According to data from DefiLlama, approximately four months after the mainnet launch on November 24, 2025, the total amount of monads locked in DeFi rose to $327.54 million. This growth stands out at a time when most alternative L1 ecosystems are stuck, with Bitcoin falling between $68,000 and $74,000.
For a chain that started from scratch in late November, more than $300 million in value locked during the pullback is a strong signal. The numbers suggest more than just hype.
What do the numbers actually tell us?
The headline TVL figure of $327.54 million only tells part of the story. According to DefiLlama’s snapshot, Monad’s bridge TVL stands at $654.42 million, meaning a significant amount of capital has gone into the chain, even if not all of it is actively deployed. DeFi protocol.
stable coin The chain’s market capitalization reached $442.79 million, up nearly 16% over the past week. That metric is important. The growth of stablecoins on new chains shows that funds are flowing in for real use, not just speculative token exposure. $USDC accounts for approximately 62% of the stablecoin supply.
On the trading side, DEX trading volume reached $46.3 million in the past 24 hours, while perpetual futures trading volume increased by another $13.23 million. Weekly PERP volumes reportedly surged by nearly 60%, suggesting derivatives activity is picking up pace alongside spot trading.
Summary of daily chain metrics:
- Chain fee (24 hours): $5,080
- Chain revenue (24 hours): $3,020
- App fee (24 hours): $56,758
- App revenue (24 hours): $11,090
- Net inflow (24 hours): $6.11 million
One pattern worth noting: apps on Monad are generating significantly more fees than the underlying chain itself. This mirrors the trends seen above. Solanathe economic value is concentrated at the application layer rather than the protocol level. For users and builders, that’s a healthy sign. This means people are actually using the app, not just parking capital.
How did the Monad get here so quickly?
Monad launched its public mainnet on November 24, 2025 with a total of $513 million in funding, including a public token sale hosted by Coinbase that attracted over 85,000 participants. of $MON The token debuted at a public sale price of $0.025.
The chain touts itself as a high-performance EVM-compatible Layer 1, targeting 10,000 transactions per second with sub-second finality. full ethereum virtual machine Compatibility means developers can port their existing smart contract Lower the barrier to adoption for established DeFi protocols without rewriting anything.
That compatibility paid off. TVL has grown from around $150 million to its current $327 million range in the weeks since launch, with contributions from both EVM mainstays like Uniswap v4 and Monad native protocols like Capricorn and Kura. Liquid staking is also starting to gain traction, currently valued at around $14 million to $16 million.
While the Monad Momentum incentive program and ecosystem accelerator efforts helped unlock initial liquidity, the real test will be sustainment once these incentives diminish.
What do you think? $MON itself?
Tokens have not kept up with the growth of on-chain DeFi. $MON It is currently trading at approximately $0.022, with a market capitalization of approximately $242.85 million and a fully diluted valuation of $2.24 billion. This price is below the general retail price of $0.025 and well below the all-time high of $0.048, which was set immediately after release.
The key token unlock schedule begins in November 2026, with team and investor allocations (approximately 47% of the total supply) beginning to vest monthly until 2029. This overhang, combined with the roughly 2% annual inflation from staking rewards, creates supply pressure that a growing ecosystem must absorb. Conversely, if DeFi activity continues at this pace, the chain will have the runway to build the kind of natural demand that warrants a long-term valuation.
Is growth sustainable?
The strongest evidence for sustainability lies in stablecoin data. A 16% weekly increase in stablecoin supply, $6.11 million in positive net inflows in the past 24 hours, and an increase in DEX and PERP volumes all indicate that users are showing up for DeFi opportunities rather than simply chasing token speculation. When the supply of stablecoins increases on a chain where the native token is near a low price, that means capital is coming in as utility.
There are fair counterarguments. Blockworks’ previous analysis noted that 75% of assets bridged to Monad leaked to other chains in Monad’s first few weeks, pointing to farm-and-rotation behavior. Some DefiLlama snapshots show short-term TVL degradation. $MONprice action is inconsistent. These are valid flags, but the data has fluctuated wildly since the chain’s inception a few weeks ago.
In the market where there are the most new products, L1 Although it has struggled to remain relevant since its launch month, Monad has $327 million in TVL, records $46 million in daily DEX trading volume, and has seen its app collect more fees than the chain itself. The last part may be the most obvious of all the details. When an app makes more money than its infrastructure, it usually means it has real users.
- Defilama Monad Chain overview including TVL, stablecoin data, fees, and volume metrics
- backpack exchange Monad mainnet launch details, $MON Tokenomics and Coinbase Public Sale Overview
- block works Post-TGE ecosystem assessment including bridge spill data and early DeFi activity
- coin market cap $MON Price, market cap, and token performance data
