Mantle’s 2025 roadmap aims to bridge on-chain finance with day-to-day financial services via by integrating CeFi solutions. This includes the launch of Mantle Banking, designed to provide seamless access to payments, lending, and wealth management services.
Mantle Network Historical TVL – Source: DefiLlama
This builds on Mantle’s earlier success in developing a thriving decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, which reached a peak of $2 billion USD in TVL. Key pillars of this success include:
- Mantle Network: A modular, Layer-2 Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible blockchain launched in July 2023. It achieved $462 million USD in TVL and fostered a robust ecosystem with over 200 partnerships and dApps, spanning diverse sectors such as SocialFi and GameFi.
- mETH Protocol: Institutional-grade ETH liquid staking and restaking with $1.8 billion in TVL.
- Function (fBTC): A scalable omni-chain Bitcoin staking solution that has amassed $1.3 billion in TVL.
Mantle has cemented its reputation as a pioneer in DeFi innovation, attracting both crypto-native users and institutional investors. Now, it is taking a bold step beyond DeFi to lead the growth and adoption of CeFi, leveraging its well-established on-chain financial infrastructure to drive seamless integration and broader financial access.
The Mantle Thesis: DeFi and Beyond
Mantle is more than just a blockchain; it is transforming DeFi with cutting-edge infrastructure designed for scalability, institutional-grade security, and capital efficiency. By driving innovation both technically and financially, Mantle has established a strong on-chain foundation through the Mantle Network, amassing $445 million in total value locked (TVL) and cultivating a thriving ecosystem rich with attractive yield opportunities. With the backing of the Mantle Treasury and a team of seasoned DeFi experts, Mantle is well-positioned for long-term growth and competitiveness.
Mantle Innovation Pillars – Source: Letter to Token Holders (Mantle Blog)
Building on this success, Mantle has unveiled a new suite of core products aimed at expanding beyond traditional DeFi boundaries. These offerings, such as the Mantle Index Fund and Mantle Banking, are designed to bridge the gap between CeFi and DeFi, accelerating blockchain adoption in the broader financial sector. Additionally, Mantle is advancing into emerging fields like crypto x AI innovation through MantleX.
Together, these developments form a comprehensive financial stack, positioning Mantle at the forefront of institutional expansion and technological innovation. By offering secure, scalable solutions and harnessing AI-driven advancements, Mantle is set to drive the next phase of global blockchain adoption and hybrid financial services growth.
The team has brought in top industry leaders from ByBit, BitGo, Polygon Labs, and more to execute and drive its six core innovation pillars for 2025.
Report Summary
With strong financial backing, deep team expertise, and a suite of innovative products, Mantle is poised to scale its DeFi ecosystem to new heights. It is also strategically positioned to bridge CeFi and DeFi adoption through its recently launched core offerings. This report will cover:
- A detailed analysis of Mantle’s comprehensive financial stack, from its DeFi foundation to new verticals in emerging and untapped markets like CeFi.
- The $MNT tokenomics and its unique value proposition underpinned by Mantle’s strategic robust ecosystem-wide opportunities and robust incentives.
- Mantle’s distinct positioning in the blockchain and financial innovation landscape.
Mantle: The Complete Financial Stack
Mantle: The Comprehensive Financial Stack – Source: Memento Research
Mantle has established a robust and self-sustaining DeFi ecosystem on the Mantle Network, surpassing critical mass with significant user adoption and ecosystem activity. This foundation has driven mETH, Function, and a wide range of applications to scale rapidly, delivering capital efficiency and yield opportunities for both retail and institutional users.
Building on this success, Mantle’s newly unveiled innovation pillars—MantleX, Mantle Banking, and the Enhanced Index Fund—are strategically designed to leverage Mantle’s existing on-chain infrastructure and Mantle Treasury. These pillars aim to pioneer growth in emerging technological verticals such as AI integration, while facilitating deeper traditional market penetration, positioning Mantle as a leader in both DeFi and CeFi innovation.
mETH: Pioneering Institutional-Grade Liquid Staking
mETH Protocol Historical TVL – Source: DefiLlama
mETH as a non-custodial liquid staking asset has rapidly positioned itself as a leader in institutional adoption of liquid staking on Mantle, achieving over $600 million USD in TVL within just two months of launch as it stands at $1.56 billion USD today. Designed with scalability, usability, and institutional trust in mind, mETH’s success is underpinned by its robust integration with both DeFi and CeFi, enabling expansive utility and capital efficiency.
