Ecosystem
Is a Monad Mini-Cycle Coming?
The entire timeline is talking about $MON.
What's happening? Monad revealed airdrop allocations.
Monad is an EVM-compatible high-performance L1. It can process ~10k/txns with 1-second finality.
The buzz was due to their 3-day-long interactive system for reveal. Eligible users got 3 boxes per day (9 total), each revealing a portion of their allocation. This attracted mindshare on crypto Twitter.
A significant share of tokens went to KOLs & DeFi power users. So the big accounts are only saying good things about the project. Many of these are DeFi power users. So when the mainnet launches, they should use the free money to play around the ecosystem.
That's bullish for Monad's ecosystem overall.
But many early "community members" who grinded on Discord and the testnet are complaining, saying their allocations don't reflect the effort they put in.
Airdrop farmers always complain, but what matters more is that KOLs and power users are happy, and their opinion is more important.
When mainnet launches, I'm expecting a mini-monad season.
- It was there with the previous launches. Plasma is a recent example.
- The Monad team will try to make the ecosystem as attractive as possible with incentives.
- There's big Airdrop potential. Monad has a lot of token-less projects. Potential airdrop from new apps will drive a lot of activity as well.
Currently, Monad's official app directory lists 303 apps in the ecosystem. You can explore all of them here. If you just want to focus on apps with airdrop potential, filter for apps that are only on Monad.
In practice, you won't be able to explore all of them. You should be focusing on top-tier apps without tokens so that we can get those airdrops as well. Here's my list of apps you can check out.
- NFT Marketplace: Poply
- DEX Aggregators: Monorail, Mace
- Liquid staking: FastLane Labs, aPriori
- Spot DEXes: Clober, Kuru, Crystal, Capricorn
- Perp DEXes: Drake, Celeris, Narwhal Finance, Perpl, Monday Trade
- Money markets: Townsquare, Modus, Curvance
- Memecoin launchpads: CULT, Alloca, nad.fun
- Trading bots/terminals: SEER, ChainPro, KiSignals, Mona Trading Bot
- Prediction markets: Opinion Labs, Buzzing App, Kizzy, Levr.Bet, RareBetSports,
You already know the basics — staking protocols earn yield and MEV, money markets let you lend and borrow, and aggregators find you the best execution.
But there's something different about Monad.
Traditional DEXes like Uniswap use liquidity pools. Monad-native DEXes leverage the chain's scalability and use order books. Some use a hybrid model for low-liquidity tokens.
Beyond the usual protocols, there are some truly innovative projects on Monad.
#1. Likwid is a Monad-based DeFi protocol that combines AMM and lending in one system. This will enable the creation of a decentralized derivatives mechanism that requires neither counterparties nor oracles.
Once the mainnet arrives, users will be able to swap, lend, provide liquidity, as well as open long or short positions on new tokens.
You can read about Likwid's mechanics here.
#2. Timelock is a protocol built on Uniswap V3 liquidity that provides swap and trading functionality. It offers a liquidation-free leveraged trading experience, which will be very attractive to users.
In the future, it plans to expand to futures, options, and meme tokens as well.
#3. Touch Market leverages the fast block times of Monad to present a unique interface for trading tokens with 1000x leverage.
In the new UX, users have to predict where the price will be touched within a select timeframe. You can read more about it here.
Monad is now entering a very competitive space. MegaETH just completed its token sale. Even though it's an L2, it's also a chain with a cult-like community and vibrant app ecosystem.
Monad hasn't revealed an exact mainnet launch date yet, but with airdrop claims completed, we can expect it very soon.
Sponsored by Solstice
Solstice: Solana's Institutional Grade Stablecoin
Solana needs a native stablecoin.
- >80% of Solana's stablecoin supply is USDC & USDT.
- The yield USDC & USDT generates is going to Solana competitors like Base chain.
- Solana community needs a stablecoin that'll direct the stablecoin yields into the Solana ecosystem.
Solstice Finance is winning this niche. Here's the 80/20:
- USX is their 100% collateralized USD stablecoin.
- eUSX is the yield-bearing version of USX. You get it by depositing USX into YieldVault.
- SLX is their upcoming protocol token. (You should join their points program for a juicy airdrop. Use my code: SDoYPPvDU8)
There are many ways to earn additional yield and airdrop points on USX & eUSX. You can find them in the "Deep DeFi" section on Solstice.
A great opportunity is supplying eUSX to Exponent's yield market. It'll give you insane rewards: ~35% APY & 10x airdrop points.
But they have a $9M deposit cap. Due to insane rewards, everyone is rushing to it. So you have to hurry. (My referral code is SDoYPPvDU8.)
Protocol
Aero Ignition: New Token Launch Mechanism
While alts are bleeding, a new mechanism has saved the AERO price.
