According to a new report from crypto analytics firm Messari, Mantle (MNT) has emerged as the leading Layer-2 token by circulating market capitalization in 2025, finishing the year with a valuation of approximately $3.5 billion. This places it significantly ahead of competitors like Polygon (POL) at $1.4 billion, Arbitrum (ARB) at $1.2 billion, Optimism (OP) at $605 million, and Starknet (STRK) and STX in the $550–560 million range.
The report, highlighted by Mantle's official channels, positions the network not just as a fast execution layer but as a coordinated "distribution layer" for institutional on-chain finance. A central pillar of this thesis is Mantle's deepening integration with major centralized exchange Bybit. What began as a token listing has evolved into platform-level utility for MNT, including expanded MNT-quoted trading pairs, discounted fee programs paid in MNT, and VIP and institutional benefits.
Messari points to a joint roadmap announced in late August 2025 as formalizing the work between Mantle and Bybit. This exchange-led distribution coincided with a sharp market moment for MNT, with its circulating market cap reaching roughly $8.7 billion on October 8, 2025. On the capital side, the report flags the mETH Protocol as a major liquidity anchor, holding a combined pool of about $1.07 billion in underlying assets (mETH: $791.7M, cmETH: $277M) by late 2025, providing a liquid-staking and restaking foundation.
At the application layer, Mantle's total DeFi TVL was reported at $242.3 million as of September 30, 2025. Messari also highlights Mantle's institutional push through its Tokenization-as-a-Service (TaaS) offering, designed for compliant real-world asset (RWA) issuances. Examples include Ondo Finance's USDY, which reached about $29 million tokenized on Mantle.
"Institutions don't adopt isolated execution layers, but they adopt ecosystems that coordinate capital, liquidity, and distribution," said Emily Bao, a key advisor at Mantle. Evan Zakhary, a Messari protocol research analyst, added that Mantle exemplifies a broader shift among Layer 2s toward coordinating capital, applications, and distribution rather than optimizing execution in isolation.
The report concludes that Mantle has a credible mix of liquidity, exchange utility, and tokenized product activity, reframing L2 competition around distribution and institutional readiness as much as raw execution speed.
