Mantle (MNT) Hits New Highs on Ethereum DeFi Layer-2 Trend
The community's heightened interest in DeFi and Ethereum Layer-2 blockchain projects has propelled Mantle (MNT) to achieve an all-time high in price.
Mantle (MNT) Hits New Highs on Ethereum DeFi Layer-2 Trend
Over the past 24 hours, the native token MNT of the modular Layer-2 blockchain Mantle, part of the Bybit ecosystem, has surged over 20% to reach an all-time high of $0.9493 USD, surpassing the previous record of $0.813 set three months ago.
Mantle token (MNT) achieves all-time high on February 26, 2024. Image: CoinMarketCap
Experts attribute the rapid ascent of MNT to the overall boom in DeFi projects, marked by significant updates such as Uniswap's proposal for fee sharing for UNI stakers, Optimism's fourth airdrop, and ongoing developments like EigenLayer's restaking and Ethena's novel stablecoin model, USDe.
Data from CoinGecko shows that the Total Value Locked (TVL) across Layer-2 blockchains has surpassed $7.5 billion USD, with recent 24-hour trading volumes reaching up to $946.5 million USD. Notably, Mantle has seen nearly a 50% increase in value over the past 30 days.
Top 10 Layer-2 blockchains on Ethereum by Total Value Locked (TVL) as of February 26, 2024. Source: CoinGecko
Furthermore, MNT's growth can be attributed to the launch of the permissionless liquid staking protocol on the Ethereum network in December 2023, branded as "MantleLSP." This protocol allows users to stake ETH into Mantle and receive mETH through validator nodes.
This product builds upon the MIP-25 proposal to convert Treasury funds into stETH back in August 2023, establishing a cooperative relationship between Lido and Layer-2 Mantle, following Lido's market-leading Liquid Staking platform announcement aimed at building a revenue-sharing network.
Joe Caselin, Business Customer Marketing Director at Bybit, highlighted that one of the driving factors behind the surge in Layer-2 projects is the expectation of SEC approval for Ethereum Spot ETFs. Stake-based products are among the effective methods encouraging investors to hold ETH leading up to the official announcement.
Many experts predict SEC approval for Ethereum Spot ETFs could come as early as May this year. Wall Street giants like BlackRock and Fidelity have followed suit in seeking legitimacy for these products. Coinbase also urges SEC to expedite the approval of Ethereum Spot ETFs, having overseen 8 out of 11 SEC-approved Bitcoin Spot ETF products.
