Monad is a high-performance, Ethereum-compatible Layer-1 blockchain that has raised $225 million and aims to process up to 10,000 transactions per second. While Monad's mainnet is not yet live, various projects in DeFi, cross-chain infrastructure, staking, AI, and NFTs are emerging on its testnet. Below is a summary of emerging projects related to the Monad ecosystem, including overviews, partnerships (especially with Monad), and funding information.

In addition to the projects listed below, many infrastructure, DeFi, and NFT projects currently being developed on existing EVMs, such as LayerZero and RedStone, have expressed their intention to join Monad.

Monad Ecosystem Projects

• Overview: Bean Exchange is a hybrid on-chain perpetual DEX (decentralized exchange) that offers a mechanism combining an order book and an oracle. It is natively built on Monad and uses the Pyth Network's oracle to provide price data. Bean aims to increase user engagement by incorporating elements of SocialFi and gamification.
• Partnership: As a Monad-native DEX, it is being developed with Monad's support. It has also partnered with Pyth Network to provide price data.
• Funding: No funding information has been publicly released at this time. It is currently under development on the testnet.

Official X (Link)

• Overview: FortyTwo Network is a decentralized AI computing platform built on Monad. As a self-proclaimed "Swarm Inference Protocol," it aims to achieve inference processing of large-scale AI models, which traditionally required supercomputers, through the cooperation of nodes running on general users' PCs. Its characteristic is that anyone can launch an AI node on their home machine, participate in AI model inference tasks, and earn rewards, pursuing the democratization of AI and scalability through large-scale distributed processing.
• Partnership: It is deployed on the Monad chain and is supported by the LongHashX Accelerator. AI node management and reward distribution are handled by Monad's smart contracts.
• Funding: Completed $1 million in pre-seed funding. LBank Labs is the lead investor, with participation from DoraHacks and LongHashX.

Official X (Link)

• Overview: Kintsu is a next-generation liquid staking protocol on Monad. It provides a mechanism where users stake Monad's native tokens and simultaneously receive derivatives equivalent to staking certificates, which can be used in DeFi to earn additional rewards. Its characteristic is that it aims to maximize rewards by integrating with DeFi while increasing liquidity, not just limited to staking rewards. It contributes to improving Monad's security while enabling efficient operation of user assets.
• Partnership: Built on the Monad chain, it enhances Monad's staking solutions. It has partnered with Curvance to achieve yield enhancement using Kintsu's staking derivative assets. It also collaborates with InfStones to support validator operations.
• Funding: Completed $4 million in seed funding. The lead investor is Castle Island Ventures, with participation from Brevan Howard Digital, CMT Digital, and others.

Official X (Link)

• Overview: Kuru Exchange is a fully on-chain order book DEX planned for deployment on Monad. By implementing an order book on the high-speed Monad chain, users can enjoy a trading experience similar to traditional CEXs (limit and market orders, order book display) on-chain. Kuru claims to be Monad's first full on-chain order book DEX and aims to be a platform where users can conduct everything from spot asset research to trading in one place. It plans to handle a variety of tokens, including long-tail assets with low liquidity.
• Partnership: Based on the Monad chain, it leverages Monad's high throughput to provide an on-chain order book. Individuals related to Monad Labs are also supporting it.
• Funding: Completed $2 million in seed funding. The lead investor is Electric Capital, with participation from Brevan Howard Digital (BH Digital) and Monad Labs founders.

Official X (Link)

• Overview: Magma is a community-led liquid staking protocol on Monad. Users delegate Monad tokens to Magma's staking pool and receive liquid staking tokens (such as gMON) in return. This ensures token liquidity even during staking, allowing them to be used in other DeFi protocols. Magma also features unique reward enhancements using MEV revenue and shared long-term vision through community-participatory governance.
• Partnership: Partnered with Ether.fi to achieve the first restaking (restaking of staked assets) on Monad. It has also partnered with VCs such as Animoca Ventures, Bloccelerate Capital, and CMS Holdings.
• Funding: Completed $3.9 million in seed funding. Bloccelerate, Animoca Ventures, CMS Holdings, and Maelstrom participated.

