In the quiet moments of the market, the once bustling scene of "hundred chains contending" has gradually quieted down. Users are no longer solely influenced by narratives, but instead engage in deep contemplation regarding the intrinsic value of projects.
Looking at it broadly, the market's attention is becoming increasingly fragmented. Users no longer blindly chase trends, making it difficult for any particular ecosystem to create a FOMO that captures most of the market. Everyone seems to be playing their own game, and no one is picking up anyone else's positions. However, from a micro-detail perspective, once users recognize the value of a particular ecosystem, they will deeply engage with it, seeking certainty opportunities through building and exploration.
To truly engage users and immerse them in the ecosystem, we must mention the currently highly popular Sonic.
Launched for 4 months, Sonic has been attracting market attention. Andre Cronje has been very active, closely interacting with the ecological community and updating various technological advancements. At the same time, the high yields of DeFi projects within the ecosystem and various incentive mechanisms have continuously attracted new users, with the ecosystem's TVL rapidly growing to 1 billion dollars.
Data Source: DefiLlama
The growth curve of the ecosystem outlines a complete evolution process that starts slowly and eventually attracts high-quality projects while accumulating a solid user base. What is the charm of this ecosystem that many players regard as a safe and deep cultivation?
Sonic: The soul character marketing support, its own strength is also hardcore.
When it comes to Sonic, most people's first reaction is: "Isn't this just Andre Cronje's 'reverse merger' after renaming Fantom?" To users standing outside the Sonic ecosystem, Sonic seems to have merely copied the successful experiences of the Fantom ecosystem, but a closer look reveals that Sonic's upgrade is not just a change of name.
key figure
From Fantom to Sonic, AC's presence has always been strong. However, while Fantom performed well at the time, there was still room for improvement in its performance, and AC's role was more about providing support rather than full leadership. By the time of the Sonic era, AC was no longer just an advisor but took on the role of the leader of Sonic, directly steering the ecological development direction. Under AC's leadership, Sonic built a technical system centered around SonicVM, SonicDB, and SonicCS 2.0, while also incorporating Sonic Gateway's native cross-chain solution to provide users with a secure and convenient asset migration channel. This not only continued the technological genes of Fantom but also allowed Sonic to establish a foothold in Layer 1 competition from the very beginning.
If Andre Cronje brings a solid OG belief and technical support to Sonic, then Daniele Sestagalli revitalizes this faith and hard power into ecological vitality. Daniele Sestagalli, who worked technology projects with AC during her Fantom days, chose to focus on eco-marketing at Sonic. He also attaches great importance to the Chinese crypto circle: not only does he use the marketing method of inviting beautiful KOLs to collectively post selfies + the same copywriting in the Chinese crypto circle to frantically swipe his own DeFAI project ANON (@HeyAnonai). At the same time, in order to quickly integrate into the Chinese community, he also registered his own Chinese trumpet @bigdzhao to communicate closely with the Chinese community on a daily basis.
Daniele's image of being in touch with the community has won favorable impressions, and users are starting to "understand" Sonic from a unique perspective.
Sonic technical underlying strength
In the current context where EVM public chains are generally facing performance bottlenecks and Layer 2 solutions are emerging one after another, Sonic's chosen technological evolution path clearly has unique ideas: while maintaining full EVM compatibility, it achieves performance breakthroughs through underlying architecture reconstruction.
According to practical tests, Sonic has achieved a transaction speed of over 10,000 TPS. In contrast, Ethereum's TPS is only 30, Fantom is 2000, while Sonic's actual performance and theoretical potential have significantly outpaced them. The strong performance release supports the high throughput scenarios of the Sonic ecosystem.
Technical innovation is the underlying support for Sonic's excellent performance, and delving into the technical innovations of Sonic cannot bypass SonicVM, SonicDB, Sonic Gateway, and SonicCS 2.0.
SonicVM: Compatible and Fast
If traditional EVM is an old family car, then SonicVM is a fully modified supercar. SonicVM ensures compatibility with Ethereum's old code (100% EVM compatible, supporting Solidity and Vyper) while significantly enhancing performance. On the Sonic Labs official website, it mentions that the core selling points of SonicVM are "lightning-fast execution" and "reduced application crashes," which are particularly critical for the high throughput demands of Sonic.
To understand the technical details of SonicVM, we need to start from the underlying logic:
EVM Compatibility and Developer Friendliness: SonicVM is 100% compatible with EVM, which means developers can write code using familiar Solidity and Vyper languages without needing to refactor existing Ethereum applications, supporting the same bytecode execution as Ethereum, ensuring a smooth transition for the ecosystem.
