Monad

MON

Let's start with the basics. Monad is a Layer 1 network built by Category Labs, and its main claim to fame is doing 10,000 TPS. The kicker? It does this while staying completely compatible with the EVM. You get lightning-fast 400ms block times and 800ms finality. Honestly, the real appeal here is for devs—they can build heavy-duty apps, like on-chain order books, without having to rewrite all their Solidity smart contracts. MON just acts as the native coin for gas, staking, and governance stuff.