Unique Strategic Yield Opportunity
Mantle’s innovative approach includes restaking 100,000 $mETH on Eigenlayer, with most rewards distributed to the mETH Protocol community. This initiative has generated 2.098M $EIGEN tokens, highlighting Mantle’s commitment to community-driven growth and multi-restaking opportunities. This composability allows users to maximize returns through vault strategies and staking across multiple protocols, strengthening mETH’s long-term ecosystem presence.
cmETH: Premier Yield on Top of mETH
Mantle Restaking Overview – Source: Mantle Blog
The passage of MIP-30 introduced liquid restaking through cmETH, enhancing the staking experience by offering cmETH holders rewards from whitelisted restaking strategies. This initiative aims to drive widespread adoption of cmETH across various applications within the Mantle L2 ecosystem.
Additionally, $COOK, the governance token for the mETH Protocol, was launched to decentralize key protocol decisions as the protocol matures. The rewards distribution began with Season 1 Metamorphosis, which concluded in October 2024, and is now continuing with Season 2 Metamorphosis, focusing on cmETH staking.
Future Value Proposition of mETH
Institutional confidence in ETH-based assets also reinforces mETH’s position. World Liberty Financial holds 60% of its portfolio in $ETH, while ETH-backed ETFs—including offerings from giants like BlackRock and Fidelity—further validate its growing prominence. Already, mETH is the 4th largest ETH liquid staking token, with cmETH ranking 6th.
Looking forward, Mantle aims to scale further by deepening partnerships and expanding mETH’s utility across CeFi and DeFi landscapes. This strategic push will unlock greater asset composability, adoption, and attractive returns, solidifying mETH’s role at the forefront of institutional staking innovation.
At the time of posting, the team has just launched its cmETH Fixed Yield Vault, designed for institutional investors and risk-averse retail users. This vault offers fixed yields in exchange for:
- Restaking protocol rewards (e.g., EigenLayer, Karak, Symbiotic)
- Future Powder rewards (when Season 3 of Methamorphosis launches)
- $cmETH flexibility across L2 dApps
Nonetheless, this Fixed Yield Vault is for those who prefer stable returns without active management.
Function (fBTC): Unlocking the Full Potential of Bitcoin in DeFi
Function Historical TVL – Source: Defillama
Function (Lead by Thomas Chen) is a groundbreaking solution designed to elevate Bitcoin’s utility by transforming it from a simple store-of-value into a productive, liquid asset across multiple blockchain ecosystems, including Ethereum, Mantle, and Solana. Since its inception, FBTC has achieved $1.4 billion in TVL, positioning itself as a first-mover in the emerging BTC-Fi sector, which taps into a $2 trillion market opportunity.
Omni-chain DeFi Innovation
FBTC enables Bitcoin to seamlessly integrate into various DeFi ecosystems, offering increased flexibility and composability. Its cross-chain capabilities allow users to leverage Bitcoin assets in DeFi protocols for liquidity provision, yield farming, and lending, thereby unlocking a wide range of financial opportunities.
Yield Optimization: Staking on Babylon
To enhance returns, FBTC introduces yield enhancement strategies via staking on Babylon’s ecosystem, which provides profitable avenues for Bitcoin holders to maximize the productivity of their assets. These strategies are designed to deliver scalable, secure yields through a capital-efficient structure optimized for deep liquidity management.
Institutional-Grade Partnerships and TSS Network
FBTC benefits from strong collaborations with leading CeFi and DeFi players, including Mantle and Antalpha, to drive adoption and liquidity growth. Mantle also plays a key role as a signatory in FBTC’s Threshold Signature Scheme (TSS) network, ensuring secure and efficient creation and redemption of FBTC tokens. This institutional-grade infrastructure strengthens the asset’s reliability and appeal to a broader range of users.
With its robust foundation and forward-thinking approach, Function is pioneering a new era for Bitcoin in DeFi (also known as BTC-Fi), turning it into a fully integrated, productive asset within the global blockchain ecosystem.
Innovation Suite: Leveraging Existing DeFi Layer for Broader Adoption
Mantle 2025: Three New Key Innovation Pillars Unveiled – Source: Memento Research
MantleX: Unlocking the Potential of AI in Blockchain
MantleX (Led by Jordi Alexander) harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to enhance critical areas of the Mantle ecosystem, including treasury management, community engagement, and on-chain research. As AI and blockchain converge, MantleX is developing advanced AI agents designed to optimize workflows, automate decision-making, and deliver personalized user experiences.