Just-In-Time Compilation (JIT) and Super Instructions: The traditional EVM operates in an interpreted execution mode, translating code line by line, which limits efficiency. SonicVM introduces Just-In-Time Compilation, directly compiling bytecode into machine code at runtime, reducing intermediate steps and enhancing execution speed. At the same time, it introduces "super instructions," which combine common sequences of operations into a single instruction, further reducing latency and resource consumption. This is similar to adding an "accelerator" to the code, allowing smart contracts to run faster, especially in high-frequency trading scenarios.
Thanks to these optimizations, SonicVM can support over 10,000 TPS, compressing confirmation time to sub-second levels, far surpassing the performance bottlenecks of traditional EVM chains.
SonicDB: Flat storage, cost reduction and efficiency improvement
SonicDB is the storage layer of the Sonic blockchain, with its core innovation being a change in the traditional data storage method of blockchains.
Traditional blockchains commonly use tree structures like Merkle trees to store data. While this method facilitates the verification of data integrity, it generates a significant amount of redundant data. SonicDB adopts a flattened storage design, directly organizing related data together, which reduces the hierarchical depth of data storage.
When DeFi protocols need to quickly query user balances or transaction histories, SonicDB can directly locate the target data without having to traverse multiple layers like traditional blockchains. Simply put, SonicDB is like a specially designed super filing cabinet. The way traditional blockchains store data is like putting files in a filing cabinet with many layers of drawers; to find a file, you need to open each drawer layer by layer. In contrast, SonicDB adopts a more intuitive approach, akin to placing all files in the same layer of drawers, with each file clearly labeled for easy retrieval when needed.
At the same time, the hardware costs for node operators have also decreased due to the reduction in redundant data storage. According to the official technical documentation from Sonic, during tests, the storage space occupied by SonicDB when processing the same amount of transaction data is only 60% of traditional solutions, while the data retrieval speed has improved by 40%.
Sonic Gateway: The Safest Cross-Chain Bridge
In the cross-chain segment, the native cross-chain bridge Sonic Gateway developed by Sonic Labs provides a sufficiently secure solution. Sonic Gateway uses an innovative heartbeat mechanism, performing a batch transfer of assets from Ethereum to Sonic every 10 minutes, while the reverse occurs once an hour.
At the same time, its built-in 14-day fault protection mechanism ensures the absolute safety of user assets – if the gateway fails continuously for 14 days, users can retrieve their bridged assets on Ethereum, and this mechanism cannot be modified by any party once deployed. For users pursuing efficiency, Sonic Gateway also offers a "Fast Lane" feature, which allows triggering an instant heartbeat by paying an additional fee of 0.0065 ETH, reducing the cross-chain bridging time to just a few minutes.
Image source: Sonic official technical documentation
SonicCS 2.0: Multithreaded Consensus Protocol
SonicCS 2.0 is the latest consensus protocol launched by Sonic, utilizing an asynchronous Byzantine fault tolerance (ABFT) mechanism based on a directed acyclic graph (DAG). This is a consensus protocol specially optimized for high concurrency scenarios. Unlike traditional methods like Bitcoin or Ethereum, which package transactions into one block after another, SonicCS 2.0 allows multiple validators to process different groups of transactions simultaneously.
Specifically, when multiple transactions arrive at the network simultaneously, different validators can process these transactions in parallel without having to wait for the previous block to be confirmed. These processed transactions form a mesh structure, where each new transaction points to multiple previous transactions, naturally creating a directed acyclic graph. This design allows the network to remain stable even in the event of delays or failures of some nodes. To further enhance efficiency, SonicCS 2.0 innovatively introduces an overlapping election mechanism. The election process for validators begins in advance, partially overlapping with the current consensus period, which reduces the waiting time during validator switching. With the optimized voting mechanism, the entire network can achieve sub-second transaction confirmation speeds while maintaining high security.
For example, suppose there are 100 transactions to be processed at the same time. Previously, these transactions had to queue up and be confirmed one by one. However, after the launch of SonicCS 2.0, multiple validators can work simultaneously, just like multiple cashiers checking out customers at the same time, greatly increasing the processing speed. To make this system run more smoothly, SonicCS 2.0 also has a clever design: while the current validators are still working, it begins to select the next batch of validators in advance.
The ecological rewards that users care about the most.
In addition to attracting attention through flashy marketing on social media and hardcore technology, what initially piqued the interest of users and developers in Sonic was its genuinely sincere "reward mechanism."
