Monad (MON) surged over 12% in the past 24 hours, breaking out of a confined sideways range that had lasted more than two months. The altcoin has cemented its position among the top blockchains by DEX volume, with daily DEX volume reaching $191.77 million and the weekly sum hitting $595 million. The monthly total has surpassed $1.80 billion, positioning MON alongside major ecosystems including Solana, Ethereum, Base, BNB Chain, and Hyperliquid. This price rally coincides with the completion of the Monad Foundation's $60 million buyback program, which offered to purchase locked MON tokens from select early investors at a discount but received minimal participation with most investors preferring to hold their shares.
Monad's network activity has experienced remarkable growth since mid-July when MON started reversing its decline. The Total Value Locked (TVL) has more than doubled from $1.205 billion to $2.677 billion in just one month, representing an increase of almost 150% in about six weeks. The chain's stablecoin market cap has expanded from $482 million to $703 million, nearly doubling in a month, while active addresses hit 23.83K and transactions exceeded 6.23 million. Capital outflows have reduced significantly by more than half, from about $17 million to $8.40 million, though this reading still shows that sellers have not been exhausted completely.
The Monad Foundation completed its $60 million buyback program offering to purchase locked MON tokens from select early investors at a discount, but the initiative received minimal participation. According to AMBCrypto, almost all initial offers were rejected, with most investors preferring to hold their shares rather than sell at the discounted price. The foundation set aside up to $60 million for the program, though it did not disclose the specific price offered, the amount ultimately spent, or the number of investors who participated. The program was designed as an early exit opportunity for investors willing to accept a lower price in exchange for immediate liquidity.
Technically, MON has broken from its two-and-a-half-month stagnation between $0.01911 and $0.02424, with the price even above the Parabolic Sar, reinforcing the range breakout. However, the altcoin is still struggling to breach the resistance at $0.03, which could curtail MON from repeating a similar uptrend seen in April. The selling pressure has declined sharply from 867.67 million tokens to 15.84 million MON according to the Accumulation/Distribution indicator. The next critical level to watch is $0.019-$0.020, with a break below it improving chances of a bearish scenario, while a rebound above $0.021-$0.022 would suggest bulls are stepping back in. The selling pressure could be halted at $0.038 if bulls lack enough zeal to make a new year-to-date high.
Investors were allocated approximately 19.7 billion MON tokens, representing nearly 20% of the original supply. These tokens were locked when Monad's public network launched in November and will begin unlocking after a one-year waiting period, followed by monthly releases over the remaining four-year schedule. As reported by CoinDesk, MON traded around $0.021 on Tuesday, approximately 16% below the $0.025 price of last year's public sale. Roughly 11.8 billion MON are currently circulating, giving the token a market value near $250 million against a fully diluted value of about $2.1 billion. The rejection of the buyback program by early investors suggests they view the current price as undervalued, potentially reducing selling pressure ahead of the November unlocks.
