Why Monad is Gaining Attention in the Cryptocurrency Market: The Perfect Combination of EVM Compatibility and High Performance

Despite the bear market, there is a project that has captured market attention. That is Monad. When it was selected as the first issuance project following Coinbase’s launch of its new public offering platform in November 2024, the crypto community saw this as a signal of a return to normative token issuance. It was interpreted not just as a simple project, but as a significant event indicating the industry’s direction.

Monad Emerges as Coinbase’s First Public Offering Project

Monad’s public offering holds symbolic significance in the industry. It marks Coinbase’s first attempt in years to resume a normative public offering mechanism in the United States. This offering, accessible in over 80 countries and regions worldwide—including Hong Kong—provided global accessibility.

At the start of the offering, market conditions were far from friendly. Bitcoin’s price had adjusted close to $90,000, and risk-averse sentiment dominated the overall market. Despite this bearish environment, interest in Monad remained strong. Unlike the initial phase where the subscription rate was only 45% in the first six hours, increased participation pushed the total subscription volume beyond $100 million.

This demonstrates that the market still seeks projects with not just simple token issuance but also with credible, normative processes. Similar to the logic that kept CoinList popular even during downturns, there was a general consensus among participants that “first public offering + new platform = next profit opportunity,” which was a key factor in maintaining interest despite the bear market.

Technological Innovation by Jump Trading’s Elite Team

The true strength of Monad lies in the background of its team. Most core members come from Jump Trading, a top-tier high-frequency trading firm known for building ultra-low latency systems in traditional finance.

Introduction of Co-Founders:

• Keone Hon: MIT graduate with over 10 years of experience developing ultra-low latency systems; previously responsible for high-frequency trading infrastructure at Jump Trading.
• James Hunsaker: Former senior engineer at Jump Trading, with experience at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.
• Eunice Giarta: MIT alumna, built enterprise trading systems at Broadway Technology, and has experience developing payment systems at Shutterstock.

Industry experts assess that Monad’s true strength is not just in surface-level performance metrics but in the team’s experience in building financial-grade infrastructure. This team composition indicates that Monad incorporates not only blockchain development but also system design and operational know-how capable of handling large-scale traffic reliably.

In terms of funding, Monad’s potential has been validated. After raising $19 million in a seed round led by Dragonfly in 2023, it secured a large funding round of $225 million in April 2024, led by Paradigm. Participation from top-tier industry investors including Coinbase Ventures underscores confidence in Monad’s technology trajectory and team capabilities. The total capital raised exceeding $244 million supports the project’s feasibility.

Technologically, Monad proposes an innovative architecture. It converts Ethereum’s sequential transaction processing into parallel processing, enabling multiple transactions to be handled simultaneously like a multi-core CPU. Combining next-generation state database MonadDb, asynchronous I/O technology, and delay execution optimization, the testnet has processed approximately 10,000 TPS and reduced block times to 0.8 seconds.

Differentiation of Monad in Competition with Solana and Sui

The high-performance Layer 1 public blockchain market is already dominated by Solana, Sui, Aptos, and others. In this competitive landscape, Monad offers a unique positioning.

Key Competitive Advantages:

Monad maintains full compatibility with EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) while achieving high performance. This sets it apart from existing chains like Solana, Aptos, and Sui. The vast Ethereum developer ecosystem can deploy applications on Monad without code modifications, enabling a combination of “Ethereum’s ecosystem and Solana’s speed.”

Technical validation is underway. 174 verifiers across 25 countries are supporting the network, and over 300 projects have already pre-deployed within the ecosystem. This indicates that Monad is not just a conceptual proof but actively building a real ecosystem.

Challenges Ahead:

Mainnet performance validation is the biggest test. It must demonstrate that the excellent data from the testnet can be reliably maintained in complex on-chain environments.

Ecosystem competition is intensifying. The high-performance public blockchain space is already crowded, and Monad must attract “killer applications” and users to secure sufficient total value locked (TVL) to stand out.

Token emission pressure is also a concern. Although the team and investors’ tokens are strictly locked, the large total token supply and linear unlocks over the long term could exert downward pressure on the secondary market.

Future Outlook for Monad: Opportunities and Challenges

Industry predictions suggest that between 2025 and 2027, next-generation high-performance Layer 1 blockchains will likely be led by teams coming from traditional financial system development. This underscores the importance of team composition, as exemplified by Monad.

Monad’s short-term success hinges on the mainnet’s ability to reliably deliver on its performance promises. Once technical validation is complete, market trust will follow.

Long-term value depends on whether the ecosystem can truly thrive. The technical advantage of Ethereum compatibility must translate into real developer onboarding and active on-chain activity.

If both are achieved, Monad could become a leading player in the “high-performance EVM” space, competing strongly with Solana. If Coinbase’s normative public offering, Jump Trading-level technical expertise, and market interest all align, Monad has a strong potential to establish itself as a next-generation high-performance blockchain leader.