By leveraging Mantle’s DeFi infrastructure, MantleX supports automated liquidity management and on-chain analytics to optimize treasury operations. AI integration also enhances community engagement tools and financial services, creating smarter, more responsive solutions throughout the ecosystem. Through strategic partnerships with top-tier projects, MantleX positions Mantle at the forefront of DeFi-AI (DeFAI) innovation, driving the next wave of technological advancement in DeFi.
Mantle Banking: Blockchain-Powered Financial Services
Mantle aims to lead the next generation of financial services through its cutting-edge blockchain-powered technological stack.
Mantle Banking (Lead by Yaxi Zhu) bridges the gap between fiat and crypto with a DeFi-first approach, offering a comprehensive suite of fully blockchain-based financial services, including payments, lending, and wealth management.
Unlike traditional centralized systems, Mantle Banking delivers secure, transparent, and user-friendly financial solutions, designed to integrate seamlessly into everyday life. Launching in 2025, this initiative aims to redefine modern banking, providing on-chain finance that competes with platforms like Revolut, while prioritizing decentralization, efficiency, and accessibility.
Enhanced Index Fund: Bringing Crypto to Traditional Markets
The Enhanced Index Fund (Led by Sohan Sen and Tim Chen), launching in Q1 2025, provides institutional-grade access to crypto markets, targeting $1 billion in AUM. It offers exposure to a curated basket of major tokens such as BTC, ETH, SOL, and USD, represented by yield-generating assets like mETH and bbSOL. This fund bridges CeFi and DeFi, combining secure custody, optimized risk-return profiles, and tokenized ownership, which enables real-time transfers, leveraging, and integration with blockchain applications.
With Mantle Network’s robust liquidity, the fund can potentially enhance the attractiveness of crypto investments by tapping into on-chain staking to deliver improved yields. It leverages tokenized ownership and Mantle’s existing liquidity pools, enabling real-time transfers, leveraging, and seamless integration with blockchain applications. Anchored by the Mantle Treasury, this initiative positions Mantle to set new benchmarks for institutional engagement and accelerate adoption across both CeFi and DeFi ecosystems.
As of 14th February 2025, the DAO has just recently passed the proposal on the Enhanced Index Fund and will start the execution phase soon.
All Roads Lead to Mantle
By expanding into CeFi, AI, and index-based investing, Mantle fully leverages its robust DeFi infrastructure to deliver scalable, user-friendly solutions that accelerate mainstream adoption of blockchain-powered finance.
Mantle: Self-reinforcing Circular Economy – Source: Memento Research
The synergy between these three key verticals forms a self-reinforcing circular economy, where increased ecosystem activity directly enhances the value of $MNT. As demand for staking, governance, and network incentives rises, $MNT becomes further entrenched as the cornerstone of Mantle’s ecosystem growth.
With strategic initiatives aimed at bridging cryptocurrency with traditional markets and leading innovation in DeFi-AI (DeFAI), Mantle is positioned to drive sustainable, long-term growth and value creation across both the DeFi and CeFi landscapes.
$MNT Tokenomics and Narratives
Robust Token Dynamics: High Float, with a High FDV
As the largest Layer-2 token with a market cap of $3.8 billion USD, $MNT boasts a 51% circulating supply, one of the highest among L2 tokens. This high float enhances liquidity and accessibility, attracting both institutional and retail investors. $MNT is traded across 27+ exchanges, with Bybit commanding 90% of CEX market share, serving as a key liquidity hub.
The remaining 49% is strategically held by the Mantle Treasury, with no future unlocks unless approved by the community. These reserves support ecosystem growth, governance, and new initiatives, ensuring $MNT’s sustained role in innovation, adoption, and long-term ecosystem expansion.
$MNT: The Heart of Mantle Network
Unlike most L2 tokens that only serve for governance purposes, $MNT utility goes beyond that and is used as the native gas fee token for Mantle Network, staking, and also the primary token gateway to participate in various incentive programs such as Mantle Rewards Station to earn additional rewards.
Expanding $MNT Value Beyond the Native DeFi Layer
The utility of $MNT continues to extend beyond Mantle’s core DeFi infrastructure through strategic partnerships, integrations, and institutional-focused products. These initiatives enhance the Mantle Network’s ecosystem while driving long-term value-accrual and increasing demand for $MNT across various sectors. Key highlights include:
- Bybit Launch Integration: Bybit has been a key supporter of Mantle since its inception, facilitating the conversion of $BIT to $MNT and driving adoption through its token-related events.
- Launchpad and ByStarter: $MNT is actively utilized in Bybit’s Launchpad and ByStarter platforms, enabling users to commit $MNT for early access to new token allocations before public listings.
