The Bankless Guide to Mantle

Created by the BitDAO community, Mantle is an emerging Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) solution carving out its niche in the modular rollup space. 

Unlike traditional L2s, Mantle is pioneering a unique approach by setting up to leverage EigenLayer’s upcoming EigenDA data availability solution, which is a first in the rollups scene. 

With its mainnet launch in July 2023, Mantle has already amassed over $136M in total value locked (TVL), making it the 7th-largest L2 at the time of writing.

How Mantle works

Mantle is an optimistic-style rollup based on a fork of Optimism’s Optimistic Virtual Machine (OVM). This means that while Mantle doesn’t rely on the OP Stack, which is gaining traction via L2s like Base and Zora Network, the scaling solution does rely on earlier Optimism technology. 

Beyond the OVM, the most unique thing about Mantle is its plans to use EigenDA for data availability. 

Remember: one way or another, any L1 or L2 must handle security, transaction execution, and data availability. Previously, all the reigning L2s have relied on Ethereum for their security and data storage, so Mantle is unprecedented in being the first rollup to go modular in tapping Ethereum for security but outsourcing its data needs beyond Ethereum to EigenDA.

The pulse of Mantle

Since its mainnet launch, Mantle has shown promising early signs of growth, but the L2 is still definitively in its developmental phase. 

According to L2BEAT, Mantle currently has some weak points across its core pillars, e.g., the prospects of proposer or sequencer failures here are non-trivial this early on. If you’re considering diving into this L2 right now, exercise caution and only invest what you can afford to lose, just in case.

Zooming in a bit, presently, the largest DeFi apps on Mantle are a trio of decentralized exchanges, namely Agni Finance ($19M TVL), iZiSwap ($14M TVL), and FusionX Finance ($5M TVL). The L2 currently doesn’t have much of an NFT scene, though we’ve seen some recent signs of life here as a result of the multichain NFT minting platform Holograph adding support for Mantle mints. 

What you need to use Mantle

1.  A wallet — You can use a resource like ChainList to easily add Mantle to your wallet, e.g., MetaMask; for reference, the Chain ID is 5000
2.  Starter MNT — Instead of ETH, Mantle uses its native MNT token for gas payments on the network; as such, bridging in some MNT to pay for transactions and ETH for trading is a basic starting point

How to bridge to Mantle

If you’d like to bridge ETH to Mantle, a basic starting point is the native Mantle Bridge. Simply input the amount of MNT, ETH, etc., you want to deposit, confirm the transaction with your wallet, and then wait for your funds to arrive on the Mantle network. 

Due to the nature of optimistic-style rollups, it will take ~7 days for withdrawals (not deposits) to process via this native Mantle Bridge. If you’d like quicker withdrawals, you can consider using 3rd-party “fast” bridges, although not many have added support for Mantle yet. Keep an eye on projects like Bungee, which may do so in time. 

What to do on Mantle

Currently, the easiest resource to use to find projects to try on Mantle is the Mantle Ecosystem database. Mantle is a newer L2, so its app scene is relatively small compared to some of the top rollups, but a few options you might consider to begin with include:

1.  Agni.Finance — Currently the largest DEX on Mantle
2.  Holograph — NFT minting platform
3.  LYNC — web3 game builder

Additional Mantle resources

If you’re interested in learning more about Mantle and enhancing your comprehension of this L2, there are plenty of great resources available. Be sure to also check out: 

1. Mantle Docs
2. Mantle block explorer
3. Mantle DefiLlama dashboard

Zooming out

Mantle is an interesting new addition to the Ethereum L2 landscape. Its unique approach to its modular rollup architecture makes it a project to watch and one that will inspire L2s. However, it’s also crucial to remember that Mantle is still in its developmental phase, and caution is advised. If you want to explore Mantle apps, do your own research and proceed in a measured fashion.