This proposal is authored by the Mantle Core Contributor team.
Executive summary
Authorization for Mantle’s third budget cycle (July 2025 to June 2026) was approved through MIP-33. Spending under each category remained within the scope of the budget. Execution through the cycle supported Mantle’s transition and growth from bring a general purpose L2 chain to into an intentional focus as a distribution layer for on-chain finance and real-world assets, while preserving the fiscal discipline established in MIP-31 and MIP-33.
This proposal reviews performance across the second and third cycles and raises the budget proposal to authorize Core operations for the fourth budget cycle (July 2026 to June 2027).
The last two years have been a period of transition. Mantle Network moved from an optimistic rollup to a ZK validity design, completed the Arsia upgrade as a key technology milestone for the industry. Alongside the network, a set of dedicated product lines — such as mETH Protocol and UR — have matured into separate operating surfaces. Distribution deepened through Bybit and through issuer partners in tokenized funds, credit and equities. The Core budget for the coming cycle is designed around that new shape of the organisation: a focused Network platform that hosts, secures and distributes real-world assets governed by $MNT holders.
Key points for voters and delegates:
- Core expenditures in the third cycle are tracking within the authorized limits for every MIP-33 category.
- The budget limit for the fourth budget cycle has been reduced and calibrated given the operational confidence to operate within limits: 40 million USDx and 150 million MNT.
- Product-line operating costs for mETH Protocol and UR sit independently with those products unless a recharge to Core is specifically disclosed.
- Any actual or forecast spending above a published category limit, or above the totals, continues to require a subsequent discussion and vote.
Proposal
For the fourth budget cycle (the 12-month period from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027), we propose the following terms for consideration and voting.
By voting “Yes" or “For”, you endorse the following terms.
- Limits – The authorized limits for the fourth budget cycle shall be:
- Total USDx limit: 40 million units.
- Total MNT limit: 150 million units.
The limits are proposed to provide flexibility for business expansion while maintaining an oversight checkpoint from Mantle Governance. Actual spend will likely be well below limits. Authorized category limits for the fourth cycle:
| Cost category | USDx | MNT |
|---|---|---|
| Workforce — Network, security, institutional coverage, core operations | $10,000,000 | 30,000,000 |
| G&A — legal, regulatory, finance, people, administration | $5,000,000 | 2,000,000 |
| Marketing and institutional distribution | $7,000,000 | 12,000,000 |
| Ecosystem and builder programmes | $8,000,000 | 96,000,000 |
| Infrastructure and security | $10,000,000 | 10,000,000 |
| Total | $40,000,000 | 150,000,000 |
- Exclusions – The following items shall not form part of the budget scope or limits:
- Financing and treasury-strategy activities (for example node delegation, working-capital arrangements, and credit facilities). Loan receivables returned or settled are not treated as expenses.
- Liquidity provisioning and investments, which continue under their own authorizations.
- Protocol gas costs related to Network operations (L1 commitment gas, data-availability settlement, LSP node gas, and ad-hoc deployment gas). These costs continue to be tracked on Treasury Monitor.
- Other non-USDx / non-MNT programmes. ETH, mETH, ENA, USDG or other partner tokens used for public incentive programmes, if any, remain subject to community oversight.
- Product-line operating costs of mETH Protocol and UR that are borne by those products’ own wallets or vehicles, except where a recharge to Core is disclosed.
- Budget cycle
All annual budgets and limits shall be extended pro-rata for up to 6 months of the following budget cycle to allow for subsequent budget to be proposed, discussed, and approved.
Review of budget versus actuals
Revenue
During the previous budget cycle, Mantle reported $18.0 million of revenue from treasury investment and Network operations. Treasury revenue comprises yield on yield-bearing assets, (including the treasury’s look-through share of yield accruing inside the Mantle Index Four fund), yield on stablecoin balances, covered-call option premiums and reward tokens recognised at value on the date of claim.
