The Monad Pulse #015
Monad Ecosystem Updates, Jan 29 - Feb 5
This week in the Monad ecosystem mixed transition with acceleration. As leadership roles evolved, the network pushed forward with major upgrades, new agent-focused initiatives, deeper institutional integrations, and infrastructure improvements that underline Monad’s shift from launch phase to sustained execution.
Ecosystem updates
Intern Steps Down as Director of Growth
@intern announced his transition from Director of Growth at the Monad Foundation to an advisor role after three years with the project. He joined Monad in 2022 after spending five years in crypto, including time on CMS Holdings’ VC team, where he fielded over 1,000 startup pitches before recognizing Monad as a career-defining opportunity.
Under his leadership, Monad built a community and ecosystem with 100+ building teams while maintaining integrity and long-term focus. The network launched with best-in-class technology and positioned itself for 2026 growth through initiatives from both the Monad Foundation and Category Labs. He’ll remain actively involved in supporting Monad and the broader ecosystem as an advisor.
Keone Hon on Archive Podcast
Keone Hon, founder of Monad, appeared on @derekhsue‘s new Archive podcast, filmed at their NYC office. The conversation covered common L1/L2 challenges, his motivation for building Monad, Keone’s upbringing, the early days and seed round journey, recruiting and scaling the team, and the philosophies behind launching and growing the network.
Full episode: x.com/i/status/2016875504880529594
Moltiverse Hackathon Launches with $200K in Prizes
Monad, Nad.fun, AUSD, Paradigm, Dragonfly, and AttentionX AI launched Moltiverse, a two-week AI agent hackathon with $200,000 in prizes. The event focuses on agents that can transact at scale, build communities, and monetize them. Applications are open at moltiverse.dev.
Over 200 submissions are competing across two tracks: Agent x Token Track ($140K) requires building autonomous agents on Monad and launching their token on Nad.fun, while the Agent Track ($60K) focuses purely on agent development without token launches. Builder ideas include world creation for agent interaction, agents that wager or play games, agent-to-agent transactions enabling economic coordination, robotics with agents controlling physical hardware, and innovative agents with novel capabilities. Additional support comes from Ethereum Foundation.
MON Faucet for Agents on Moltbook
Monad announced support for Nad.fun’s Moltiverse Hackathon with a faucet enabling agents to claim MON by replying with their Monad address to a Moltbook post. Rules require fresh Monad addresses, prohibit exchange deposit addresses, warn against posting addresses controlling meaningful funds or identity, and advise against signing anything related to the faucet. The initiative brings moltbots into the Moltiverse agent arena on Monad.
ERC-8004: Trustless Agents Standard
Trustless agents went live on Monad through the ERC-8004 standard. This specification makes agent identity and reputation portable across the ecosystem, giving developers visibility and portability for their agents. The standard provides infrastructure for the emerging agentic economy on Monad. Documentation is available at docs.monad.xyz/guides/erc-8004-guide.
Moltiverse Day 3 Livestream
The Moltiverse hackathon broadcast daily progress, with Day 3 available at x.com/i/broadcasts/1OdJrOXeOdAxX.
Mercuryo Adds Monad Support
Mercuryo launched onramp support for Monad, enabling users to on- and off-ramp MON in minutes. Mercuryo is one of the largest global onramps with significant EU presence and rapid growth in other regions. The platform supports 12M+ KYC’d users and has processed over $2 billion in volume. Mercuryo pioneered “Native Apple Pay” onramps, making it the first major onramp to support MON in 2026.
Mento Brings Institutional FX to Monad
Mento Labs is bringing institutional-grade FX infrastructure to Monad, powered by Wormhole. FX markets trade $9.6 trillion daily, yet onchain execution has lagged because existing AMM models weren’t built for real-world currencies. Mento is the first chain in Mento’s multichain expansion.
Mento provides decentralized FX infrastructure purpose-built for real-world currency exchange at scale, supporting 15 currencies with $18.5 billion in trading volume during 2025. The platform powers Opera’s MiniPay with 12M+ users and is designed for predictable pricing and capital efficiency. FX markets demand low latency, fast finality, and continuous rebalancing—characteristics matching Monad’s high-throughput EVM environment.
Full details: mento.org/blog/mento-is-bringing-onchain-fx-to-the-monad-ecosystem.
Mainnet Release v0.12.7
Monad deployed version 0.12.7 to mainnet, improving RPC robustness, consensus liveness, and node security. Instructions and release notes are available at docs.monad.xyz/node-ops/upgrade-instructions/v0.12.7. All mainnet node operators should upgrade.
Monad Forum Launches
The Monad Forum is now the official platform for important updates, network notifications, and MIP discussions. This extends discussion platforms and communications beyond social media. The forum serves as the source of truth for governance discussions going forward. Node operators and team members should register and complete this form.
Mainnet Authenticated UDP Migration
The Authenticated UDP migration guide for both Validator and Full Nodes is now available at docs.monad.xyz/node-ops/upgrade-instructions/auth-udp. Mainnet node operators can now implement these changes. Testnet node operators should ensure they’ve completed these changes as well.
Execution Events SDK Goes Live
Monad launched real-time network access through a new Execution Events SDK at node.monad.xyz. The SDK lets developers stream real-time events during block execution directly from a node, eliminating RPC polling latency for performance-sensitive applications.
Liquidity Day Livestream Continues
The Liquidity Day livestream where Monad DeFi protocols pitch to liquidity providers remained available at x.com/i/broadcasts/1rmxPvMaWoXGN. The event facilitates direct connections between protocol builders and market makers to accelerate functional trading markets.
Summary of Validators’ Discussions
This week in the Monad validator community was dominated by a major software upgrade to v0.12.7 and the rollout of Authenticated UDP migration for mainnet. Validators coordinated upgrades, troubleshot configuration issues, and discussed delegation programs and operational tooling.
Software Upgrade to v0.12.7
The week began with validators across the network upgrading to the latest node software release. The upgrade proceeded smoothly for most, with dozens of validators confirming successful updates throughout January 29–30.
Authenticated UDP Migration
A significant infrastructure change this week was the Authenticated UDP migration for mainnet validators. The Monad Foundation clarified that while v0.12.7 included the capability, validators should wait for official announcements before enabling it. By February 5, many validators had completed the migration.
Validator Delegation Program (VDP) Updates
Several validators inquired about the VDP timeline and eligibility requirements. The foundation clarified that Wave 2 applicants need four weeks of active testnet operations before review, and that LST and MEV teams are not eligible for the delegation program but can still join the network independently.
Operational Tooling and Rewards Management
Validators discussed practical challenges around claiming and transferring staking rewards, as well as monitoring tools. The community shared workarounds for sending rewards to addresses different from the auth address.
Network Health and Node Downtime
Some validators experienced downtime and local timeouts mid-week, attributed to nodes going offline during the upgrade process. The community quickly coordinated to identify and resolve issues.