What's Aerodrome? It's a DEX on Base that uses the ve(3,3) mechanism.
The ve(3,3) mechanism is a way to align interests between AERO holders, liquidity providers, traders, and projects. The image below illustrates it clearly.
You can learn about the mechanism in detail here. It's one of the foundational knowledge that'll help you throughout your DeFi career.
They've extended the core mechanism to introduce a new "community token launch" feature.
Aero Ignition allows protocols to launch their tokens with deep liquidity.
Here's how it works:
- Project deposits a % of supply as incentives ($LIT used 1%) for veAERO voters.
- $veAERO holders vote on the pools that'll receive emissions. The incentives should attract
- When the epoch flips (Wed→Thurs), emissions start flowing to that pool.
- LPs will provide a lot of liquidity in return for the $AERO emissions.
Why pay attention to this program?
First, it's bullish for $AERO. The "launchpad" narrative is hot. Ignition frames Aerodrome as a token launchpad.
Second, it boosts demand for veAERO. Every project launching through Ignition must incentivize voters, sending steady flows of bribes toward veAERO holders.
You can already see the effect in emissions data — epochs 107 and 113 show massive spikes tied to these launches.
Additionally, the price action of $AERO is also strong. It's up >40% on the 14-day chart and has already recovered the price levels of the 10/10 crash, while majors like ETH & BTC.
On the surface, it should be great for projects launching tokens as well.
When they launch tokens via Aerodrome, they're naturally getting distribution to Coinbase via their DEX trading feature.
So, Aerodrome has been framing this as a way to get around the extractive fees of CEXes and market makers. Projects have often reported spending 8-10% of their token supply to get listed on CEXes.
Even if the projects want to get listed on other exchanges like Binance, with deep liquidity on Aerodrome, their negotiation position will be much better.
It also enables organic price discovery. Their price isn't set by a single market maker. It's driven by the independent LPs in search of AERO rewards.
This system also removes the problems of front-running and sniping that usually happen with new token launches.
So this allows community members to get in early via providing liquidity or just buying at the early market price. Theoretically, this should give better token distribution for the project.
But this system does have a drawback. Aerodrome has done two Ignition launches: $SYND & $LITKEY. In both cases, the veAERO holders has dumbed their massive bribes.
This has caused the price of both projects to crash. Obviously, current bearish market conditions also played a significant role.
So the system hasn't been good for early traders who aped into the project.
Without fixing that issue, it can't be long-term sustainable. The Aerodrome team can keep tweaking the mechanisms to fix them.
If they fix it, this could become the go-to way for Base projects to launch their tokens.
The team says there's huge demand for Ignition launches, as long as that demand exists, this is very bullish for AERO.
🚀 DeFi Catalysts
Solana partnered with Western Union to launch a Solana-based stablecoin.
MetaMask started its rewards program. Season 1 will last for 90 days. Starting with over $30M in $LINEA tokens.
Flying Tulip, a superapp from Andre Cronje that integrates many DeFi apps, has released its multi-year roadmap.
MetaMask introduced Multichain Accounts. They're moving from "1 account = 1 address" to "1 account = multiple addresses".
Ondo Finance has expanded Ondo Global Markets to BNB Chain. BNB users can now access over 100 tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs.
IQ, in partnership with Frax, announced the launch of KRWQ, the first Korean won-pegged stablecoin on Ethereum and Base.
Helius Labs released Orbs. It's a human-readable Solana block explorer with AI explanations.
Lighter launched FX perpetuals with up to 25x leverage. It includes EUR/USD, USD/JPY, USD/CAD, GBP/USD, and USD/CHF.
📰 Industry News
Federal Reserve reduced the interest rate by 25bps. But there was a dampening of expectations for future easing.
President Trump announced a reduction of China tariffs after a meeting with President Xi. Experts are expecting a trade deal soon.
Circle launched the Arc testnet, its L1 stablecoin blockchain. Currency issuers from different key geographies are joining the chain.
Securitize is becoming a public company at $1.25B valuation via business combination with Cantor Equity Partners II.
Bitwise has announced the launch of the Bitwise Solana ETF and has selected Helius as its sole staking partner.
MegaETH closed its public sale. With over 50k bidders and >$1.39 committed, it was oversubscribed by >27x.
🐦⬛ X Hits
- Narrative overview: privacy.
- Prediction market ecosystem map.
- Tech trinity: AI, Crypto, & Robotics.
- Understand DeFi backend: Tokens, pools, & vaults.
- The next stage in stablecoin evolution.
😂 Meme
Until next time,
Edgy
Today's email was written by Edgy and Yayya.
DISCLAIMER: I'm NOT a financial advisor. This content is for education and information purposes only. Crypto and DeFi are risky and speculative. Please do your research before investing.
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