FeeM (Fee Monetization) is inspired by the revenue-sharing model of Web2, similar to how YouTube enables content creators to profit from traffic. On Sonic, developers attract users and transaction volume by deploying applications. If users trade on applications participating in FeeM, up to 90% of the transaction fee revenue is directly allocated to developers, while the remaining amount is distributed as tips to validators; if users trade on applications not participating in FeeM, 50% of the transaction fee is directly burned, and the remaining amount is distributed as tips to the ecological treasury and validators.
Figure: FeeM distribution rules, data source Sonic official technical documentation
This model is completely different from the "cut" logic of traditional blockchain; it directly links network revenue to the efforts of developers, thereby incentivizing developers to create high-traffic quality applications. With returns, developers are naturally willing to invest more effort in optimizing projects, which in turn enhances user experience and boosts network activity. In this way, Sonic has established a simple yet effective pathway for ecological closed-loop growth.
If the FeeM model is Sonic's sincerity towards developers, then the points reward mechanism is a direct feedback to users and the community. Sonic has designed a multi-level reward system—Passive Points, Activity Points, and App Points (Gems), with a total of approximately 200 million S tokens to be distributed through airdrops across multiple seasons.
Passive Points: Users can earn points by simply holding the whitelisted assets designated by the event in their Web3 wallet (such as Rabby or MetaMask) as shown in the table below. However, assets from centralized exchanges (such as WETH, scUSD) are not included.
Activity Points: By providing liquidity with whitelisted assets or participating in activities within the Sonic ecosystem, users can earn rewards that are 2 times higher than passive points.
Gems: Sonic Labs issues Gems points to projects based on their performance in ecological applications (such as trading volume or number of users). Gems can be exchanged for S tokens. Applications that receive Gems shares can distribute the points to their own users.
To qualify for the S token airdrop, you must hold or use the whitelist assets listed in the table below and earn different point multipliers based on the different assets.
Image: Whitelisted assets, data source Sonic official technical documentation
WETH, scUSD, scETH, scBTC, aUSDC, bUSDC.e-20, LBTC, SolvBTC, and SolvBTC.BBN only earn active points and do not earn passive points. Some whitelisted assets will receive a multiplier bonus during the first 3 months after the launch of Sonic to encourage their use and attract more liquidity to Sonic. After that, the official may choose to extend or reduce the boost.
Whitelist assets and their multipliers may change. S tokens staked through MySonic are not eligible for points. Users wishing to stake can switch to the liquid staking token stS provided by Beets.
The first season of the airdrop event ends in June 2025, and progress can be checked at any time through the official dashboard, incentivizing developers to continually contribute high-quality projects.
For official details, see:
Being skilled in marketing and spending money, while also having strong technical capabilities. As a user, how should one participate in the opportunity-filled Sonic ecosystem? We have summarized some potential entry opportunities in the current Sonic ecosystem.
Sonic Ecosystem Overview: DeFi is great, but it's not just DeFi
Sonic's DeFi project continues the excellent genes of Fantom, and recent micro-innovations have frequently won market favor. Naturally, when people first mention the Sonic ecosystem, the diverse DeFi gameplay often comes to mind. However, while DeFi continues to shine, the ecological landscape of Sonic has long since expanded beyond this. Tracks such as AI, GameFi, NFT, and Meme are also thriving on Sonic, showcasing a diverse potential (refer to the ecological application display board: Sonic Labs Apps).
Image: Sonic Ecosystem, Source: @Delphi_Digital
DeFi sector steadily gaining momentum
Shadow（@ShadowOnSonic）
Recently, the DeFi popularity of Sonic is closely related to Shadow's token $SHADOW. Shadow is a DEX based on the x(3,3) model within the Sonic ecosystem, with the innovative highlight being the transformation of the traditional yield earning ve (3,3) mechanism into the x (3,3) "early withdrawal penalty, leaving the leftover money" mutual aid model.
Users can deposit $SHADOW to obtain the staking certificate $xSHADOW, in order to earn income from various protocols. At the same time, users can withdraw their stake at any time, but a certain percentage of tokens (which varies based on the holding period) will be deducted as an early withdrawal penalty, and the deducted tokens will be distributed to users who maintain their stake.
Currently, Shadow's average daily trading volume remains stable at over 30 million dollars, and the cumulative trading fees have exceeded 10 million dollars.
