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 most anticipated layer-1 blockchains of the year.
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 cap of around $262 million.
Trading activity was muted. In the first 100 minutes, MON saw just $50 million in trading volume, less than is typical for a tier-1 token debut and a sign that demand may be softer than expected.
The hot start follows an overwhelming 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 immediately, most notably Plasma, which sold out within the first block. In contrast, MON’s sales took considerably longer to clear. That could be a signal of a lack of demand, which seems to be a recurring theme with the trading debut.
MON’s tokenomics has sparked debate among the community. The Monad team controls 27% of the total supply, while 19.7% goes to investors, 4% to Labs Treasury and 38.5% to 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.