Official X (Link)

• Overview: Mace is Monad's first DEX aggregator. It obtains optimal rates from other DEXs on Monad (e.g., Nitro Finance, Kuru Exchange) and provides trades to users at the best prices. It is designed to reduce fees by performing routing calculations off-chain, leveraging Monad's parallel EVM for fast and inexpensive transactions. By using Mace, users can access all liquidity on Monad and expect reduced slippage and costs.
• Partnership: As a key DEX aggregator within the Monad ecosystem, it aims to integrate with other DEXs on Monad (e.g., Nitro Finance, Kuru Exchange).
• Funding: No publicly available funding information. May have received private investments or ecosystem grants.

Official X (Link)

• Overview: Multisynq is one of the first projects in the Monad ecosystem belonging to the decentralized physical infrastructure category. Users provide their home bandwidth (internet connection) and hardware resources to build a low-latency synchronization network for developers. Participants (called "Synqers") are given economic incentives and points. In essence, it's a decentralized network where you can earn by providing surplus bandwidth, and developers can use this network for high-speed data synchronization services.
• Partnership: Partnered with the Monad chain to build a DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure) based network. During development, it has received support from LongHashX and DoraHacks.
• Funding: Completed $2.2 million in seed funding. The lead investor is Manifold Trading, with participation from Republic Capital and AlphaCrypto.

Official X (Link)

• Overview: Narwhal Finance is a decentralized perpetual trading platform and plans to offer various leveraged trading options on the Monad chain. As a characteristic, it promotes an AI-driven gamified trading experience, featuring functions like copying top traders' trades and a reward system through trading competitions. It is a cross-market perpetual DEX that allows leveraged trading in multiple markets, from cryptocurrencies to FX currency pairs.
• Partnership: Under development as a native DApp on the Monad chain, aiming to be a cross-market perpetual DEX specializing in trading on Monad.
• Funding: Conducted $1 million in seed funding. Led by Animoca Ventures, with participation from Hailstone Ventures and several angel investors.

Official X (Link)

• Overview: Narrative is a next-generation DeFi investment platform planned for deployment on Monad. It's a protocol that automates and optimizes user asset allocation and investment strategies, analyzing both on-chain and off-chain data with AI and aiming to constantly rebalance portfolios according to the latest market trends. In short, it's a service like an AI-assisted decentralized robo-advisor/investment trust. It is designed to allow even beginners to easily utilize complex DeFi strategies.
• Partnership with Monad: Narrative is being developed as a native DeFi project on the Monad chain. It manages and operates user assets on Monad's smart contracts, and its high-frequency rebalancing trades are also supported by Monad's performance. Within the Monad ecosystem, it is positioned as one of the consumer-facing projects (apps that end-users directly interact with) and is highlighted as a notable project in Monad community and Gate.io guides.
• Partnership: A DeFi investment platform developed on the Monad chain, specifically offering AI-assisted portfolio management. No specific external partnerships have been announced.
• Funding: No publicly available funding information has been confirmed.

Official X (Link)

• Overview: Nitro Finance is a DeFi protocol planned to be built on Monad, with its core being the "Fused Trade Ledger" which merges decentralized exchange (DEX) and lending (money market) functions. Simply put, it's an innovative product that combines Uniswap (AMM-type DEX) and Compound (lending protocol), aiming to increase capital efficiency by enabling simultaneous swaps and borrowing within a single liquidity pool.
• Partnership with Monad: Nitro Finance is being developed as a native DEX on the Monad chain. By leveraging Monad's high-speed parallel processing EVM, it aims to seamlessly provide trading and lending services and become a major project on Monad. Nitro Finance has been featured on the official Monad blog, introduced as a DEX enabling swaps with Monad tokens and USDT on the testnet.
• Partnership: A native DEX built on the Monad chain, collaboration with Pyth Network and other Monad ecosystem projects is expected.
• Funding: No funding information has been publicly released at this time.

Official X (Link)

• Overview: Pipeline XYZ is a crypto media/content platform specializing in the Monad ecosystem. It publishes the latest news, updates, and content about Monad (a high-performance EVM-compatible Layer-1) daily. It provides information to the community through blog posts, video content, social media posts, etc., and is positioned as the "Monad media machine."
• Partnership with Monad: Pipeline XYZ itself is operated in collaboration with the Monad project and serves as one of the official or primary information sources for the Monad ecosystem. It actively distributes interviews with projects on Monad and Monad Labs (Monad development team), technical explanations, etc., contributing to the revitalization of the Monad community.
• Partnership: As a major media platform within the Monad ecosystem, it collaborates with the Monad project to provide the latest information and content.
• Funding: No publicly available funding information. It is primarily a community-led activity as part of Monad Labs' efforts.

Official X (Link)