Beets.fi (@beets_fi)
Beets.fi (referred to as Beets) is the LST hub within the Sonic ecosystem, developed and upgraded by the Beethoven X team. As it transitioned to Sonic along with Fantom, Beets transformed from a DEX to a core staking and liquidity infrastructure project of Sonic, becoming a pillar project of the Sonic ecosystem, suitable for users seeking stable returns and long-term participation.
Users obtain liquid staking certificates $stS by staking $S, preserving network staking rewards while maintaining asset liquidity. Beets' automatic compounding mechanism allows for continuous accumulation of profits. The platform constructs a diverse liquidity pool matrix using $stS, such as the $wOS/$stS pool in collaboration with Origin Protocol, allowing users to capture multiple rewards while maintaining exposure to $S.
$EGGS (@eggsonsonic)
Eggs Finance (abbreviated as Eggs) is a leveraged yield protocol on the Sonic ecosystem, which combines leveraged yield tools with Sonic's native token $S to create an internal capital circulation system within the ecosystem. The goal is to "allow $S holders to amplify their yields while maintaining their positions."
The operation mechanism of Eggs Finance can be summarized as "minting, leverage, and yield cycling:"
Users can stake $S into Eggs Finance to mint derivative token $EGGS, which is pegged to $S but has leveraged properties. The minting cost increases with participation time, making it cheaper for early users, while later users will have a portion of their $S payments flow back to early participants. After that, users can use $EGGS as collateral to borrow more $S and then invest in other pools (such as ShadowOnSonic or Beets) for high returns. There were mentions on X that the short-term annualized yield for the $EGGS/$S pool once reached as high as 1800%.
Currently, Eggs Finance has been listed by DeFi Llama, and trading is mainly conducted on Sonic's DEX.
Silo Finance (@SiloFinance)
Silo Finance is the protocol with the highest TVL on Sonic, with a TVL of $250 million accounting for a quarter of the total ecosystem TVL. Its isolated lending model limits risk diffusion through independent pools, allowing users to deposit $S or $scUSD for high-leverage circular lending, amplifying returns. Depositing $scUSD enjoys an 18x SonicPoint bonus, while USDE has a 12% APR. However, the proportion of circular lending in its TVL may be relatively high, and the actual scale of funds may be smaller than the data suggests, making it very suitable for players pursuing high points.
Data source: DefiLlama
NFT
Derp（@derpedewdz）：NFT & Meme
The Derp series is the leading NFT in the Sonic ecosystem. Most members of the Sonic team and ecosystem OGs, including AC, own Derp NFTs and use them as their avatars.
Among them, the first generation of Derp NFT, the Derpe Dewdz series, was initially sold at auction on Paintswap, with an initial quantity of 100 pieces. The current total quantity is 99, making it the Derp series NFT with the highest floor price weight, and the current floor price is 8900 $S.
The most popular Derp NFT second generation Derps series has a total of 2000 pieces. As of April 2025, the floor price of derps in the secondary market is 3100 $S, with the highest transaction record at 4850 $S.
The value of the DERP series lies not only in its collectibility but also in the ecological dividends that come after community recognition of its value. Derp holders have successively received airdrops from projects such as goglz, oil, shadow, and others.
At the same time, Derp NFT holders can mint 100 Meme tokens $derp every 24 hours and can use $derp to mint Snacks. Finally, they can feed the Snacks back to the Derp NFT to burn 45% of the $derp tokens. Additionally, feeding a certain amount will also mint new Derp NFT Generation 3 Berp series, achieving token deflation.
Paintswap (@paint_swap): NFT & GameFi & AI
Paintswap, which originated from the Fantom era, is currently the largest NFT trading platform in the Sonic ecosystem, allowing users to mint and trade NFTs. At the same time, Paintswap has issued its own NFT Beardies, and holding Beardies allows users to earn a 3% share of the transaction fees from Paintswap.
However, rather than saying that Paintswap is currently an NFT platform, it might be more appropriate to describe it as a comprehensive application layer. After all, beyond NFT trading, the Paintswap team has also developed its own game EstforKingdom (@EstforKingdom), a classic medieval adventure-themed idle game where players explore the world through NFT characters and earn tokens and various rewards. It is worth mentioning that EstforKingdom and the Paintswap platform share the use of the $BRUSH token, which greatly helps to avoid the diversion of funds and credibility.
Recently, Paintswap launched the tokenomics designed around the ecological token $BRUSH for GameFAI (AI game engine). This allows users with 0 experience to create Web3 games using AI and design a series of asset token plans. (The actual product has not yet been launched.)
