The MON token for the newly introduced Monad blockchain made its trading debut on Monday, but early market activity suggests a lukewarm reception for one of the year’s most anticipated layer-1 blockchains.
MON changed hands around $0.02417 in the first hours of trading, according to data from Coinbase. With 10.83 billion tokens in circulation, MON opened with a market capitalization of roughly $262 million.
Trading activity was subdued. In the first 100 minutes, MON saw only $50 million in trading volume, less than is typical for a layer-1 token debut and a sign that demand may be softer than expected.
The cool start follows an underwhelming public token sale on Coinbase’s Token Platform. Of the circulating supply, 7.5% was allocated to the sale at $0.025 per token, higher than where MON is currently trading.
Many recent token launches have been snapped up almost instantly, most notably Plasma, which sold out within the first block. In contrast, MON’s sale took significantly longer to clear. That might be a signal of a lack of demand that appears to be a consistent theme with the trading debut.
MON’s tokenomics have sparked debate among the community. The Monad team controls 27% of the total supply, while 19.7% goes to investors, 4% to the Labs Treasury, and 38.5% toward ecosystem development. Some observers have argued that the team’s allocation is unusually large for a new layer-1 network and could weigh on market sentiment.