Mantle (MNT) — Project and Token Overview

Background and Investment

The Mantle project was initiated by BitDAO at the end of 2022, stemming from a proposal by a community member known as jacobc.eth for a layer-two network with a flexible architecture.In May 2023, BitDAO announced its merger with Mantle Network, which led to the rebranding of its token from BIT to MNT. This move allowed Mantle to acquire a significant amount of BitDAO's token assets, which, at the time of this article, amounted to nearly $3 billion.

After a six-month period of development and testing, the alpha version of Mantle's mainnet was launched in July 2023, along with the announcement of a $200 million ecosystem fund.

Mantle Network Features

The Mantle Network is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and operates on the basis of Optimistic Rollup technology, which has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. However, a key feature of this L2 blockchain is its unique architecture.

This architecture separates the network into distinct modules for transaction execution, data access (which, incidentally, is facilitated by EigenDA technology from EigenLayer), and transaction finalization. This modular approach allows for individual components to be updated independently, which, in turn, helps the network to quickly implement new features and improve operational efficiency.

According to the project's documentation, this blockchain can handle 500 transactions per second, and it has a dispute resolution period of 7 days (see the features of Optimistic Rollup for details).

Mantle Network Architecture Source: docs.mantle.xyz

What is MNT?

MNT is the native token of the Mantle Network, an L2 blockchain, and it serves several functions:

• It's used to pay for network gas (transactions on the network require a fee to be paid in MNT tokens);
• It contributes to the ecosystem's development;
• It plays a role in governance (holding MNT tokens grants the right to vote on Mantle Governance proposals).

Additionally, the MNT token has taken over certain functions on the centralized exchange Bybit, which were previously performed by the BIT token. For instance, MNT tokens can be used to participate in launchpads on the exchange.

The issuance of MNT is capped at a maximum supply of 6.2 billion tokens. However, this figure can be altered through community voting. At the time this article was written, about 52% of the tokens were in circulation.

MNT Token Distribution Source: docs.mantle.xyz

How to Add the Mantle Network and Its MNT Token to Metamask

To add the Mantle Network and its MNT token to MetaMask, you need to manually add a new network in the settings using the following details:

Network Name: Mantle
RPC URL: https://rpc.mantle.xyz
Chain ID: 5000
Symbol: MNT
Block Explorer URL: https://explorer.mantle.xyz

Challenges and Prospects

The niche for Ethereum L2 networks is quite promising, especially given that the project boasts a modular architecture. However, it faces stiff competition from established players who have already developed expansive ecosystems, such as Arbitrum and Optimism, which are built on the same Optimistic Rollup scaling technology.

Yet, Mantle possesses a significant treasury for its development, which could help it catch up with the aforementioned competitors. At the time of this writing, Mantle's Total Value Locked (TVL) stands at around $37 million, while Optimism has $718 million and Arbitrum has $1.7 billion. The gap is substantial for the time being.

TVL Ratios Among Various Rollup Blockchains Source: DefiLlama

The MNT token boasts considerable utility and is also supported by the centralized exchange Bybit. However, it's important to note that a vast majority of these tokens (nearly 3 billion at the time of writing) are held in Mantle's treasury, and they could be allocated for ecosystem development (distributed as grants to other projects). Consequently, a portion of these tokens might be sold off, which could exert downward pressure on the price of MNT.