GameFi
Petroleum Finance（@Petroleum_Defi）
Petroleum Finance is a project that combines NFT and DeFi mechanisms, centered around virtual "Petroleum Plot" NFTs and the native token $OIL. Users can purchase Petroleum Plot NFTs on Paintswap (current floor price 50 $S) and stake them on the platform to mine $cOIL (crude oil). Only after refining (locking) can $cOIL become tradable $OIL (current price 0.79 USD). The longer the lock-up period, the less tax is required for withdrawals. The rarity of the NFTs determines the output efficiency, with higher-tier plots yielding greater returns.
Fate Adventure（@FateAdventure）
Fate Adventure is a full-chain 2D RPG game in the Sonic ecosystem.
Set in a conflict-ridden fantasy world, players take on the role of an adventurer who works with a trainer to summon, train, and evolve a monster pet named "Lings" to fight against the threat of "Consensus", which seeks to reset the world. The core token $FA had a high price of $1.75 and is now trading at $0.24, with a circulating market capitalization of about $2.4 million. Players earn $FA through PvE battles, missions, or co-op modes, and can stake $FA to earn gear NFTs.
All game assets in Fate Adventure (such as Lings and equipment) are NFTs and can be traded on Paintswap. In addition, account abstraction technology lowers the barrier to blockchain interaction, allowing newcomers to participate without needing to understand private keys in depth.
Abysscards (@abysscards)
Abysscards is a 1v1 collectible card game in the Sonic ecosystem. Starting from March 25, players can mint a unique AI-generated NFT card for free every day, featuring exclusive art and stories. Characters and clans are randomly assigned based on wallet addresses, and the event lasts for 30 days. After the 30-day event ends, players can use their cards for free battles. At the same time, players will no longer be able to mint cards, and all cards circulated during the Genesis event will become the final version.
Meme
GOGLZ (@GOGLZ_SONIC) vs INDI (@indi_sonic): Meme & NFT & GameFi
GOGLZ is a leading Meme project on Sonic themed around the "goggles" concept. Recently, GOGLZ collaborated with another Sonic Meme project, Indi, to launch Goglz vs Indi, a wolf-sheep game based on Sonic. The IP images of GOGLZ and Indi are designed as wolves and sheep NFTs, respectively, integrating risk strategy and profit distribution mechanisms.
The core gameplay of Goglz vs Indi is as follows:
Indi NFT (Sheep): Represents the "Sheep" character, users can mine the game token $MEOW by staking Indi NFT. The total daily output is 7500 $MEOW, distributed per second among all staked sheep. Users can claim 80% of the accumulated $MEOW, while the remaining 20% is divided among the wolves. Unstaking requires at least 15000 $MEOW output, and there is a certain probability that $MEOW will be eaten by the wolves.
GOGLZ NFT (Wolf): Represents the "Wolf" character, which does not directly produce $MEOW, but instead shares 20% of the sheep's output revenue through the "plunder" mechanism when staked. The wolf's revenue distribution is linked to the "heart power value".
Among them, $MEOW is the core token in the game, and users can choose to exchange it for Sonic's native token $S, or continue to use it to mint more NFTs, further participating in the game loop.
Similar to the classic Wolf-Sheep game, sheep holders face potential threats from wolves (such as the risk of NFT or earnings being plundered), while wolves rely on the production of sheep to profit.
TinHat Cat (@TinHat_Cat)
TinHat Cat features a pink cat wearing a tin foil hat, and it ranked high in the previous Sonic ecosystem's first Meme Contest, with trading popularity second only to $GOGLZ.
AI
Hey Anon（@HeyAnonai）：DeFi + AI
Hey Anon is a DeFAI protocol developed by Daniele Sestagalli, allowing users to quickly obtain information such as price changes, community sentiment, and development dynamics through natural language, while executing complex DeFi operations. For example, users just need to say "Help me stake 100 $S" or "Convert $scUSD to $stS", and Hey Anon will execute it automatically.
The functionality of Hey Anon is closely tied to the main asset depth of Sonic, supporting asset operations such as $S, $scUSD, and $stS. Meanwhile, the native token of Hey Anon, $ANON, circulates across multiple chains including Sonic.
Allora Network (@AlloraNetwork)
Allora Network is a decentralized AI network developed by Allora Labs, built on the Cosmos SDK, aimed at assisting in on-chain data prediction and optimization. In early 2025, Allora will join the Sonic ecosystem.
