MON Soars as Monad Smashes TVL Records - The Layer-1 Engine Roars to Life
Monad's native token, MON, is on a tear. The catalyst? The blockchain just locked in a record-shattering Total Value Locked, signaling a massive vote of confidence from the decentralized finance crowd.
The TVL Surge: What's Fueling It?
Forget slow and expensive transactions. Monad's architecture is built for speed, and developers are taking notice. Projects are migrating in droves, chasing lower fees and higher throughput. That migration isn't just talk—it's cold, hard capital flowing into the ecosystem's smart contracts, pushing TVL to unprecedented heights. It's a classic network effect in motion: more value attracts more builders, which in turn attracts more value.
Why MON is Riding the Wave
A soaring TVL isn't just a vanity metric. It directly supercharges the utility and demand for the MON token. More activity means more transaction fees, a portion of which is often directed back to token stakers and the treasury. It's a virtuous cycle that turns protocol growth into tangible value for token holders—something traditional finance still struggles to engineer without a team of investment bankers taking their cut.
The Verdict: Substance or Hype?
This isn't a meme-driven pump. The record TVL points to real, usable demand for Monad's tech stack. While skeptics might dismiss it as another 'number go up' narrative in a space full of them, locking billions in value requires more than just hype—it requires functional infrastructure that people trust with real money. Monad appears to be delivering, proving that in the race for blockchain supremacy, performance isn't everything; it's the only thing. Now, if only your traditional savings account could muster this kind of yield without the fine print.
Monad builds up a record value locked
Monad has built up value locked since its launch, recently rising to a record of $251M. The chain carries over $397M in stablecoins and hosts several DeFi apps.
Activity on Monad generates relatively low fees for node operators, but apps are picking up speed. App revenues peaked at the end of 2025, with over $200M in daily fees. Since then, the chain slowed down its activity, coinciding with overall weak post-holiday trading.
Monad’s flagship app is Upshift, an online capital allocator. The app increased its liquidity by over 82% in the past month, now holding $476M based on its own reporting. App-based liquidity may also signal much higher usage for Monad, based on its app-based economy.
Results and fees may vary depending on app incentives and campaigns. Some of the apps may also extract fees for their own teams. Monad is repeating Solana’s model, focusing more on the chain’s economy and successful apps, rather than on incentives for block production, which remain much smaller.
The Monad project shows a further shift to chains as infrastructure, where apps are the main value centers, offering services and transfers. MON still offers staking, with around 14% of the supply locked for an annualized yield of up to 12%. The end results of staking may vary depending on the token’s market performance.
MON open interest rises near an all-time peak
MON derivative trading is picking up, with open interest NEAR an all-time high. The MON derivative market carries more than $127M in positions, with more active trading in the past two weeks, betting on a directional move.
MON traders tend to take long positions, with only limited risk-taking by shorting the token. The asset remains volatile and continues to cause liquidations during attempts at shorting. In the past day, over $133M in short liquidations added to the MON rally.
The recent MON climb liquidated all available short positions before the downturn, signaling the price action may be due to a short squeeze. An organic MON recovery based on the performance of Monad is yet to happen, as the market reassesses risk and the appeal of altcoins.
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