How and Where to Buy MonaCoin (MONA) – Detailed Guide

What is MONA?

What Is MonaCoin (MONA)?

MonaCoin (MONA) is an open-source decentralized cryptocurrency and a peer-to-peer (p2p) payment network. Launched in January 2014 with no pre-mine process, MonaCoin is built on an algorithm called Lyra2RE (v2), and is based on a hard fork of Litecoin.

The MonaCoin payment network is entirely decentralized. Like most decentralized projects, it doesn’t belong to one single person, but belongs to all users. Moreover, the peer-to-peer technology behind MONA makes the platform independent and self-governing. New coins are issued collectively with the users of the system as payment for mining.

Miners earn 25 coins for every 90 blocks processed; block generation time is 1.5 minutes and mining difficulty depends on each block.

The MonaCoin community is the most active and engaged cryptocurrency user association in Japan with impressive support from local investors and crypto enthusiasts. The project gained public attention when it was featured on the WBS TV Network Tokyo, which presented the story of a man who bought a piece of land in Nagano with MonaCoin.

Who Are the Founders of MonaCoin?

MonaCoin was launched on January 1, 2014, based on a cat-like internet meme -- specifically, the popular ASCII art character, Mona.

MONA is the first alternative cryptocurrency developed in Japan. The project was created covertly by a user named 'Mr. Wantanabe'. As of October 2021, the development team remains completely anonymous. There is no information about the founder, no details about the number of participants as well. The names, photos or social media pages of the MonaCoin team are not available.

What Makes MonaCoin Unique?

MonaCoin (MONA) is a cryptocurrency developed in Japan that has earned a reputation and has gathered a community of fans mainly in its homeland. Due to the formidable fanbase, MonaCoin users managed to create several MONA-based web applications and services, which significantly increased the utility of the project.

Distinctive features of MonaCoin include:

Fast transaction processing. The blocking time for MONA is 1.5 minutes. Plus-- MonaCoin supports both public and private transactions.

Widespread deployment. The cryptocurrency has existed since 2013. Therefore, over the years, MONA has pursued the goal of becoming a convenient and inexpensive cryptocurrency for the Japanese audience.

Dedicated community. MonaCoin is supported by its community, relying primarily on its supportive and loyal users, in contrast to projects that rely on the support of an outside development team and third-party system.

MonaCoin is a hard fork of Litecoin, and Litecoin is a hard fork of Bitcoin, however, MonaCoin has a much larger circulating and maximum supply than Bitcoin and Litecoin. Moreover, MonaCoin operates on its own hashing algorithm.

MonaCoin (MONA) uses Dark Gravity Wave (v3) and Lyra2RE (v2) algorithms to ensure transparency, fairness, and safety.

Related Pages:

Read about Dogecoin (DOGE) and SHIBA INU (SHIB).

Read about Hoge Finance (HOGE) and TacoCat Token (TCT).

Learn more about SafeMoon (SAFEMOON).

What are Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks? Find out with CMC Alexandria.

How Many MonaCoin (MONA) Coins Are There in Circulation?

MonaCoin (MONA) is a meme coin with real-world use. The project combines decentralization and a convenient payment system with instant transactions.

The maximum supply that will ever be released to the market is 105,120,000 $MONA (physical and digital). MonaCoin doesn’t have a pre-mining process, so developers and users are on equal terms to receive MONA. Tokens can be mined via special mining software; coins can be purchased from major cryptocurrency exchanges.

MonaCoin uses Lyra2RE (v2) and Dark Gravity Wave (v3) algorithms to provide fair mining opportunities, success rates and increasing difficulty levels with every new block. Every 1.5 minutes, 25 MONA is mined and miners earn 25 MONA for every 90 blocks processed.

MonaCoin has been approved by Japan's Financial Services Agency.

How Is the MonaCoin Network Secured?

Monacoin uses the Lyra2RE (v2) Proof-of-Work algorithm for block approval, and PoW is the same system on which Bitcoin (BTC) is based. On top of that, Monacoin (MONA) can be safely stored in the following Hardware wallets: Ledger Nano X and Nano S.