In the Sonic ecosystem, Allora optimizes DeFi and GameFi applications. It provides market trend predictions for Shadow and Wagmi, adjusts liquidity pool yields; analyzes user behavior for Sonic's points system (Passive and Activity Points), dynamically optimizing reward weights; and offers data support for games like Fate Adventure, balancing economic models. Currently, Allora has launched on Dev Mainnet.
Yoko (@yokodotlive)
Yoko is an AI agent economic platform of the Sonic ecosystem, where users can easily create their own AI agents through the Yoko platform and perform a series of on-chain transaction operations using the AI agents.
After the reconstruction, the truth reveals itself through trials and tribulations.
Clearly, under the repeated baptism of bearish market sentiment, the demand for public chains has quietly shifted. Although the temptation of short-term gains still exists, more and more users are beginning to realize that the projects that can truly withstand cycles often possess more patience and long-termism.
The development trajectory of Sonic just confirms this point. Unlike other projects that only pursue short-term bursts, Sonic has chosen a path of "slow work leads to fine products." Since the reconstruction started last December, what we have seen is not a fleeting Meme carnival, but a gradual development from a small number of initial ecological projects to the current situation where DeFi innovations are emerging one after another and the ecosystem is thriving in symbiosis. Achieving a steady growth of 1 billion USD TVL in just four months, the market is paying for Sonic with real money.
In the current context where stories of getting rich quickly bring ecological traffic, Sonic's development approach may seem a bit "slow." However, its step-by-step strategy is guiding the entire ecosystem towards long-term construction. Sonic is building an ecosystem that can withstand market tests.
As the market gradually bids farewell to the speculative phase that purely relies on narratives, those projects that consistently focus on value creation and adhere to long-termism will inevitably stand out in the cycle. The rebuilt Sonic is slowly but surely moving towards the next round.
The content is for reference only, not a solicitation or offer. No investment, tax, or legal advice provided. See Disclaimer for more risks disclosure.
Change the soup and change the medicine, how is the restructured Sonic developing now?
Author: Deep Tide TechFlow
In the quiet moments of the market, the once bustling scene of "hundred chains contending" has gradually quieted down. Users are no longer solely influenced by narratives, but instead engage in deep contemplation regarding the intrinsic value of projects.
Looking at it broadly, the market's attention is becoming increasingly fragmented. Users no longer blindly chase trends, making it difficult for any particular ecosystem to create a FOMO that captures most of the market. Everyone seems to be playing their own game, and no one is picking up anyone else's positions. However, from a micro-detail perspective, once users recognize the value of a particular ecosystem, they will deeply engage with it, seeking certainty opportunities through building and exploration.
To truly engage users and immerse them in the ecosystem, we must mention the currently highly popular Sonic.
Launched for 4 months, Sonic has been attracting market attention. Andre Cronje has been very active, closely interacting with the ecological community and updating various technological advancements. At the same time, the high yields of DeFi projects within the ecosystem and various incentive mechanisms have continuously attracted new users, with the ecosystem's TVL rapidly growing to 1 billion dollars.
Data Source: DefiLlama
The growth curve of the ecosystem outlines a complete evolution process that starts slowly and eventually attracts high-quality projects while accumulating a solid user base. What is the charm of this ecosystem that many players regard as a safe and deep cultivation?
Sonic: The soul character marketing support, its own strength is also hardcore.
When it comes to Sonic, most people's first reaction is: "Isn't this just Andre Cronje's 'reverse merger' after renaming Fantom?" To users standing outside the Sonic ecosystem, Sonic seems to have merely copied the successful experiences of the Fantom ecosystem, but a closer look reveals that Sonic's upgrade is not just a change of name.
key figure
From Fantom to Sonic, AC's presence has always been strong. However, while Fantom performed well at the time, there was still room for improvement in its performance, and AC's role was more about providing support rather than full leadership. By the time of the Sonic era, AC was no longer just an advisor but took on the role of the leader of Sonic, directly steering the ecological development direction. Under AC's leadership, Sonic built a technical system centered around SonicVM, SonicDB, and SonicCS 2.0, while also incorporating Sonic Gateway's native cross-chain solution to provide users with a secure and convenient asset migration channel. This not only continued the technological genes of Fantom but also allowed Sonic to establish a foothold in Layer 1 competition from the very beginning.
If Andre Cronje brings a solid OG belief and technical support to Sonic, then Daniele Sestagalli revitalizes this faith and hard power into ecological vitality. Daniele Sestagalli, who worked technology projects with AC during her Fantom days, chose to focus on eco-marketing at Sonic. He also attaches great importance to the Chinese crypto circle: not only does he use the marketing method of inviting beautiful KOLs to collectively post selfies + the same copywriting in the Chinese crypto circle to frantically swipe his own DeFAI project ANON (@HeyAnonai). At the same time, in order to quickly integrate into the Chinese community, he also registered his own Chinese trumpet @bigdzhao to communicate closely with the Chinese community on a daily basis.
