Dragonfly-backed Monad is solving the 'most obvious' setback for the DeFi market, says founder

by Davis Quinton and Frank Chaparro

Layer 1s • September 27, 2023, 12:01PM EDT

Published 1 minute earlier on

The Block

Quick Take

Monad Labs CEO Keone Hon discusses optimizing the EVM for high-performance trading.

Episode 84 of Season 5 of The Scoop was recorded with The Block's Frank Chaparro and Monad Labs CEO Keone Hon.

Listen below, and subscribe to The Scoop on Youtube, Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Please send feedback and revision requests to [email protected].

Keone Hon is the founder and CEO of Monad Labs — the development team behind a new Layer-1 blockchain that aims to bring pipelined execution to the Ethereum Virtual Machine.

In this episode, Keone shares how his background at various HFT firms led him to identify problems with existing blockchain infrastructure and ultimately inspired him to rebuild the EVM entirely to optimize it for high-performance trading activity.

Monad has raised $19 million from investors including Dragonfly Capital, Naval Ravikant, Cobie, Hasu and others.

OUTLINE:
03:33 - Monad Overview
05:17 - Another Layer-1?
06:26 - ‘Pipelining’
08:32 - Web3 Social
11:38 - Bridges to Monad
12:11 - High Performance DeFi
13:34 - DeFi Summer 2.0?
16:01 - Monad’s Funding
16:49 - Onchain HFT
19:05 - The Future of Trading
22:55 - Onchain Sports Betting
23:19 - Surviving Crypto Winter
28:30 - Closing Thoughts

About Authors

Davis Quinton is the Director of Podcasts at The Block and runs our flagship podcast called The Scoop, hosted by Frank Chaparro. Since joining The Block as an 'intern' in early 2022, he has worked closely with leaders across departments to translate The Block's written content into engaging multimedia formats. He holds a degree in Social Research & Public Policy from New York University in Abu Dhabi and is based in Sydney, Australia.

Frank Chaparro is the Editor At Large at The Block. Chaparro started his career at Business Insider, where he specialized in the intersection of digital assets and Wall Street, market structure, and financial technology. Soon after joining Business Insider out of Fordham University, Chaparro was interviewing top finance and tech executives, including billionaire Mark Cuban, “Flash Boys” star Brad Katsuyama, Cboe Global Markets CEO Ed Tilly, and New York Stock Exchange President Tom Farley. In 2018, he become a sought after reporter in the crypto world, interviewing luminaries such as Tyler Winklevoss, the cofounder of Gemini, Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of Circle, and Fundstrat head Tom Lee. He runs his own podcast The Scoop and writes a biweekly eponymous newsletter. He leads special projects, including The Block's flagship podcast, The Scoop. Prior to The Block, he held roles at Business Insider, NPR, and Nasdaq. For inquiries or tips, email [email protected].