Mantle ¹

An L2 where projects get paid to deploy through a $3.9B treasury. Uses cheap data storage (EigenDA) for sub-cent fees and liquid staking (mETH) is built into everything.

Unique Position Mantle deploys its massive BitDAO treasury to bootstrap liquidity and pay developers — the $200M EcoFund means free money for builders. Uses EigenDA instead of Ethereum for data, making fees 80% cheaper than other L2s. Every major protocol integrates mETH liquid staking, turning idle ETH into yield everywhere. Planning ZK upgrade to reduce withdrawals from 7 days to 1 hour, though keeps missing deadlines.

Primary Use Cases

• Projects seeking treasury-backed grants and liquidity
• Liquid staking strategies through mETH ecosystem
• DeFi protocols needing deep, subsidized liquidity pools
• Stablecoin integrations with institutional partners
• Applications betting on the optimistic-to-ZK transition

Ecosystem Character Treasury-driven ecosystem where funding availability attracts builders more than technical features. Strong liquid staking focus with mETH becoming core primitive. Community expects sustainable growth through treasury deployment rather than token emissions. Institutional partnerships (Ethena, Ondo) signal serious DeFi ambitions.

Trade-offs

• Centralized sequencer with perpetually vague decentralization timeline
• ZK upgrade still on testnet — 7-day withdrawals remain
• Success entirely dependent on treasury management and DAO politics
• EigenDA dependency adds external trust assumptions
• Modular architecture increases complexity without proven benefits

Technical Details

Architecture Optimistic rollup with modular design separating execution, data availability, and settlement layers. Transitioning to ZK validity rollup using OP Succinct and SP1 zkVM for faster finality. MNT as native token with mETH/cmETH liquid staking derivatives integrated throughout.

Performance Sub-cent transaction fees achieved through EigenDA's cheaper data availability. Standard optimistic rollup throughput until ZK upgrade completes. Post-upgrade promises 1-hour finality versus current 7-day withdrawal period, though mainnet timeline remains undefined.

Security & Trust Model Currently standard optimistic rollup with 7-day fraud proof window. EigenDA for data availability reduces costs but adds validator trust assumptions beyond Ethereum. ZK upgrade will replace fraud proofs with validity proofs, eliminating challenge periods but requiring prover reliability.

Control & Governance Mantle team controls centralized sequencer with no binding decentralization commitment. Treasury management through DAO governance, though large holders dominate decisions. Protocol upgrades controlled by team with community input through non-binding votes. EcoFund distribution decided by internal committee rather than open governance.