Monad's $105 Million Airdrop Underwhelms Speculators as Token Debuts Near Sale Price – Decrypt

Monad completed its long-awaited airdrop of MON tokens on Monday, giving recipients access to millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency alongside its blockchain’s debut.

Earlier this month, the much-hyped competitor to Ethereum and Solana saw around 76,000 wallets claim MON for free, but people couldn’t touch their holdings immediately because the network hadn’t yet launched.

At the time, Monad said 3.33 billion MON tokens were claimed by the network’s users, builders, and members of Monad’s community, among others. That group included owners of several NFT projects, as well as traders on platforms like Hyperliquid and Pump.fun.

With MON recently changing hands around $0.0316, the airdrop was collectively valued around $105.2 million, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko. The airdrop’s size represents around 3% of MON’s total supply and 30% of the asset’s circulating supply.

Within Monad’s official discord server, some onlookers expressed shock that MON was changing hands around the same price as previous token sales, including an offering conducted on a platform that Coinbase recently introduced for nascent tokens.

Around 85,800 people participated in the offering, which saw $269 million in commitments, Monad said on X last week. The tokens, totaling 7.5 billion MON, were offered at $0.025 per token and sold for a total of $187 million. They were also distributed to buyers on Monday.

An individual who goes by Barnabas on X expressed some disappointment toward their allotment of MON, saying they “expected a bit more” after consistently contributing to the project’s community by creating Monad-themed comics for six-plus months.

“It might not be a huge amount, but it’s honest work,” they said, while sharing an image of 32,000 MON being exchanged for nearly $950 in stablecoin USDC.

Some individuals indicated that they sold MON as soon as they gained access to it, including an individual who goes by NikkiSixx7 on X. They said that they sold 71,000 MON for $0.031 apiece on crypto exchange MEXC, according to a Turkish translation.

“Even if the price rises tomorrow, I won’t be upset,” they added. “I can’t see any proper opportunities in the ecosystem either.”

Crypto projects often use airdrops as a way to incentivize people to use their products, while also rewarding early adopters and contributors. Earlier this year, SEC chair Paul Atkins said the regulator was working on purpose-fit disclosures and exemptions for them.

Last year, decentralized perpetual futures exchange Hyperliquid distributed tokens that were initially worth $1.6 billion, placing it among the most lucrative airdrops in the industry’s history. In both cases, the airdrop’s potential scope was limited by geographic restrictions.

Monad has raised $431 million in total funding, according to CryptoRank. That includes $244 stemming from several funding rounds, and $187 million through public sales.

Monad’s airdrop may have been disappointing for speculators, but it was good for the project, according to Trevor Thompson, co-founder and CEO of social platform Ethos Network. On X, he said that Monad maximized the amount it raised, while giving the public tokens at a fair price.

“Their ICO was basically perfect in terms of price discovery,” referring to MON’s debut as an initial coin offering. “Getting your IPO/ICO price ‘correct’ without leaving money on the table is super hard.”