Monad Co-Founder Warns of Telegram Ad Scam Ahead of Airdrop

Monad co-founder Keone Hon has issued an urgent warning after fake Telegram ads promoting scam airdrop links appeared inside the project’s official announcement channel. The incident comes just days before the highly anticipated Monad airdrop, drawing attention from both investors and scammers alike.

• Scammers bought Telegram ads that appeared inside Monad’s official channel.
• Keone Hon warned users not to click links or act with urgency.
• The fake ads mimicked the official airdrop claim portal, opening Tuesday.
• MON token trades around $0.07 on Hyperliquid, implying a $7B FDV.
• Monad is an EVM-compatible Layer 1 claiming to solve the blockchain trilemma.
• The fake ads violate Telegram’s own policies on phishing and deceptive content.

Scammers targeted Monad’s official Telegram announcement channel, exploiting Telegram’s advertising system to place malicious links promoting a fake airdrop portal. The fraudulent ads appeared directly inside Monad’s verified channel, deceiving users into believing they were official updates from the project team.

Keone Hon, Monad’s co-founder, took to X (formerly Twitter) to warn users not to click on any promotional content appearing inside the channel. “Crazy that Telegram will push content directly into a channel that otherwise only contains content from one party,” he wrote, expressing frustration that the platform’s ad system allowed such impersonation.

The attack arrived just ahead of Monad’s official airdrop, scheduled to open at 1:00 pm UTC on Tuesday, when the claim portal is expected to go live. Hon emphasized that users should remain calm and not rush to claim tokens immediately, reminding them that the claim window will remain open for three weeks.

“Do not act with urgency, and always triple-verify before doing anything,” Hon warned. The Monad team also confirmed that any legitimate announcements would only come from their official Telegram and X accounts.

Meanwhile, anticipation for the token launch remains high. On Hyperliquid’s perpetual futures market, the MON token is already trading around $0.07, implying a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of roughly $7 billion based on a total supply of 100 billion tokens. The market activity reflects investors’ growing confidence in Monad’s potential as a next-generation Layer 1 blockchain.

Monad aims to deliver Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility while vastly improving scalability and transaction throughput. Its architecture reportedly allows 10,000 transactions per second (TPS) with near-instant finality, thanks to parallel execution and an optimized consensus mechanism. The team claims Monad has effectively solved the blockchain trilemma — balancing scalability, security, and decentralization — a feat few projects have achieved.

However, the phishing attack raises questions about Telegram’s advertising oversight. The fake ads clearly violated Telegram’s Ad Policies, which prohibit deceptive content, phishing attempts, and fraudulent financial promotions. According to the platform’s own rules, “Ads must not promote phishing, including services that trick users into providing personal or financial information.”

Despite these safeguards, scammers successfully inserted malicious ads into Monad’s verified channel. This suggests a weakness in Telegram’s ad vetting process, highlighting the need for stronger security reviews before paid content is approved.

When contacted, Telegram’s official press channel only issued an automated response, providing no further comment on how such ads bypassed moderation.

Final Thought

The Monad Telegram scam underscores how opportunistic attackers exploit major token launches to deceive users. As anticipation builds for Monad’s $7 billion airdrop, users are urged to remain cautious, avoid clicking suspicious links, and verify all announcements through official sources only. The incident also places renewed pressure on Telegram to strengthen its ad security and protect crypto users from phishing threats.