- Monad users reported spoofed ERC20 transfers within 48 hours of the 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
The first week of Monad’s mainnet drew intense attention from the crypto community, but it also revealed how quickly malicious tactics can appear on a new EVM-compatible chain.
The project went live just one day before users began noticing unusual ERC20 transfer notifications that, at first glance, appeared legitimate.
Reports across X on Tuesday, November 25 highlighted scammers attempting to deceive newcomers who were still learning the network’s tools.
The incident created confusion during a launch that already saw strong engagement and rapid growth, especially during the airdrop and early trading activity.
Spoofed notifications proliferate on the new network
Many users pointed out that fabricated ERC20 transfer logs showed up in explorers and wallets within 48 hours of the mainnet launch. These events looked authentic but did not move funds or change wallet balances.
A post on X from James Hunsaker, Monad’s co-founder and chief technology officer, drew early attention to the issue when he warned that scammers were broadcasting spoofed transfers that appeared to originate from his wallet.
The problem stems from the fact that ERC20 is an interface standard that allows any contract to emit logs resembling transfer events even when no tokens are actually involved.
This behavior is common in newly launched EVM ecosystems, particularly during traffic spikes when users rush to test new apps.
Screenshots shared online showed transactions that looked like real asset movements, contributing to early confusion.
Social engineering links drive the activity
The presence of these fake transfers formed part of a broader effort to steer users toward phishing pages, malicious claim portals, or harmful contract approvals.
Scammers used the spoofed logs to trick users into believing they had unexpectedly received tokens or to prompt actions they did not initiate.
The strategy relied on creating a sense of urgency to get users to click unsafe links.
As activity surged, the hashtag #MonadScam briefly trended on X before attention subsided.
The network emphasized that these incidents were not exploits and noted there were no reported financial losses.
Several users also observed that wallet balances remained unchanged, which helped clarify the situation as warnings circulated.
Launch momentum and airdrop publicity attract attention
Monad launched with significant momentum, which drew extra attention from opportunistic actors early on.
Over 76,000 wallets claimed 3.33 billion MON tokens in the airdrop, a distribution valued at roughly $105 million at the time.
High demand created an ideal window for bad actors familiar with previous phishing attempts that mimicked Monad’s airdrop portals.
The chain was among the year’s most actively adopted launches, supported by more than 280 projects at inception.
Developed by former Jump Trading engineers, the network positions itself as a high-performance, EVM-compatible chain.
Backers pledged over $260 million from investors including Paradigm, Electric Capital, and OKX Ventures.
Monad’s testnet logged more than 2.6 billion transactions, over 300 million wallets, and 41 million blocks—early figures that drove significant interest ahead of the mainnet launch and made the environment particularly attractive to scammers looking to exploit user excitement.
Token activity rises while users remain cautious
MON opened at $0.02. After an initial dip, the token rose more than 50% and traded near $0.045 at the time of reporting.
Rising interactions between dApps and explorers prompted the team to advise users to ignore urgent-looking prompts, rely on verified explorers, and double-check contract interactions as mainnet traffic continued to increase.
The combination of rapid adoption, a large airdrop, and growing ecosystem traction made early security awareness vital for users during the network’s initial phase.