- Monad users reported spoofed ERC20 transfers within 48 hours of mainnet launch.
- More than 76,000 wallets claimed 3.33 billion MON tokens in the airdrop.
- Monad’s testnet recorded over 2.6 billion transactions.
Monad’s first week on mainnet attracted a lot of attention across the cryptocurrency community, but it also revealed how quickly malicious tactics can surface on the new EVM chain.
The project was launched a day before users noticed unusual ERC20 transfer notifications that seemed legitimate at first glance.
According to a report on
The incident caused disruption during the launch, which saw strong engagement and rapid growth, especially with regard to airdrops and early trading activity.
Spoofing alerts increase across new networks
Several users highlighted that manipulated ERC20 token transfers were appearing in explorers and wallets within 48 hours of their mainnet debut. These events appeared real, but did not move funds or change balances.
Monad co-founder and CTO James Hunsaker’s post on
The problem arose because ERC20 is an interface standard that allows any contract to emit logs similar to transfer activity, even if no tokens are involved.
This behavior is common in new EVM ecosystems, especially during traffic surges as users rush to test new applications.
Screenshots circulated online showed transactions that appeared to be actual asset movements, causing initial confusion.
Social engineering links drive activity
The emergence of these fake transfers formed part of a wider range of attempts to lure users into phishing pages, claim buttons or malicious contract approvals.
Spoofing has long been used to trick users into believing they have received an unexpected token or executed a task they did not initiate.
This tactic relies on creating urgency for users to interact with insecure links.
The hashtag #MonadScam briefly trended on X before interest plateaued as activity increased.
The network said the incident was not an exploit and no funds were lost.
Many users also noted that their wallet balances remained unchanged, which helped clarify the situation after the warning went viral.
Launch activity and airdrop hype will keep your attention.
Monad launched with considerable momentum, which led to a surge of initial interest from attackers.
Over 76,000 wallets claimed 3.33 billion MON tokens in the airdrop round, which was worth approximately $105 million at the time.
This demand created an ideal moment for malicious actors, who were already familiar with early phishing attempts that mimicked Monad’s airdrop portal.
The chain was one of the most active debut chains of the year, with support from over 280 projects at launch.
The network was built by former Jump Trading engineers and has established itself as a high-performance EVM-compatible chain.
Funding exceeded $260 million from backers such as Paradigm, Electric Capital, and OKX Ventures.
The testnet recorded over 2.6 billion transactions, over 300 million wallets, and over 41 million blocks. These early numbers generated a lot of excitement during the mainnet launch, making the environment more attractive to scammers looking to capitalize on user excitement.
As users become more attentive, token activity increases.
MON opened at $0.02, and after an initial decline, the token rose more than 50% and was trading near $0.045 at press time.
As interactions between dApps and explorers increase, the team advised users to avoid urgent messages, rely on verified explorers, and reconfirm their contract participation as mainnet traffic continues to grow.
Rapid adoption, massive airdrop participation, and increasing traction across the ecosystem have made security awareness a top priority in the early stages of the network.