- Staking and Rewards Campaigns: Bybit offers gas fee subsidies and additional rewards for users staking mETH, as well as zero fees for withdrawing $MNT and USDT on the Mantle network.
- Institutional Collaborations: Mantle has partnered with the TON Blockchain Accelerator as an EVM partner, expanding $MNT’s presence across institutional and cross-chain ecosystems.
- New Institutional Product Suite: A suite of institution-focused products has been developed to enhance Mantle’s DeFi value proposition, translating into increased utility and demand for $MNT through staking, governance, and network incentives.
Through these efforts, $MNT continues to evolve as a key driver of innovation and adoption across both DeFi and TradFi systems, solidifying its position as the cornerstone of the Mantle ecosystem.
Mantle Rewards Station: Multi-Campaign Incentive Hub
The Mantle Rewards Station is an all-encompassing ecosystem hub designed to strategically incentivize meaningful user engagement across multiple sectors, including DeFi, SocialFi, gaming, and NFTs. By offering targeted rewards, Mantle aims to foster active participation, drive ecosystem growth, and strengthen user retention throughout its diverse network of applications and services.
Mantle Rewards Station – Source: Mantle
Owning and locking $MNT grants users access to a wide range of exclusive rewards across the Mantle Ecosystem. By locking their $MNT for MNT Power, users can allocate voting power across various active prize pools. Rewards are distributed proportionally based on either time-weighted voting or through a lottery-based mechanism, depending on the campaign structure.
As of now, $157 million USD worth of $MNT has been locked by 46,225 participants, reflecting the strong appeal of Mantle’s incentive programs.
Current active campaigns include:
- $1.721 million USD worth of $EIGEN rewards.
- $3.02 million USD worth of $ENA rewards.
Past Rewards Distribution
Mantle Rewards Station Distribution (Nov 2024) – Source: X
Additionally, previous campaigns have distributed substantial rewards across various ecosystem projects, including 200 million $COOK (valued at ~$6.02 million) through the mETH Protocol and 4.3 million $ENA (worth ~$2.19 million) in collaboration with Ethena Labs. Other notable initiatives include partnerships with UXLINK, Skate, IntentX, and MYSO Finance.
Mantle’s diverse reward model continues to drive engagement and incentivize active participation throughout its growing ecosystem.
Mantle Treasury: Ecosystem Financial Muscle
Largest Protocol Treasuries – Source: DefiLlama
The Mantle Treasury is the largest community-owned treasury and the second-largest protocol treasury across the entire Web3 space, managing $4 billion in assets under management (AUM). In 2024, it generated $67 million in YTD income, positioning Mantle with a powerful financial resource to drive innovation, sustainability, and long-term ecosystem growth.
Key initiatives include the $200 million Mantle EcoFund, a capital pool that has accelerated ecosystem expansion by supporting 500 investment deals in collaboration with top-tier venture partners like Polychain Capital and Dragonfly Capital.
$MNT Value Accrual
$MNT Multi-faceted Token Dynamics – Source: Memento Research
The strategic reserve and substantial allocation to the Mantle Treasury reinforce the value proposition of $MNT beyond its role as a governance token. It also signifies the financial strength underpinning Mantle’s ecosystem. This dynamic creates a virtuous cycle where the Treasury’s support fosters confidence in $MNT, driving value accrual while ensuring transparency and alignment with Mantle’s long-term commitment to growth, innovation, and sustainability within the ecosystem.
Final Thoughts
Mantle has built a robust foundational DeFi stack over the years, with key highlights such as the Mantle Network, mETH Protocol, and Function driving significant ecosystem growth. Building on this success, Mantle has unveiled core innovative pillars designed to expand beyond DeFi. These initiatives, supported by strategic partnerships with Bybit and established CeFi partners, are positioned to bridge CeFi adoption and also advance into emerging technological frontiers like AI integration.
To execute this vision, Mantle has appointed top industry leaders from Bybit, BitGo, Polygon Labs, and more, ensuring strong leadership across its six core innovation pillars for 2025.
This aligned, comprehensive financial stack is strategically designed to channel value accrual back to Mantle’s on-chain infrastructure and its native token, $MNT. With a bullish macroeconomic environment in 2025 favouring increased crypto adoption, Mantle stands well-positioned at the forefront of blockchain innovation, ready to lead the space toward broader adoption and financial transformation.
Authors: @0xCheeezzyyyy, Memento Research
This report was written in partnership with Mantle. This report has been prepared for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice, financial advice, trading advice, or any other sort of advice, and you should not treat any of the report’s content as such.