$MNT Hits 8-Month High Amid Mantle-Bybit Integration and Upcoming Mainnet Upgrade

On August 14, Mantle Network unveiled one of its most ambitious moves with a deep integration of its native token $MNT with global exchange Bybit. Before the announcement, $MNT was trading at $1.03.

Following the news, $MNT surged for four consecutive days, reaching approximately $1.40 by August 18, marking its highest level in eight months and a gain of nearly 40%.

A major mainnet upgrade (v1.3.1) is scheduled for August 27. The upgrade will align Mantle with Ethereum’s Prague hard fork and enhance interoperability across exchanges including Coinbase Futures and Bitfinex.

Mantle Network, and Bybit Background

Mantle Network was originally incubated by BitDAO and has maintained close ties with the Bybit exchange. It is a modular Ethereum Layer-2 network with a strong focus on RWA tokenization and institutional-grade liquidity infrastructure. Mantle bridges DeFi and TradFi by enabling large-scale on-chain settlement. Its native token $MNT is used for governance, incentives, and ecosystem expansion.

Since its mainnet launch in July 2023, Mantle’s liquid staking solution, mETH, attracted over $340 million in TVL within only about five months, quickly becoming the sixth largest LST, representing 1.35 percent of the total market cap. Currently, mETH has grown further to over $1.38 billion in TVL.

Bybit, founded in 2018, has become the world’s second-largest spot exchange and third-largest derivatives exchange, processing over $30 billion in daily volume. The exchange serves more than 30 million users worldwide and offers spot, derivatives, OTC, NFT, and Web3 services.

On August 5, Bybit Co-CEO Helen Liu and Head of Spot/Web3 Business Emily Bao joined the Mantle Advisory Board.

Liu focuses on global operations and compliance, while Bao bridges DeFi and RWA use cases. Their involvement strengthens the strategic partnership, aiming to establish Mantle as an institutional-grade liquidity hub.

Integration Details

On August 14, Mantle and Bybit co-hosted a livestream to present the “Mantle 2.0” vision, positioning Mantle as institutional liquidity infrastructure and promoting the idea of “Tokenize Everything.” The integration will roll out in phases.

Current Phase

• $MNT added to Bybit Launchpool for staking-based token launches

• Support in Smart Leverage structured products using $MNT as collateral

• Integration into Bybit’s OTC desk for institutional block trades

Upcoming Phase

• $MNT as a fee payment token with trading discounts

• VIP tiering and user privileges tied to $MNT holdings

• $MNT-denominated trading pairs for deeper liquidity

• Payment expansion to Bybit Card, Bybit Pay, and ticketing

• Integration into institutional lending and borrowing products

Mantle will continue funding RWA startups through its EcoFund and Grants program while leveraging Bybit’s massive retail traffic.

Buy-Side Pressure Model

The integration’s most significant effect lies in routing Bybit’s trading fees into $MNT purchases. Based on Bybit’s 12-month average daily volumes ($5.5B spot, $43B derivatives) and fee ranges (0.02%-0.06%), a buyback model estimates:

• Conservative (10% fee conversion) $570K daily demand, ~$208M annually

• Base Case (30%) $2.46M daily demand, ~$898M annually

• Optimistic (60%) $7.2M daily demand, ~$2.6B annually

These estimates highlight $MNT’s potential as a functional exchange token, similar to BNB or OKB, backed by a hybrid CeFi-DeFi strategy.

This model was shared on X by professional advisor @Moomsxxx as a reference framework. He emphasized that these figures are hypothetical estimates, but noted that the involvement of Bybit executives, the launch of Neobank services, and the $MNT integration collectively serve as major catalysts for the Mantle ecosystem and token, indicating a fundamentally bullish outlook.

The Mantle-Bybit integration represents one of 2025’s important pivotal crypto developments. It marks $MNT’s transition from a governance token to a core financial asset within both DeFi and CeFi ecosystems.

Today’s scheduled mainnet upgrade (v1.3.1) will align Mantle with Ethereum’s Prague hard fork and enhance cross-exchange interoperability, setting the stage for further ecosystem growth. Investors and market participants will be watching closely for the impact of the upgrade and upcoming developments.