Nadsletter Issue #5: Monad Updates as of May 2025
May Recap - Monad Edition
Gmonad nads 💜
We're wrapping up the fifth month of the year. It's time for a recap of the important news and updates within the Monad ecosystem.
May’s Issue 👇
Category Labs Released RaptorCast Paper 🤓
The engineering & development team behind Monad blockchain - Category Labs unveiled RaptorCast. If you wish to dive into it, here’s the paper.
72 ➡️ 99 Validators
27 new validators joined the monad testnet. It is now a total of 99 validators across 19 countries and 38 cities.
New Team Member Alert 🚨
A new team member, Greg, joined the Monad team to lead the gaming ecosystem.
Official Testnet Feedback Form 📜
Testnet feedback form is out. If you’re exploring any Monad app on testnet, you can now use this form to submit whatever feedback, concerns, or questions you have.
Monad Testnet 2 💫
Monad announced that there’ll be a Testnet-2, which will run parallel with the current testnet. This testnet is for validators only and users’ interactions will not be affected. The goal of this testnet is to test how ready validators are for mainnet, so a total of 100 - 150 validators are participating. It will last for 10 weeks. The application form closed on the 21st of May.
Perpl Raised $9.2M in a Funding Round 💰
Perpl raised $9M in a funding round to build a Perps DEX. Led by Dragonfly Capital with other VCs like Mirana, Ergonia, Haskey, etc participating. Angels in this round include Category/Monad’s cofounders - Keone and James, Monad team member - Kevin (Intern), along with other angel investors.
New Team Member Alert 🚨
The Monad team welcomed a new team member, Alex, to help with the ecosystem.
Monad Launched the 2048 Game on Testnet 🎮
The Monad team launched the 2048 game on testnet for users to play around with.
New Team Member Alert 🚨
Krishang joined the Monad Foundation team as an Engineer. Huge congrats!
Nillion 🤝 Monad
Nillion is collaborating with Monad to bring DeSci to life on the purple chain. Privacy meets performance.
Project Jumpstart 2 Starts June 9🟣
Project Jumpstart, a program initiated by the Monad team to support projects, will be launching the 2nd edition next month, starting from June 9. It’s a 3-day event to educate apps that are building on Monad on how to grow their communities and attract attention. It’ll be invite-only.
New Integrations 🟪
Elucid is now integrated with Monad. 0x will support Monad mainner from day 1. Fiamma Bridge teta testnet Monad edition went live. Dynamic is offering free access to their wallet infra to Monad developers.
Monad Testnet Stats: May 📊
It’s been 101 days since the Monad testnet went live. So far, it has recorded:
~ 1.55 billion transactions
~300 M+ total addresses
~ 637k+ NFT collections created (88M+ NFTs)
~ 2.4M total tokens created
~ 19M blocks produced
~ with 0.5s average block time
You can monitor these stats via the Monad explorer page. There are currently 99 validators across 19 countries and 38 cities. You can check the live map.
Discord & Twitter Growth 📈
Monad Discord has hit 639k members, a 10k increase from the 629k recorded on the 31st of April. The Monad Twitter page has 1.3 million followers.
Community-Focused Updates:
Keone held a community AMA to answer questions from the community members. Go through this thread to see some thoughtful questions about Monad tech and Keone’s answers.
Saffron joined the Naddotfun growth team. Lilia joined Perpl as their graphic designer.
Testnet is still ongoing. More apps have been integrated with Monad. The vibes are high as ever.
There are now various Monad mini apps on Farcaster. Some are: Monad Cast, Monad Factory, Monad BOX, Monado Twist, Monad 2048 MiniApp, MonadSwap, etc. Just go to the mini app section on Farcaster and type “monad.” Monad mini apps should appear. Look around, test, and share your experience. If you’re not already there, join the Monad Farcaster channel. You can also help create awareness by talking about Monad there.
That’s a wrap, guys! If you dig our monthly recap, follow MonadWhisper on Twitter. To learn more about projects building on Monad, visit our website. If you want your project listed on our website, fill out the form on the site.
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Curated and written by Julia.