Word on the street is that the famous big truck Monad is *finally* launching its mainnet in Q4. And then aPriori announced that anyone with a Role on Monad’s server can also claim a Role from aPriori, giving airdrop hunters an extra reward. aPriori is an LST+MEV protocol on Monad, holding a position on Monad similar to Lido on ETH or Jito on SOL. But gotta say, the name is kinda hard to remember . Names like Lido and Jito are so much easier to recall and pronounce. Did some digging, and if I’m not mistaken, the name aPriori comes from the Latin term “a priori,” meaning “results derived from established facts/truths (without relying on observation, experimentation, or experience).” As for pronunciation, it’s roughly uh pree-OR-ee. Luckily, their domain is pretty solid—three letters “apr” + the “io” suffix, which is definitely a win. The reason I’m paying attention to this protocol is partly because I invested a bit in aPriori on ECHO earlier, and partly because of the Monad ecosystem. Not sure if you’ve noticed, but Monad’s ecosystem has been star-studded from the start, even during its fundraising. Monad, as an EVM-compatible L1, managed to raise a whopping $244M, with a full-on all-star cap table. aPriori has locked in the top spot as Monad’s LST leader, helping it secure funding from Pantera and YZI. Pantera led both the seed round and the follow-on round, while Binance carved out a separate strategic round. According to disclosures from Rootdata, aPriori’s founder Ray previously worked at Pyth and Jump, while co-founder Olivia was a developer at Coinbase. Wondering if aPriori’s TGE in the future can ride the wave of LDO’s buyback proposal. If LDO successfully resolves the legal issues around buybacks and the market gets hyped, then the LST leaders across chains should all see some good momentum.