Monad (MON) Faces Volatility as Whale Activity Diverges Amid Price Drop

The newly launched Layer-1 blockchain Monad (MON) is experiencing significant market turbulence and conflicting signals from major investors. The token, which launched its mainnet and native MON token on November 24, 2025, has seen its price decline by approximately 32% over the past week, with its current price hovering around $0.02856 to $0.029.

On-chain data reveals a split in whale behavior. Analytics firm Lookonchain identified one specific whale (address 0x755b) that has spent $2.13 million in USDC to accumulate 70.64 million MON tokens at an average price of $0.03267 since the launch. Despite sitting on over $250,000 in unrealized losses due to the price drop, this whale continues to buy, signaling long-term accumulation. Conversely, data from Nansen shows a contrasting trend, with wallets holding over $1 million worth of MON selling more than 8 million tokens within a 24-hour period, indicating a loss of confidence among some large holders.

The project also faced public criticism from a prominent industry figure. Arthur Hayes, former CEO of BitMEX, who initially bought MON on November 27, sold his entire holding just two days later. On November 29, Hayes criticized Monad's tokenomics, labeling it a "high-market-cap, low-circulation" cryptocurrency where the fully diluted valuation (FDV) is significant but only a small portion of the total supply is in circulation. Monad CEO Keone Hon publicly responded to address the concerns raised about MON's token design.

Network activity adds to the cautious outlook. Data from Dune Analytics indicates that active addresses on the Monad network have been declining over the past week, nearly flatlining recently. This drop in user engagement reflects broader market uncertainty and limits organic demand. Analysts suggest that if whale selling continues and network activity remains weak, MON could test support levels as low as $0.023. A recovery would require a pause in whale distribution and a bounce from the $0.030 level, potentially targeting $0.035 to $0.045.