Expenses
Core spending remained inside every published limit in both the second and third cycles. The third-cycle figures below are drawn from the internal Budget 25/26 Review shown below.
| USDx For the 12 months ended 30 June, 2026 |
MNT For the 12 months ended 30 June, 2026 |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Budget Limit | Actual Spend | Budget Limit | Actual Spend |
| Workforce | $13.00m | $4.64m | 50.00m | 8.49m |
| G&A | $5.00m | $2.31m | N/A | 1.33m |
| Marketing | $12.00m | $2.57m | 20.00m | 0.94m |
| Ecosystem | $12.00m | $1.60m | 120.00m | 27.18m |
| Infrastructure | $10.00m | $5.98m | 10.00m | 1.69m |
| Total | $52.00m | $17.11m | 200.00m | 39.63m |
Operating highlights and achievements
The scorecard below is the public record against which the fourth-cycle plan is set.
Network and reliability
- Mantle Network successfully migrated as a ZK validity rollup on the OP Stack with OP Succinct proofs. Mantle continues to be a leader for blockchain technology adoption as the largest ZK validity rollup measured by total value secured.
- Arsia mainnet activation in April 2026 unified outstanding OP Stack forks and introduced an improved fee model.
- The 2026 protocol roadmap continues through a full Reth sequencer with related improvements and RPC cutover, Bridge v2, Flashblocks, native account abstraction and alignment with Ethereum’s Glamsterdam upgrade.
- The Mantle Super Portal migrated to Chainlink CCIP in July 2026, placing cross-chain MNT transfer on institutional-grade interoperability rails.
- Mantle Network maintained a 100% uptime record
Real-world assets and on-chain distribution
- RWA TVL on Mantle reached $247.5 million at the end of Q1 2026, up 27.4% quarter on quarter, with Maple syrupUSDT, xStocks tokenized equities and stablecoins (USDT0, USDC, USDE) among the major contributors.
- Mantle onboarded more than 1,000+ tokenized assets according to RWA.xyz collaborated with xStock, one of the leading partners in tokenization industry, bringing tokenized U.S equities and related listings expanded through 2026, including infrastructure such as atomic RFQ mint-and-redeem on Fluxion with Bybit and issue partners.
- Mantle joined the Global Dollar Network, extending USDG as part of the regulated-stablecoin surface on the chain. As a native stablecoin, USDG enables intraday fiat liquidity movement to-and-from the Mantle chain with the traditional SWIFT banking system.
- Ondo USDY, tokenized gold and other public RWA tickets continue to sit in the network’s asset mix, alongside native and bridged stablecoins.
- Mantle Vault, a new yield generating opportunities distributed through Bybit Onchain Earn and onchain via partners including Cian, Grove, Fluxion, provides a path from exchange liquidity into DeFi yields and crossed up to $250M AUM after launch.
Liquidity and capital formation
- Aave V3 deployed on Mantle in February 2026 and became a primary on-chain liquidity venue through the first half of the year.
- The community treasury remains one of the largest in the industry, on the order of $2.5–2.6 billion at early-September 2026 prices, providing the balance-sheet depth behind Core operations and product-line growth.
- Stablecoin supply on Mantle remains a distinctive strength of the network and a prerequisite for RWA settlement and on-chain fund operations.
Product lines hosted on Mantle
- mETH Protocol continues to serve as an Ethereum staking yield rail across the Mantle and Bybit ecosystems, enabling institutions to earn rewards on ETH holdings, with over $500 million in TVL as of October 2026.
- UR continues as a distinct smart-money application with IBAN, card, FX and Mantle settlement.
Priorities for the fourth cycle
Cycle four is organised around four priorities. Category limits and the operating plan are the budget expression of those priorities.
- Chain reliability and improvement: Proof quality, withdrawal finality, client diversity, audit coverage and institutional-grade key management are the foundation on which issuers and allocators underwrite a chain.
- Real world asset (RWA) distribution: Issuer origination, servicing rails, compliance-related integrations, and on-chain liquidity for tokenized funds, credit and equities.
- Focused ecosystem support: Growth and liquidity support programmes concentrated on issuance tooling, on-chain fund operations, institutional liquidity venues and developer infrastructure that shortens time-to-production on Mantle.
