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Monad Co-Founder Alerts Users to Telegram Scam
Monad co-founder Keone Hon has issued a strong warning to the community after scammers targeted the project’s official Telegram channel with fake advertisements. These malicious ads, designed to look like Monad’s official airdrop claim portal, appeared directly inside the project’s announcement channel — a space normally reserved for updates from Monad itself.
Hon expressed frustration on X (formerly Twitter), saying, “Crazy that Telegram will push content directly into a channel that otherwise only contains content from one party.”
The timing of this phishing attempt has raised concerns, as it comes just ahead of Monad’s much-anticipated airdrop, which opens at 1:00 pm UTC on Tuesday.
Fake Ads Appear in Official Telegram Channel
Scammers reportedly purchased Telegram ads that looked identical to Monad’s genuine posts, tricking users into believing they were part of the project’s official announcements. These ads contained fake claim links leading to phishing sites meant to steal users’ funds or private information.
Hon cautioned users to remain calm and avoid rushing into any action:
“Do not act with urgency, and always triple-verify before doing anything.”
He reassured the community that the airdrop claim portal will remain open for three weeks, giving participants plenty of time to verify official sources before interacting with any links.
Monad’s Token Already Valued at $7 Billion
Even before its official token launch, the excitement surrounding Monad has been significant. The upcoming MON token is already trading on Hyperliquid’s perpetual futures market at around $0.07, giving it an estimated fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $7 billion based on its total supply of 100 billion tokens.
This early market activity highlights the strong investor anticipation ahead of Monad’s mainnet debut. Many in the crypto community view Monad as a potential challenger to other high-performance layer-1 blockchains, given its ambitious technical design.
Monad’s Promise: Speed, Scalability, and Security
Monad positions itself as a layer-1 blockchain compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). It aims to boost scalability and throughput while maintaining the security and decentralization of established networks.
The project claims to achieve up to 10,000 transactions per second (TPS) with near-instant finality through parallel transaction execution and an optimized consensus layer.
In doing so, Monad suggests it may have solved the blockchain trilemma — the long-standing challenge of balancing scalability, security, and decentralization simultaneously.
Telegram Ads Violate Platform Policies
The presence of deceptive ads inside an official Telegram channel has raised serious concerns about Telegram’s ad vetting process.
Telegram’s own Ad Policies clearly prohibit misleading promotions, phishing links, and manipulative content. The platform’s guidelines explicitly state:
“Ads must not promote phishing, including services that trick a user into providing personal or other information.”
Despite these rules, the fake Monad ads slipped through the system — highlighting potential gaps in Telegram’s ad review process.
Community Urged to Stay Cautious
As excitement builds for the upcoming airdrop, Monad’s team is reminding users to stay cautious and trust only official sources.
Hon’s message to the community is clear:
- Avoid clicking links from unknown or promoted ads.
- Verify announcements on Monad’s official website or X page.
- Take your time — there’s no need to rush into claiming tokens.
With phishing scams becoming more sophisticated, this incident serves as an important reminder that scammers often target major events and token launches to exploit hype and confusion.
For now, Monad’s airdrop remains one of the most awaited events in the blockchain space — but users will need to stay alert to keep their assets safe.