The company has been in the cryptosphere since 2014 and has already secured the support of a huge fan base centered in Japan. The users are aware that the team is anonymous, but are confident in its security. MonaCoin was launched without pre-mining, so there are no hidden coins that the team can use in the future and dump on the market. Furthermore, over the years, MonaCoin has established itself as a reliable project that has never suffered from a hacking incident.

Where Can You Buy MonaCoin (MONA)?

Ways to get $MONA:

You can buy Monacoin on the crypto exchange where the coin is listed; MonaCoin works on the Lyra2REv2 algorithm, therefore, it can be mined using video cards (GPU).

MonaCoin (MONA) can be purchased and traded on crypto exchange platforms in Japan and beyond, among them: Zaif, bitFlyer, Bittrex, ProBit Global, Bitbank, CoinEx, Dove Wallet, CROSS exchange, Crex24, VALR, and Finexbox.

Discover the latest news and crypto insights with the CoinMarketCap blog.

MONA was first tradable on 20th Mar, 2014. It has a total supply of 65,729,674.871,168. As of right now MONA has a market capitalization of USD $47,093,023.97. The current price of MONA is $0.448 and is ranked 454 on Coinmarketcap and has recently surged 29.50 percent at the time of writing.

MONA has been listed on a number of crypto exchanges, unlike other main cryptocurrencies, it cannot be directly purchased with fiats money. However, You can still easily buy this coin by first buying Bitcoin from any fiat-to-crypto exchanges and then transfer to the exchange that offers to trade this coin, in this guide article we will walk you through in detail the steps to buy MONA.

Step 1: Register on Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange

You will have to first buy one of the major cryptocurrencies, in this case, Bitcoin (BTC). In this article we will walk you through in details two of the most commonly-used fiat-to-crypto exchanges, Uphold.com and Coinbase. Both exchanges have their own fee policies and other features that we will go through in detail. It is recommended that you try both of them and figure out the one that suits you best.

uphold

Suitable for US traders

Select Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange for details:

MONA

Being one of the most popular and convenient fiat-to-crypto exchanges, UpHold has the following advantages:

  • Easy to buy and trade among multiple assets, more than 50 and still adding
  • Currently more than 7M users worldwide
  • You can apply for UpHold Debit card where you can spend the crypto assets on your account like a normal debit card! (US only but will be in the UK later)
  • Easy to use mobile app where you can withdraw fund to a bank or any other altcoin exchanges easily
  • No hidden fees and any other account fees
  • There are limited buy/sell orders for more advanced users
  • You can easily set up recurring deposits for Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) if you intend to hold cryptos long term
  • USDT, which is one of the most popular USD-backed stablecoins (basically a crypto that is backed by real fiat money so they are less volatile and can be treated almost as the fiat money it's pegged with) is available, this is more convenient if the altcoin you intend to buy has only USDT trading pairs on the altcoin exchange so you don't have to go through another currency conversion while you buy the altcoin.
Show Details Steps ▾
MONA

Type your email and click 'Next'. Make sure you provide your real name as UpHold will need it for account and identity verification. Choose a strong password so that your account isn't vulnerable to hackers.

MONA

You will receive a confirmation email. Open it and click on the link within. You will then be required to provide a valid mobile number to set up two-factor authentication (2FA), it is an extra layer to the security of your account and it is highly recommended that you keep this feature turned on.

MONA

Follow the next step to finish your identity verification. These steps are a bit daunting especially when you are waiting to buy an asset but just like any other financial institutions, UpHold is regulated in most countries such as the US, the UK and the EU. You can take this as a trade-off to using a trusted platform to make your first crypto purchase. Good news is that the whole so-called Know-Your-Customers (KYC) process is now fully automated and it shouldn't take more than 15 minutes to finish.

Step 2: Buy BTC with fiat money

MONA

Once you finished the KYC process. You will be asked to add a payment method. Here you can either choose to provide a credit/debit card or use a bank transfer. You may be charged higher fees depending on your credit card company and the volatile prices when using cards but you will also make an instant purchase. While a bank transfer will be cheaper but slower, depending on the country of your residence, some countries will offer instant cash deposit with low fees.

MONA

Now you are all set, on the 'Transact' screen under the 'From' field, select your fiat currency, and then on the 'To' field choose Bitcoin, click preview to review your transaction and the click confirm if everything looks good... and congrats! You've just made your first crypto purchase.

