MONAD (MON)

Promising Contender for Wall Street's third‑rail, high‑performance EVM execution layer

There’s Bitcoin as the established, tested store of value, and then there’s the whole ecosystem evolving around it. Let’s explore (*nothing here is financial advice*)

The New Crypto Rails: ETH, SOL… and the Quiet Third Contender

Tom Lee recently said something that cuts through the noise:
Wall Street has already chosen its crypto rails — Ethereum and Solana.

He’s right.

• Ethereum has become the institutional settlement layer

• Solana has emerged as the high‑throughput consumer rail

But here’s the part most people are missing:

If ETH is the NYSE and SOL is Visa, there’s still an open lane —
a high‑performance execution layer that keeps the EVM ecosystem intact.

And that’s where Monad (MON) enters the picture.

Why Monad Matters in a Two‑Rail World

Monad isn’t trying to replace Ethereum or Solana.
It’s solving the problem between them:

How do you get Solana‑level speed without leaving the Ethereum universe?

Monad’s answer is a parallelized, high‑throughput EVM chain that delivers:

• Solana‑class performance

• Ethereum‑native tooling

• Deterministic parallel execution

• Sub‑second finality

• Full Solidity compatibility

This creates a third rail that institutions actually want:

“The institutional EVM execution rail.”

No new languages.
No new mental models.
No new custody frameworks.
Just speed — inside the EVM world institutions already understand.

Why Institutions Are Paying Attention

Look at the hiring pattern. Monad has quietly pulled in senior talent from:

• FalconX

• BVNK

• Optimism

• JP Morgan

• Deutsche Bank

• Amazon

These aren’t hype hires.
They’re capital‑markets, infrastructure, and institutional‑growth hires.

The message is clear:

Monad is building for the same audience that chose Ethereum —
but with the performance profile that made Solana impossible to ignore.

So Is MON a Leading Contender in This Narrative?

Yes — if Tom Lee’s framework is right, MON is one of the strongest asymmetric bets in the “rails” thesis.

Not as a replacement for ETH or SOL.
But as the third rail that completes the system:

• ETH = settlement

• SOL = consumer rails

• MON = high‑performance EVM execution

It’s the only chain aiming squarely at that intersection.

Other Contenders Worth Watching

A few others are trying to play in the high‑performance lane, but none fit the institutional EVM narrative as cleanly:

• SUI — strong tech, not EVM

• APTOS — great engineering, weak ecosystem

• SEI — interesting EVM layer coming, but early

• AVAX — subnets are clever, but momentum has faded

• NEAR — excellent tech, no institutional angle

Among these, Monad may be the purest expression of the “Solana‑speed EVM” thesis.

The Bottom Line

If Wall Street has already chosen:

• Ethereum for trust and settlement

• Solana for throughput and consumer rails

Then the open question is:

Who becomes the execution engine institutions use when they want Solana‑level performance without leaving the EVM?

Right now, Monad may well be the leading answer.

And it’s early days. A little could go a very long way for the patient. No need for leverage or perping…

*This is education, not advice. Always do your own due diligence