Monad has completed a $60 million early-investor liquidity program, offering select holders the opportunity to sell locked MON tokens ahead of their scheduled unlock dates. Nearly all of the investors contacted chose not to sell.

The Monad Foundation said Tuesday that the program involved buying locked MON from certain early investors at a discounted price. The initiative had a maximum budget of $60 million.

The Foundation has not revealed the discount offered, how much of the allocated funds was ultimately used or how many investors participated. CoinDesk has requested further details about the terms.

The program essentially provided investors with an early exit option. Those who accepted could receive cash before their MON became freely tradable, albeit at a lower price. Any tokens purchased by the Foundation will remain subject to their original vesting schedules, so the program does not immediately increase MON’s circulating supply.

Monad is a newer blockchain designed to support applications compatible with Ethereum. Its MON token is used to pay transaction fees and help secure the network.

MON Unlocks Set to Begin in November

Early investors collectively received about 19.7 billion MON, representing nearly 20% of the token’s original supply.

The tokens were locked when Monad’s mainnet went live last November. Following a one-year lockup period, the holdings are scheduled to unlock gradually each month over the remaining four years.

November will therefore mark the first time these early investors can normally access tokens that are available for sale.

MON was trading around $0.021 Tuesday, approximately 16% below its $0.025 public-sale price.

About 11.8 billion MON are currently circulating, putting its market capitalization near $250 million and its fully diluted valuation around $2.1 billion.

Despite increased activity across the network, MON has continued to trade below its original public-sale level.

Monad DeFi Activity Surges

Monad’s decentralized finance ecosystem has experienced substantial growth in recent weeks.

DeFiLlama data shows that the value of assets deposited in Monad-based DeFi applications has climbed to about $895 million from roughly $360 million on July 2. That represents an increase of nearly 150% in about six weeks.

The network’s stablecoin supply stands at approximately $707 million, while decentralized exchanges processed around $79 million in trading volume during the previous 24 hours.

Still, the growth in network activity does not necessarily explain why investors declined the Foundation’s offer. Since the exact discount offered remains unknown, the high rejection rate should not automatically be interpreted as a bullish signal for MON.

The Foundation said the program was intended to provide early investors with liquidity if their financial circumstances or investment strategies had changed, while leaving the remaining holder base more aligned with Monad’s long-term growth.