Step 3: Transfer BTC to an Altcoin Exchange

But we are not done yet, since MONA is an altcoin we need to transfer our BTC to an exchange that MONA can be traded. Below is a list of exchanges that offers to trade MONA in various market pairs, head to their websites and register for an account.

Once finished you will then need to deposit BTC to the exchange from UpHold. After the deposit is confirmed you may then purchase MONA from the exchange view.

Exchange
Market Pair
(sponsored)
(sponsored)
(sponsored)
MONA/TUSD
MONA/USDC
MONA/USDT
MONA/KRT
MONA/BTC
MONA/ETH
MONA/KRW
MONA/BTC
MONA/BTC
MONA/JPY
MONA/USDT
MONA/BTC
MONA/USDT
MONA/BTC
MONA/BTC
MONA/BTC
MONA/JPY
MONA/USDT
MONA/JPY
MONA/JPY

Last Step: Store MONA securely in hardware wallets

Ledger Nano S

Ledger Nano S

  • Easy to set up and friendly interface
  • Can be used on desktops and laptops
  • Lightweight and Portable
  • Support most blockchains and wide range of (ERC-20/BEP-20) tokens
  • Multiple languages available
  • Built by a well-established company found in 2014 with great chip security
  • Affordable price
Ledger Nano X

Ledger Nano X

  • More powerful secure element chip (ST33) than Ledger Nano S
  • Can be used on desktop or laptop, or even smartphone and tablet through Bluetooth integration
  • Lightweight and Portable with built-in rechargeable battery
  • Larger screen
  • More storage space than Ledger Nano S
  • Support most blockchains and wide range of (ERC-20/BEP-20) tokens
  • Multiple languages available
  • Built by a well-established company found in 2014 with great chip security
  • Affordable price

If you are planning to keep("hodl" as some may say, basically misspelt "hold" which get popularised over time) your MONA for a considerable long time, you may want to explore ways of keeping it safe, although Binance is one of the safest cryptocurrency exchange there had been hacking incidents and funds were lost. Because of the very nature of the wallets in exchanges, they will be always online("Hot Wallets" as we call them), therefore exposing certain aspects of vulnerabilities. The safest way of storing your coins to date is always putting them into a type of "Cold Wallets", where the wallet will only have access to the blockchain(or simply "go online") when you send out funds, reducing the chances of hacking incidents. A paper wallet is a type of free cold wallet, it's basically an offline-generated pair of public and private address and you will have it written somewhere, and keep it safe. However, it is not durable and is susceptible to various hazards.

Hardware wallet here is definitely a better option of cold wallets. They are usually USB-enabled devices that store the key information of your wallet in a more durable way. They are built with military-level security and their firmware are constantly maintained by their manufacturers and thus extremely safe. Ledger Nano S and Ledger Nano X and are the most popular options in this category, these wallets cost around $50 to $100 depending on the features they are offering. If you are holding your assets these wallets are a good investment in our opinion.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I buy MONA with cash?

There is no direct way to buy MONA with cash. However, you can use marketplaces such as LocalBitcoins to first purchase BTC, and finish the rest of the steps by transferring your BTC to respective AltCoin exchanges.

LocalBitcoins is a peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange. It is a marketplace where users can buy and sell Bitcoins to and from each other. Users, called traders, create advertisements with the price and the payment method they want to offer. You can choose to buy from sellers from a certain nearby region on the platform. is after all a good place to go to buy Bitcoins when you can't find your desired payment methods anywhere else. But prices are usually higher on this platform and you have to do your due diligence to avoid getting scammed.

Are there any quick ways to buy MONA in Europe?

Yes, in fact, Europe is one of the easiest places to buy cryptos in general. There are even online banks which you can simply open an account and transfer money to exchanges such as Coinbase and Uphold.

Are there any alternative platforms to buy MONA or Bitcoin with credit cards?

Yes. is also a very easy to use platform for buying Bitcoin with credit cards. It is an instant cryptocurrency exchange that allows you to exchange crypto fast and buy it with a bank card. Its user interface is very easy to use and the buying steps are pretty self-explanatory.

Read more on MonaCoin's fundamentals and current price here.

0