Daniele's image of being in touch with the community has won favorable impressions, and users are starting to "understand" Sonic from a unique perspective.
Sonic technical underlying strength
In the current context where EVM public chains are generally facing performance bottlenecks and Layer 2 solutions are emerging one after another, Sonic's chosen technological evolution path clearly has unique ideas: while maintaining full EVM compatibility, it achieves performance breakthroughs through underlying architecture reconstruction.
According to practical tests, Sonic has achieved a transaction speed of over 10,000 TPS. In contrast, Ethereum's TPS is only 30, Fantom is 2000, while Sonic's actual performance and theoretical potential have significantly outpaced them. The strong performance release supports the high throughput scenarios of the Sonic ecosystem.
Technical innovation is the underlying support for Sonic's excellent performance, and delving into the technical innovations of Sonic cannot bypass SonicVM, SonicDB, Sonic Gateway, and SonicCS 2.0.
SonicVM: Compatible and Fast
If traditional EVM is an old family car, then SonicVM is a fully modified supercar. SonicVM ensures compatibility with Ethereum's old code (100% EVM compatible, supporting Solidity and Vyper) while significantly enhancing performance. On the Sonic Labs official website, it mentions that the core selling points of SonicVM are "lightning-fast execution" and "reduced application crashes," which are particularly critical for the high throughput demands of Sonic.
To understand the technical details of SonicVM, we need to start from the underlying logic:
EVM Compatibility and Developer Friendliness: SonicVM is 100% compatible with EVM, which means developers can write code using familiar Solidity and Vyper languages without needing to refactor existing Ethereum applications, supporting the same bytecode execution as Ethereum, ensuring a smooth transition for the ecosystem.
Just-In-Time Compilation (JIT) and Super Instructions: The traditional EVM operates in an interpreted execution mode, translating code line by line, which limits efficiency. SonicVM introduces Just-In-Time Compilation, directly compiling bytecode into machine code at runtime, reducing intermediate steps and enhancing execution speed. At the same time, it introduces "super instructions," which combine common sequences of operations into a single instruction, further reducing latency and resource consumption. This is similar to adding an "accelerator" to the code, allowing smart contracts to run faster, especially in high-frequency trading scenarios.
Thanks to these optimizations, SonicVM can support over 10,000 TPS, compressing confirmation time to sub-second levels, far surpassing the performance bottlenecks of traditional EVM chains.
SonicDB: Flat storage, cost reduction and efficiency improvement
SonicDB is the storage layer of the Sonic blockchain, with its core innovation being a change in the traditional data storage method of blockchains.
Traditional blockchains commonly use tree structures like Merkle trees to store data. While this method facilitates the verification of data integrity, it generates a significant amount of redundant data. SonicDB adopts a flattened storage design, directly organizing related data together, which reduces the hierarchical depth of data storage.
When DeFi protocols need to quickly query user balances or transaction histories, SonicDB can directly locate the target data without having to traverse multiple layers like traditional blockchains. Simply put, SonicDB is like a specially designed super filing cabinet. The way traditional blockchains store data is like putting files in a filing cabinet with many layers of drawers; to find a file, you need to open each drawer layer by layer. In contrast, SonicDB adopts a more intuitive approach, akin to placing all files in the same layer of drawers, with each file clearly labeled for easy retrieval when needed.
At the same time, the hardware costs for node operators have also decreased due to the reduction in redundant data storage. According to the official technical documentation from Sonic, during tests, the storage space occupied by SonicDB when processing the same amount of transaction data is only 60% of traditional solutions, while the data retrieval speed has improved by 40%.
Sonic Gateway: The Safest Cross-Chain Bridge
In the cross-chain segment, the native cross-chain bridge Sonic Gateway developed by Sonic Labs provides a sufficiently secure solution. Sonic Gateway uses an innovative heartbeat mechanism, performing a batch transfer of assets from Ethereum to Sonic every 10 minutes, while the reverse occurs once an hour.
At the same time, its built-in 14-day fault protection mechanism ensures the absolute safety of user assets – if the gateway fails continuously for 14 days, users can retrieve their bridged assets on Ethereum, and this mechanism cannot be modified by any party once deployed. For users pursuing efficiency, Sonic Gateway also offers a "Fast Lane" feature, which allows triggering an instant heartbeat by paying an additional fee of 0.0065 ETH, reducing the cross-chain bridging time to just a few minutes.
