Monad unveils tokenomics, says over 50% of MON tokens will be locked at launch

Monad will launch its much-anticipated MON token as part of the first public sale using Coinbase's new token listing platform, according to an announcement on Monday.

As The Block previously reported, the hyper-performant Layer 1 will open its token sale on Nov. 17 at 9 a.m. ET. The offering on Coinbase will be accessible in over 80 countries, including the U.S., and run until Nov. 22 at 9 p.m. ET.

Some 7.5% of the total supply will be offered via Coinbase at $0.025 per MON, with a minimum $100 bid size. Participants can offer a max bid of up to $100,000.

Of the max 100 billion MON token supply, 38.5% will be reserved for ecosystem development, 27% for the team, and 19.7 for investors. A smaller 4% allocation is reserved for the Category Labs Treasury.

On Monday, Coinbase unveiled a new "end-to-end token sales platform" designed to offer retail traders access to initial coin offerings. The move comes shortly after the largest U.S. exchange acquired the Echo and Sonar crowdfunding platforms built by prominent crypto trader and commentator Jordan "Cobie" Fish for around $400 million.

"Coinbase token sales has provided a platform for the Monad Foundation to distribute MON through a public sale via its subsidiary, MF Services (BVI), Ltd., enabling the purchase of MON tokens right before the launch of Monad Public Mainnet on November 24th," the Monad Foundation wrote, disclosing its mainnet launch date and tokenomics scheme for the first time.

According to the Monad tokenomics plan published on Monday, the 3.3% amount and 7.5% of the token supply set aside for the MON airdrop and public sale via Coinbase, respectively, will be unlocked, along with the sizable amount set aside for ecosystem development.

"Tokens for all investors and team members, along with the Category Labs Treasury, are locked on Day 1 of Monad Public Mainnet and are subject to defined unlock and vesting schedules to ensure long-term alignment with the success of the project," the Monad Foundation wrote. 

Starting at Monad’s token launch, 50.6 billion tokens, representing 50.6%, will be locked. These tokens cannot be staked. Monad Labs was renamed to Category Labs.

"The Monad Foundation will steward these resources for many years to come, issuing grants or incentives where strategic, and delegating according to the Foundation's Validator Delegation Program," the team wrote, discussing the 38.5 billion tokens earmarked for ecosystem development.

Monad was founded in 2022 and raised $225 million to build an EVM-compatible network that rivals Solana’s speed and Ethereum’s decentralization.