I’ve been diving deep into the Layer 2 space lately, and one project keeps catching my eye — Mantle Network and its native token MNT. In my latest video, I break down why I think Mantle might genuinely be one of the most undervalued tokens in crypto right now. Let me walk you through the key points.
What Is Mantle Network?
For those unfamiliar, Mantle is an Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution that emerged from the merger with BitDAO back in May 2023. That merger was a game-changer — it gave Mantle access to one of the largest community-owned treasuries in all of Web3. We’re talking about a treasury that, as of Q4 2025, sits at approximately $4.2 billion. That’s not venture capital money or some centralized fund — it’s governed by the community through on-chain proposals.
The network itself runs on the OP Stack (Optimism’s modular technology framework) and completed a major upgrade to ZK validity proofs in September 2025, which brought withdrawal times down to around 12 hours and improved finality to roughly one hour. It uses EigenDA for data availability, making it the first L2 to adopt EigenLayer’s data availability technology. This is serious infrastructure.
The Treasury Advantage
Here’s where things get really interesting. That $4.2 billion treasury isn’t just sitting there collecting dust. It’s actively being deployed to grow the ecosystem — funding DeFi incentives, developer grants, and strategic partnerships. The treasury holds a diversified mix of MNT, mETH, wETH, and stablecoins, giving the project a financial runway that most L2 competitors can only dream of.
To put this in perspective, Mantle’s treasury-to-market-cap ratio is one of the most favorable in the entire crypto space. When you compare MNT’s current market cap against the value backing it, the numbers suggest significant undervaluation. The Market Cap-to-Volume ratio sits at just 0.1, and the Market Cap-to-Open Interest ratio is 0.15 — the lowest among major comparable tokens.
mETH and cmETH: The Liquid Staking Play
One of Mantle’s strongest products is the mETH Protocol — a permissionless liquid staking and restaking platform for ETH. When you stake ETH through Mantle, you receive mETH, a value-accruing receipt token that’s widely accepted as collateral across both centralized exchanges and DeFi protocols.
But it doesn’t stop there. mETH holders can further restake into cmETH, a 1:1 receipt token that taps into multiple yield streams through restaking protocols like EigenLayer, Symbiotic, and Karak. These platforms allocate capital to Actively Validated Services (AVSs), creating a layered yield structure that’s genuinely compelling for yield-seeking investors. The MethLab lending protocol even enables liquidation-free, oracle-less borrowing against these positions on Mantle.
The Bybit Flywheel Effect
Something I find particularly bullish is what the community calls the “Bybit Flywheel.” Mantle has deep ties to Bybit — two senior Bybit executives sit on Mantle’s advisory board. The flywheel works like this: Bybit users get fee discounts for holding MNT, which drives demand. That demand feeds into potential buyback and burn mechanisms funded by exchange revenue and the Mantle treasury. As prices rise, more users are incentivized to participate, creating a reflexive loop.
This is similar to how BNB operated in its early days with Binance, and we all know how that played out. The key difference is that MNT’s current valuation metrics trail far behind peers like BNB, OKB, CRO, and HYPE. Some analysts have pointed to potential upside of 36x over the next 6-12 months if the flywheel fully kicks in — though obviously, take that with a grain of salt.
Why I Think MNT Is Undervalued
Let me lay out the bull case plainly. MNT currently trades around $0.63, which feels disconnected from the fundamentals when you consider:
- A $4.2 billion community-owned treasury actively deploying capital
- ZK validity proofs with institutional-grade infrastructure
- A thriving liquid staking ecosystem through mETH and cmETH
- Deep integration with Bybit creating organic demand
- No major token unlocks creating sell pressure
- TVL growth of 37% quarter-over-quarter in Q4 2025
The RSI is sitting around 29, which is deeply oversold territory. The price remains below all key moving averages, but that’s exactly the kind of setup where contrarian investors start paying attention.
The Risks to Watch
I always try to be balanced, so let’s talk risks. The biggest concern is Bybit dependency — if the fee discount programs or buyback mechanisms underperform, demand could cool quickly. There’s also the broader macro environment to consider. The “AI trade” has been absorbing a lot of capital that might otherwise flow into crypto, and a sector rotation would be needed for significant altcoin rallies.
L2 competition is fierce too. Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, and zkSync are all fighting for the same developer and user mindshare. Mantle needs to continue executing on its roadmap to maintain its edge.
Final Thoughts
Look, I’m not saying MNT is a guaranteed moonshot. Nothing in crypto is. But when I look at the combination of a massive treasury, solid technology, growing DeFi ecosystem, and deeply undervalued metrics compared to peers — it’s hard not to be interested. The Bybit flywheel adds an extra catalyst that most L2 tokens simply don’t have.
If you’re looking for asymmetric opportunities in the L2 space, Mantle deserves a spot on your watchlist. As always, do your own research and never invest more than you can afford to lose. Check out the full video above for my complete breakdown.
Michael Gu
Michael Gu, Creator of Boxmining, stared in the Blockchain space as a Bitcoin miner in 2012. Something he immediately noticed was that accurate information is hard to come by in this space. He started Boxmining in 2017 mainly as a passion project, to educate people on digital assets and share his experiences. Being based in Asia, Michael also found a huge discrepancy between digital asset trends and knowledge gap in the West and China.