Budget Review by category
Category: Workforce
- Budget limit in the third budget cycle: $13 million USDx + 50 million MNT
- Actual spend in the third budget cycle: $4.64 million USDx + 8.49 million MNT
- Budget limit in the fourth budget cycle: $10 million USDx + 30 million MNT
- Mantle’s Core team tightened from 72 to 35 full-time contributors during the third cycle with a renewed focus to drive operational efficiency. Cycle four holds that focused shape.
- MNT awards for Core contributors continue, at a right-sized authorization, so that long-term alignment remains part of the operating model.
Category: General and administrative
- Budget limit in the third budget cycle: $5 million USDx
- Actual spend in the third budget cycle: $2.31 million USDx + 1.33 million MNT
- Budget limit in the fourth budget cycle: $5 million USDx + 2 million MNT
- The USDx ceiling is unchanged as observed legal, regulatory and control work is now a standing requirement with increased adoption focus for real world assets and institutional support.
- Mantle uses various professional service providers of which professional services for recruitment services, legal advisory, finance support remain the largest component. Travel and general administration are tightly managed.
Category: Marketing
- Budget limit in the third budget cycle: $12 million USDx + 20 million MNT
- Actual spend in the third budget cycle: $2.57 million USDx + 1.43 million MNT
- Budget limit in the fourth budget cycle: $7 million USDx + 12 million MNT
- Mantle continues to work with leading marketing agencies, partners, and research entities to strengthen its visibility across the global crypto community. Coverage from reputable media and research institutions — including Blockworks, Token Relations, Nansen, and Blockchain at Berkeley.
- Mantle’s Twitter continues to drive strong engagement, with over 800K followers and ranked in the top 0.5% of crypto twitter accounts for engagement - earning 22K+ followers with 19M+ accumulated impressions YoY.
- Mantle has maintained a strong global presence, participating in over 50 events, including Consensus Miami, Consensus Hong Kong, EthCC, TOKEN2049 Singapore, and major blockchain weeks worldwide. Furthermore, through the introduction of Mantle Squad, the squad has established itself as Mantle’s core community-driven creator and contributor program, uniting builders, researchers, content creators, and regional teams across the globe(NA,JP,KR,CN) and beyond to amplify the ecosystem’s narrative.
Category: Ecosystem and Builder programmes
- Budget limit in the third budget cycle: $12 million USDx + 120 million MNT
- Actual spend in the third budget cycle: $1.6 million USDx + 27.75 million MNT
- Budget limit in the fourth budget cycle: $8 million USDx + 96 million MNT
- Tailored Ecosystem and builder support: With Mantle’s concentrated focus towards RWA and DeFI support, the budget has been streamlined to drive campaigns and activations on priority DeFi dApps and asset liquidity activations that drive material asset value and use cases.
- Additionally, Mantle has increased quality thresholds and enhanced business case considerations for project onboarding and activation. Grants to ecosystem projects account for 6% and 30% of USDx and MNT spent respectively (Down significantly from past cycle). As such, a reduction to the limits is optimal given the concentrated and discretionary focus.
- Capital Formation & Liquidity Growth: Mantle Network currently secures $1.44Bn of assets with over $239M in real world assets from tokenized money market funds, asset backed credit, alternative investment funds, and tokenized equities. We expect the RWA category to grow materially and the budget will primarily be used to enable key liquidity and activation blockers.
Category: Infrastructure and security
- Budget limit in the third budget cycle: $10 million USDx + 10 million MNT
- Actual spend in the third budget cycle: $5.98 million USDx + 1.78 million MNT
- Budget limit in the fourth budget cycle: $10 million USDx + 10 million MNT
- Infrastructure remains trending in stable expenses over the past cycles. As such budget limits remain unchanged.
- Priority work in cycle four includes improving ZK proving operations, the Reth sequencer improvements and RPC cutover, and audit coverage and maintenance across Network, Super Portal / CCIP, account abstraction and tokenized-asset surfaces, together with RPC, explorer, oracle, indexer and key-management services.
Conclusion
Mantle has demonstrated continued strong financial discipline and operational excellence in the third budget cycle, while simultaneously opening up borderless access to onchain capital markets. The fourth cycle builds on that foundation: a focused Mantle Core responsible for the Network, positioned to power the full lifecycle of capital market assets, from issuance to global access, liquidity, and adoption.