“If we want the scale of an exchange, like Nasdaq or a CME, to be possible on the blockchain, we need a much more performant blockchain than what exists right now,” he told Fortune. A program like RuneScape might have a player picking up 50 items in an hour, meaning that a blockchain-based game would need to update their stats each time, with each update representing a new transaction that needs to be cheap and fast enough to make economic sense on a blockchain. “We think of these ecosystems in a non-zero-sum way,” Garg told Fortune. Hon also pointed to other applications that could be enabled by a blockchain with high transaction capacity and low fees, such as games. While VCs are betting big on Monad, Garg said his investment doesn’t preclude other blockchains from succeeding-just in different capacities.

A new player on the scene, Monad Labs, finalized a $225 million round led by Paradigm with additional funding by investors including Electric Capital and Greenoaks to build a layer 1 blockchain to challenge competitors such as Solana and Sui. “We’re emerging from roughly two years of development,” Hon said. While other new blockchains have a similar value proposition, Monad is compatible with the program powering Ethereum, the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), meaning developers can port over applications built for Ethereum. In an exclusive interview, Monad founder Keone Hon said Monad’s innovation comes from rebuilding Ethereum’s blockchain from the ground up-maintaining the ability to execute smart contracts while completing transactions at faster speeds, higher volumes, and lower costs.

Since the launch of Bitcoin in 2009, developers have introduced new blockchains that promise an array of new capabilities, from cheaper and faster transactions to applications like decentralized exchanges or lending protocols that can operate on top of a blockchain. More recent competitors-including Solana, which launched in 2020-promised faster speeds at lower costs but still suffer from congestion issues. Although Ethereum launched in 2015 with the innovation of smart contracts, it has struggled to scale with increased demand, meaning transactions often come with high execution fees, known as “gas,” or are slow to be processed. Hon worked for eight years at Jump Trading, the secretive Chicago-based high-frequency trading firm, building systems that could process large numbers of transactions quickly.

While that means that Monad doesn’t get the same benefits of redesigning its entire programming language like other new blockchains such as Aptos and Sui, Garg said it still gets most of the benefits. After raising a $19 million seed round announced in 2023, Monad’s $225 million funding round represents the largest crypto fundraise of 2024 so far, according to Crunchbase’s Web3 Tracker, signaling that the sector’s bear market is beginning to thaw. “The way you go to market is you hit the EVM compatibility and suck over a bunch of devs,” he told Fortune.