Monad to Launch Testnet: What Early Ecosystem Opportunities Exist?

Monad is a Layer 1 blockchain platform that promotes the concept of a “Parallel EVM” , accelerating Ethereum transactions through pipelined execution and supporting up to 10,000 transactions per second.

According to public information, Monad has raised a total of $244 million in funding, with its latest valuation reaching $3 billion.

Monad Labs was co-founded in 2022 by Keone Hon, James Hunsaker, and Eunice Giarta. Keone and James previously worked at Jump Trading for eight years. During their time at Jump, Keone managed a high-frequency trading (HFT) team, while James built an ultra-low latency trading system handling billions of dollars in daily trading volume across major futures markets.

The three founders realized that fundamental optimizations to Ethereum and its core component—the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)—could help overcome some of the challenges Ethereum has faced since its inception, including limited processing capacity, high transaction fees, and restricted scalability. Recently, Monad announced the upcoming launch of its testnet, opening up numerous opportunities for participants within the ecosystem.

As the ecosystem grows, Monad's ecosystem news highlighted three successful funding projects: Kuru, aPriori, and Kintsu. Let's explore the opportunities these projects present for users in the ecosystem.

Kuru

Kuru is a decentralized order book exchange on Monad, notable for receiving personal investment from Monad's CEO, Keone Hon.

The project has secured $2 million in funding, led by Electric Capital, with participation from Brevan Howard Digital, CMS Holdings, Pivot Global, Breed, and Velocity Capital, as well as angel investors Keone Hon, Jarry Xiao, and Eugene Chen.

aPriori

aPriori is an MEV-driven liquid staking platform built on Monad, aiming to optimize network performance and user experience by developing new MEV and liquid staking architectures.

The project has raised over $10 million, with an $8 million seed round led by Pantera Capital and participation from Consensys, OKX Ventures, CMS Holdings, ABCDE, Gumi Cryptos Capital, Flow Traders, Laser Digital, Chorus One, Everstake Capital, and Staking Facilities. Additionally, Binance Labs announced a strategic investment in aPriori, though the specific amount was not disclosed.

Kintsu

Kintsu is a liquid staking protocol on the Monad blockchain, addressing liquidity issues in traditional POS staking and providing users with more flexible and valuable staking options while ensuring fund security.

Kintsu has completed a $4 million seed round, led by Castle Island Ventures, with participation from Brevan Howard Digital, CMT Digital, Spartan Group, Breed VC, CMS Holdings, and Animoca Ventures. The funding round was structured as a Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) plus token warrants, although Kintsu's founder, Stephen Novenstern, declined to comment on the valuation.