Monad (MON) Price: Token Falls 15% to $0.03 After Arthur Hayes Exit

TLDR

• BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes reversed his position on Monad (MON) within 48 hours, initially hyping it then urging traders to send it to zero
• Whales accumulated over 300 million MON tokens while Hayes publicly dismissed the project, with one address withdrawing 73.36 million MON worth $3 million from Gate.io
• Hayes rotated capital into ENA, PENDLE, and ETHFI tokens, spending over $3 million on these positions while exiting MON
• MON price dropped 15% to $0.03 after fake token transfer attacks exploited the ERC-20 standard to mislead users
• Monad blockchain attracted nearly 150,000 active users and recorded 4.7 million transactions despite the price decline

Monad (MON) fell 15% over the last 24 hours to $0.03 after BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes publicly reversed his position on the newly launched Layer-1 blockchain token.

The price drop came just three days after Monad’s mainnet debut on November 25. Despite the decline, MON remains up 47% from its opening price of around $0.02.

Hayes initially hyped the token on November 25, joking about the bull market needing “another low float, high FDV useless Layer-1 token” before admitting he bought in anyway. He even posted “MON to $10” on social media.

However, by November 27, Hayes declared himself “out” and told the market to disregard MON entirely. He dismissed the project just 48 hours after promoting it.

Whale Accumulation Contradicts Hayes’ Exit

While Hayes publicly criticized MON, blockchain data shows large holders continued buying. On-chain tracking by Lookonchain revealed that whale address 0x9294 withdrew 73.36 million MON from Gate.io within 24 hours. The withdrawal was worth approximately $3 million.

Mega whales increased their MON holdings by 10.67%, adding 17.08 million tokens worth roughly $717,000. Their total holdings reached 176.44 million MON.

Regular whales also accumulated during this period. They added 4.80 million MON, expanding their holdings by 9.51% to reach 55.42 million MON.

In total, whales now control over 300 million MON tokens. This stands in direct contrast to Hayes’ public dismissal of the project.

Hayes shifted his capital into other tokens during his MON exit. Over two days, he accumulated 4.89 million ENA (Ethena) valued at $1.37 million, 436,000 PENDLE worth $1.13 million, and 696,000 ETHFI valued at $543,000.

On November 26, Hayes spent another $536,000 on 218,000 PENDLE. Nine hours before Lookonchain’s latest report, he bought back 873,671 ENA for $245,000, despite selling 5.02 million ENA two weeks earlier at a lower price.

Fake Token Transfers Add to Price Pressure

The MON price decline coincided with fake token transfer attacks on the network. Bad actors exploited the ERC-20 standard to mislead users with fake wallet activity.

A fraudulent contract generated fake swap calls and simulated trading patterns around the MON ecosystem. The transfers aimed to exploit the early hours after Monad’s mainnet launch, when users were opening wallets and claiming tokens.

Monad CTO and co-founder James Hunsaker confirmed the spoofing issue on Tuesday. He warned users about transactions that falsely appeared to come from his wallet.

The orderbook imbalance shows sellers currently outweigh buyers. A bid-ask delta indicator at 10% order book depth turned negative after Monad stabilized around $0.47 on November 26.

Derivatives traders amplified the spot-driven decline. Steady open interest combined with a steep decline in cumulative volume delta suggests new short positions are being opened.

Despite the price action, Monad’s network usage remains strong. The blockchain has attracted nearly 150,000 active users and recorded 4.7 million on-chain transactions.

Stablecoin transfers to the Layer 1 blockchain reached $711 million following collaborations with Solana and deBridge. As of this writing, MON trades at $0.0412, down over 13% from recent highs.

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