Mantle

Mantle is a crypto ecosystem steered by holders of its MNT token. Its docs describe two core products: Mantle Network, a layer-2 chain that settles on Ethereum, and mETH Protocol, a liquid staking service that turns deposited ETH into a token called mETH. Mantle Improvement Proposals are voted on by MNT holders, and the docs say most approved decisions are then carried out off-chain by a core contributor team.

Mantle grew out of BitDAO. Its tokenomics page says the initial MNT distribution of 7 July 2023 was set by BitDAO proposals, and the MIP votes linked from the mETH docs were held in the bitdao.eth Snapshot space. The mETH Protocol began as "Mantle LSP", proposed on the Mantle forum in July 2023, and was renamed in August 2024.

The legal entity behind mETH is MantleLSP Limited, a British Virgin Islands company registered on 10 October 2023 with company number 2133739, according to the protocol's MiCA white paper. That filing names Sun Yuanqing as director, gives a Vistra corporate services address in Tortola, and lists no parent company. Mantle does not publish a single group legal entity for the network or the treasury.

You deposit ETH into the mETH Protocol contracts on Ethereum and receive mETH, a token whose value in ETH rises as rewards accrue rather than one that pays out more tokens. Staked ETH is run by five professional node operators: A41, P2P, Blockdaemon, stakefish and Kraken. The docs say validator rewards and withdrawals point to the protocol's own contracts, so node operators cannot take the staked principal.

Since 24 October 2025 the protocol also keeps a liquidity buffer: unstaked ETH lent on Aave's Ethereum Core market to earn interest and pay out redemptions quickly. mETH's reward is a weighted average of staking and that lending income. A quorum of three of six oracles reports balances every eight hours, and the protocol pauses itself if a report deviates unexpectedly.

cmETH is the restaking version. It is a 1:1 receipt for mETH that the protocol restakes across EigenLayer, Symbiotic and Karak, and it moves between chains through LayerZero. Holders earn mETH rewards plus restaking rewards, and take on the slashing rules of those restaking systems as well.

The fees come from the mETH documentation as of October 2026.

On 25 October 2026 the methprotocol.xyz homepage displayed a 5.00% APY for mETH. That is the company's own figure, not checked here, and the rate changes with staking and Aave lending yields.

In normal operation the staked principal sits in mETH Protocol smart contracts. The custody page is direct about the exceptions: in an emergency, the Security Council multisig can upgrade the logic of every contract, change withdrawal addresses, change permissions and change variables. All contracts use OpenZeppelin upgradeable proxies, and the only proxy admin is a timelock controlled by the Mantle Security Council on Ethereum and on Mantle Network. The docs state that this timelock is set to a delay of 0, so upgrades can be scheduled and run immediately, and that governance intends to lengthen it later. We did not check the on-chain value.

The protocol has a long audit list. Hexens reviewed the original mETH contracts in August 2023. For cmETH and the COOK token in 2024, it lists Hexens, Secure3, BlockSec, Quantstamp, Fuzzland (Verilog) and MixBytes. For the 2025 liquidity buffer, it lists Exvul, BlockSec, Hexens and MixBytes. The homepage also lists audits from Hexens, Secure3, MixBytes, Quantstamp, Verilog and BlockSec, and says the protocol has had "zero slashing incidents". The bug bounty page in the docs was empty when opened on 25 October 2026. DefiLlama's hacks database had no entry for mETH or Mantle that day.

• Smart contract and upgrade risk: a compromised or mistaken Security Council action could take effect without a waiting period.
• Exit delays: if the buffer runs short, redemptions wait on Ethereum's validator exit queue.
• Aave exposure: the buffer carries Aave's smart contract, oracle and collateral risks.
• Restaking: cmETH adds the slashing and operational risks of EigenLayer, Symbiotic and Karak.
• Partner exposure: the docs describe a deeper partnership with Bybit for using mETH and cmETH as collateral, and positions held on an exchange add that exchange's risk.

Staking takes one transaction at app.methprotocol.xyz with a self-custody wallet holding ETH on Ethereum. mETH can also be bought on exchanges that list it or bridged to Mantle Network, which takes about 2 minutes from Ethereum to Mantle and up to 12 hours back.

Unstaking puts a request into a first-in, first-out queue. Every claim waits at least about 12 hours (3,600 blocks), even when ETH is available. Small redemptions are usually paid from the buffer within minutes, according to the homepage, and the site cites about 24 hours for large ones. If the buffer is empty, the wait depends on the Ethereum validator exit queue, which the docs warn can take more than 40 days. cmETH exits take up to about 7 days, depending on inventory and restaking cooldowns. After the wait you claim the ETH in a second transaction.

The contracts are permissionless, but the issuer restricts US sales. The MiCA white paper and the token pages say mETH, COOK and MNT may not be offered, resold or transferred to US persons except under a securities law exemption. In the EU, MantleLSP Limited notified a MiCA white paper for mETH on 16 April 2026, with Ireland as home member state and passporting listed for the other EU and EEA states. The paper itself states it has not been approved by any authority. That is a disclosure filing, not a licence. Exchanges that list mETH apply their own identity checks.

MNT pays gas on Mantle Network and carries governance votes. Mantle's token API reported a total supply of about 6.22 billion MNT on 25 October 2026. COOK is a separate governance token for the mETH Protocol, with a fixed supply of 5 billion, launched on 29 October 2024, with a planned split of 60% to the mETH community, 30% to the Mantle treasury and 10% to core contributors.

Mantle Network's docs describe it as a ZK validity rollup. Since the OP Succinct upgrade of September 2025, state is proven with zero-knowledge proofs, and withdrawals through the official bridge take 12 hours instead of 7 days. Mantle chose to keep a 12-hour window as a safety buffer so the team could respond to an attack. For how mETH compares with other liquid staking tokens, see mETH among liquid staking options.

MNT's initial distribution followed BitDAO votes and took place on 7 July 2023. Staking of treasury ETH was approved under MIP-25 in August 2023. mETH contracts went to a closed alpha in October 2023, and public staking opened on 8 December 2023 with a 250,000 mETH cap. MIP-30 in May 2024 approved cmETH and a separate governance token. The rename to mETH Protocol followed in August 2024, and COOK and public cmETH launched on 29 and 30 October 2024. The liquidity buffer arrived on 24 October 2025, and the MiCA white paper was published on 15 May 2026.