Monad Foundation forms to promote adoption of the Ethereum-compatible Layer 1

Monad Labs announced Monday the formation of the Monad Foundation, an independent organization to promote and develop the Monad blockchain. The foundation will focus on governance, tools and support as Monad moves closer to a potential mainnet launch following its recent testnet rollout.

"We are sharing an exciting organizational update, signaling a next step in the evolution of the Monad blockchain: the Monad Foundation, an independent organization dedicated to encouraging the development and adoption of the Monad blockchain protocol," the new foundation said in a blog post on Monday.

Although the statement does not mention it, the forming of the Monad Foundation could be an indication that a mainnet and token launch will soon follow. In November, Monad began rolling out its testnet, The Block previously reported.

"The Foundation’s principal activity will be to facilitate validator-led governance and community-led improvement proposals; provide developer documentation relating to the network; and engage in ecosystem development, marketing, and advisory-related services for the Monad protocol," the blog post also said.

Monad Labs is the principal developer of the "technology underlying the Monad blockchain protocol."

Signaling a surge in interest surrounding the Monad blockchain, three Monad-based projects announced they had secured venture capital funding in July. That followed Monad Labs announcing in April that it had raised $225 million in a Series A funding round led by Paradigm, reportedly at a $3 billion valuation.

Monad aims to optimize the way Ethereum works to provide greater throughput. Instead of cloning the Ethereum codebase, Monad says it’s building a new EVM from the ground up, using a pipelined architecture.