
Current market circulation stands at about 11.8 billion MON, placing the market capitalization near $250 million and the fully diluted valuation at roughly $2.1 billion. Despite the token's price pressure, activity within the Monad ecosystem is showing growth. According to DeFiLlama data, the total value locked in decentralized finance applications built on Monad has risen from approximately $360 million on July 2 to about $895 million, a gain of nearly 150% over six weeks. The network's stablecoin footprint is around $707 million, with decentralized exchanges recording roughly $79 million in trading volume over the past 24 hours.
The foundation did not offer a specific explanation for why investors declined the repurchase offer. Since the discount rate was not made public, the decision to hold cannot simply be interpreted as a bullish signal on MON's price. The foundation stated that the program was designed to provide liquidity options for early investors whose investment needs or strategies have shifted, while ensuring that the remaining holder base maintains long-term alignment.
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