Mantle (MNT)

Mantle (MNT) is the native token of Mantle Network, a layer 2 network that runs on top of the Ethereum Blockchain, and of the Mantle governance system, which controls one of the largest treasuries in crypto. MNT pays transaction fees on the network, is used to vote on governance proposals, and exists on Ethereum itself as an ERC-20 token. It replaced BitDAO's BIT token one for one in 2023, when BitDAO, an organisation backed by the Bybit exchange, merged with the Mantle network it had been building.

Mantle Network is one of several Ethereum scaling networks, alongside Arbitrum (ARB), Optimism (OP) and Polygon (POL), that process transactions cheaply and post the results back to Ethereum. Its ecosystem also includes mETH, a token representing staked ether. The token should not be confused with the Mongolian tugrik, whose currency code is also MNT.

Think of Ethereum as a busy city courthouse where any agreement can be registered, but the queues are long and filing fees can be steep. A layer 2 network is a branch office down the street. It handles the paperwork quickly and cheaply, bundles thousands of filings together and sends the bundle to the main courthouse, so every record still ends up in the official archive.

Mantle is one of those branch offices, and MNT is the money used to pay its fees. MNT also gives holders a vote on how the organisation behind Mantle spends its large reserve of funds, which was built up before the network existed and pays for development, grants and partnerships with other projects.

BitDAO launched in 2021 as a decentralized autonomous organization funded by pledged contributions from the Bybit derivatives exchange and by a private token sale backed by investors including Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, Pantera Capital and Dragonfly. Its treasury of BIT, ether, stablecoins and other assets was meant to fund decentralized finance projects, and in 2022 it began developing Mantle as its own network. In May 2023 token holders voted to merge the BitDAO and Mantle brands, a later proposal fixed a one-way conversion of BIT into MNT at a 1:1 ratio, and the swap began on 17 July 2023, the month Mantle Network's main network went live. Mantle also proposed that BIT held by the failed FTX exchange and its affiliate Alameda Research should not be converted automatically. The mETH staking protocol followed in late 2023.

Mantle Network was built with the OP Stack, the open-source software behind Optimism, and began as an optimistic rollup: transactions are executed away from Ethereum and treated as valid unless someone challenges them. Unlike most rollups, it keeps its transaction data with EigenDA, a separate data service secured through restaking, rather than posting all of it to Ethereum, which lowers costs but adds trust in another system. In December 2024 Mantle announced a plan to become a validity rollup, using zero-knowledge proofs produced with Succinct's SP1 software to prove each batch correct, an approach shared with ZK-rollups that shortens the wait for withdrawals back to Ethereum. Users move MNT and other assets between the two networks through a crypto bridge, and every transaction on Mantle pays its gas fee in MNT.

mETH is Mantle's liquid staking token. Users deposit ether, the protocol stakes it with Ethereum validators, and depositors receive mETH, which they can trade or use as collateral while their ether keeps earning. Instead of paying rewards as new tokens, mETH rises in value against ether as rewards build up. Its exchange rate is:

• The numerator is all ether held or staked by the protocol, including rewards earned, after protocol fees.
• The denominator is the number of mETH tokens outstanding.
• The rate started at 1 and grows as staking rewards are added.

If the protocol controls 220,000 ETH and 210,000 mETH are outstanding, the rate is 220,000 ÷ 210,000 ≈ 1.048, so a holder of 10 mETH can redeem about 10.48 ETH, before any withdrawal fees or queue. A related token, cmETH, represents mETH that has been restaked to secure other services.

MNT has a total supply of about 6.2 billion tokens, and a large share sits in the Mantle treasury, which token holders control through governance votes. The timing of any treasury spending or release therefore matters to other holders. The main uses of MNT are:

• Fees. All transactions on Mantle Network are paid for in MNT.
• Governance. Holders vote on protocol changes and on how treasury funds are spent.
• DeFi. MNT is traded and used as collateral in applications built on Mantle.
• Exchange use. Bybit, Mantle's founding backer, lists MNT and has woven it more closely into its own products.

Critics argue that Mantle is less decentralised than its governance model suggests. Its sequencer, the operator that orders transactions, is run by the Mantle team, and much of the token supply sits in a treasury on which insiders and Bybit have strong influence. Relying on EigenDA instead of Ethereum for transaction data means users must trust a newer and less tested system. Large treasury holdings mean that any sales can weigh on the market, and the token's fortunes remain closely tied to Bybit, which lost about $1.5 billion of ether in a hack of its wallets in February 2025. As with any rollup, bugs in bridges or proof systems could put deposited funds at risk.

• Mantle
• Mantle documentation
• mETH Protocol