Overview
Mantle started life as BitDAO, one of the largest crypto investment collectives of 2021, backed by Bybit and its co-founder Ben Zhou, along with well-known investors. In 2023 BitDAO merged into Mantle, turning its large treasury toward building an Ethereum Layer 2 network and an ecosystem of financial products around it.
Today Mantle is best known for three things: its Layer 2 network, its mETH liquid staking token, and its very close partnership with the Bybit exchange.
How it works
Mantle Network is a Layer 2 for Ethereum built with the OP Stack. It processes transactions cheaply and posts results to Ethereum. Instead of storing all transaction data on Ethereum, it uses a separate data layer (EigenDA), which makes it cheaper but relies on additional security assumptions. From 2025 it began moving to zero-knowledge proofs to settle transactions faster and with stronger guarantees.
Gas fees on Mantle are paid in MNT, not ETH, which gives the token a direct use on the network.
The Mantle ecosystem
- mETH: Mantle’s liquid staking token. You stake ETH and get mETH, which earns staking rewards while still being usable in DeFi.
- mStocks: tokenized US stocks, launched with Bybit and the issuer Backed, which let users hold stock exposure on-chain.
- Lending and vaults: an Aave-based lending market on Mantle passed $1 billion in deposits, and Bybit offers Mantle-based yield products to its users.
- Bybit perks: Bybit users get discounts on trading fees when paying with MNT, and Bybit regularly runs MNT campaigns and rewards.
The MNT token
| MNT at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Total supply | about 6.2 billion MNT |
| In circulation (Oct 2026) | about 3.3 billion |
| Price (21 Oct 2026) | about $0.54 |
| All-time high | about $2.86 (October 2025) |
| Market cap | about $1.8 billion (#56) |
MNT is used for gas on Mantle Network, governance votes and Bybit perks. A large part of the supply is held in the Mantle treasury, which the community controls through governance. That treasury funds growth, but it also means a lot of MNT could reach the market in the future.
MNT rallied strongly in late 2025 as Bybit expanded its use, then fell by about 80%.
Security and reliability
Mantle Network has run without major hacks of its core system. The main risks are:
- Bybit dependence. Much of Mantle’s growth comes from Bybit’s support. In February 2025, Bybit suffered the largest hack in crypto history, losing about $1.5 billion in ETH to North Korean hackers. Bybit covered all customer losses and Mantle itself was not affected, but it shows how much depends on one company.
- Data layer. Using EigenDA instead of Ethereum for data is cheaper but adds trust assumptions.
- Low activity. Money deposited in DeFi apps on Mantle stood at only about $100 million in October 2026, according to DeFiLlama, small for a token worth almost $2 billion.
Mantle vs. the competition
| Mantle | Arbitrum | Base | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Backed by | Bybit / BitDAO | Offchain Labs | Coinbase |
| Gas token | MNT | ETH | ETH |
| Data storage | EigenDA | Ethereum | Ethereum |
| Main strength | Treasury, Bybit integration | Deep DeFi | Users, Coinbase distribution |
Our verdict
Mantle has unusual strengths for a Layer 2: a large treasury, a top exchange behind it and products like mETH and tokenized stocks that reach Bybit’s millions of users. If Bybit keeps pushing it, MNT has real support.
But the network itself is small, the token’s value depends heavily on one exchange, and the price has fallen about 80% from its peak. MNT is a high-risk bet on the Bybit–Mantle partnership. Invest only what you can afford to lose.
This review is for information only and is not financial advice.