Monad Mainnet Launch Prompts Scam Warning From Co-Founder

• Monad developers warn of fake ERC‑20 transfers used in phishing scams, though the network itself remains uncompromised
• Dubbed a ‘Solana killer’, Monad launched with 250+ projects and nearly 10,000 holders
• Despite early volatility, the token surged ~100% in 24 hours, reaching a $525 million market cap and $1.36 billion daily volume

It’s only been two days since Monad’s mainnet release, and the developers already have a problem on their hands. 

Reportedly, scammers are creating fake tokens and defrauding newcomers interested in investing in the nascent blockchain solution.

Related: Monad (MON) Surges 42% as Mainnet Launch Goes Live With $105M Airdrop

‘Fake’ Transfers: CTO Explains the Phishing Vector

Earlier this week, Monad co-founder and chief technology officer James Hunsaker took to X to warn about emerging scams: “Warning – there are fake ERC-20 transfers pretending to be from my wallet,” he said, before sharing a few links to transactions. 

“You can see the txs are not sent by me. ERC-20 is just a token interface standard, it’s easy to write a smart contract that meets that standard but can have address entries which are not authorized by the owner.”

Monad is a new Layer‑1 blockchain designed to run Ethereum smart contracts faster and cheaper by processing many transactions in parallel. It promises high throughput, near-instant finality, and low fees, already amassing a thriving community of DeFi, gaming, and other dApp developers.

Even though it targets Ethereum users, it is also often described as a ‘Solana killer’ due to its extremely high transaction speeds and low fees.

Great Start for Monad

Since ERC-20 is only an interface standard, it allows any contract to show logs resembling transfers, even when there are no tokens.

According to some researchers, these fake transfers are part of a wider scam campaign aimed at getting people to visit phishing landing pages, where they can approve malicious contracts and have their money stolen. Monad’s network has not been compromised in any way, just spoofed. 

‘Solana Killer’ Debut: Volatility and a 100% Rebound

Monad has been performing quite well since the mainnet launch. After an initial 30% drop (from roughly $0.03 to $0.02), it moved upward, almost touching $0.05 at the time of writing. 

Therefore, the token has been up almost 100% from its lows in mere 24 hours. Its market cap currently sits at $525.67 million, up by more than a third (35%) in the last 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap data, with daily volumes of $1.36 billion (48% up).

With almost 10,000 holders and more than 250 projects at launch, Monad is widely considered as one of the most popular and most promising projects of 2025, and possibly 2026. It received more than $260 million in funding from high-profile names such as OKX Ventures and Paradigm.

Related: ’Consistency, Innovation, and Stability’: 3 Key Considerations for South Korea’s Stablecoin Implementation