**Monad Raises $225M for New Layer-1 Smart Contract Platform**

Monad, a new layer-1 smart contract platform, has secured $225 million in funding from venture capital firm Paradigm. Although not yet launched, Monad is set to go live on its public testnet in late 2024, with a mainnet deployment planned for early 2025.

Monad aims to parallelize Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) instructions, enabling the network to process multiple transactions concurrently. This boosts transaction volume, increases throughput, and reduces costs.

Key innovations include MonadBFT, a two-phase Byzantine-fault-tolerant algorithm, deferred execution, parallel execution, and MonadDB, a custom database designed for parallel execution. These features collectively enhance scalability and efficiency, positioning Monad as a strong contender in the blockchain space.