Image source: Sonic official technical documentation
SonicCS 2.0: Multithreaded Consensus Protocol
SonicCS 2.0 is the latest consensus protocol launched by Sonic, utilizing an asynchronous Byzantine fault tolerance (ABFT) mechanism based on a directed acyclic graph (DAG). This is a consensus protocol specially optimized for high concurrency scenarios. Unlike traditional methods like Bitcoin or Ethereum, which package transactions into one block after another, SonicCS 2.0 allows multiple validators to process different groups of transactions simultaneously.
Specifically, when multiple transactions arrive at the network simultaneously, different validators can process these transactions in parallel without having to wait for the previous block to be confirmed. These processed transactions form a mesh structure, where each new transaction points to multiple previous transactions, naturally creating a directed acyclic graph. This design allows the network to remain stable even in the event of delays or failures of some nodes. To further enhance efficiency, SonicCS 2.0 innovatively introduces an overlapping election mechanism. The election process for validators begins in advance, partially overlapping with the current consensus period, which reduces the waiting time during validator switching. With the optimized voting mechanism, the entire network can achieve sub-second transaction confirmation speeds while maintaining high security.
For example, suppose there are 100 transactions to be processed at the same time. Previously, these transactions had to queue up and be confirmed one by one. However, after the launch of SonicCS 2.0, multiple validators can work simultaneously, just like multiple cashiers checking out customers at the same time, greatly increasing the processing speed. To make this system run more smoothly, SonicCS 2.0 also has a clever design: while the current validators are still working, it begins to select the next batch of validators in advance.
The ecological rewards that users care about the most.
In addition to attracting attention through flashy marketing on social media and hardcore technology, what initially piqued the interest of users and developers in Sonic was its genuinely sincere "reward mechanism."
FeeM Model: Ecological transaction fees benefit developers
FeeM (Fee Monetization) is inspired by the revenue-sharing model of Web2, similar to how YouTube enables content creators to profit from traffic. On Sonic, developers attract users and transaction volume by deploying applications. If users trade on applications participating in FeeM, up to 90% of the transaction fee revenue is directly allocated to developers, while the remaining amount is distributed as tips to validators; if users trade on applications not participating in FeeM, 50% of the transaction fee is directly burned, and the remaining amount is distributed as tips to the ecological treasury and validators.
Figure: FeeM distribution rules, data source Sonic official technical documentation
This model is completely different from the "cut" logic of traditional blockchain; it directly links network revenue to the efforts of developers, thereby incentivizing developers to create high-traffic quality applications. With returns, developers are naturally willing to invest more effort in optimizing projects, which in turn enhances user experience and boosts network activity. In this way, Sonic has established a simple yet effective pathway for ecological closed-loop growth.
Airdrop Points Rewards: Passive Points, Activity Points, Gems
If the FeeM model is Sonic's sincerity towards developers, then the points reward mechanism is a direct feedback to users and the community. Sonic has designed a multi-level reward system—Passive Points, Activity Points, and App Points (Gems), with a total of approximately 200 million S tokens to be distributed through airdrops across multiple seasons.
Passive Points: Users can earn points by simply holding the whitelisted assets designated by the event in their Web3 wallet (such as Rabby or MetaMask) as shown in the table below. However, assets from centralized exchanges (such as WETH, scUSD) are not included.
Activity Points: By providing liquidity with whitelisted assets or participating in activities within the Sonic ecosystem, users can earn rewards that are 2 times higher than passive points.
Gems: Sonic Labs issues Gems points to projects based on their performance in ecological applications (such as trading volume or number of users). Gems can be exchanged for S tokens. Applications that receive Gems shares can distribute the points to their own users.
To qualify for the S token airdrop, you must hold or use the whitelist assets listed in the table below and earn different point multipliers based on the different assets.
Image: Whitelisted assets, data source Sonic official technical documentation
WETH, scUSD, scETH, scBTC, aUSDC, bUSDC.e-20, LBTC, SolvBTC, and SolvBTC.BBN only earn active points and do not earn passive points. Some whitelisted assets will receive a multiplier bonus during the first 3 months after the launch of Sonic to encourage their use and attract more liquidity to Sonic. After that, the official may choose to extend or reduce the boost.
Whitelist assets and their multipliers may change. S tokens staked through MySonic are not eligible for points. Users wishing to stake can switch to the liquid staking token stS provided by Beets.
The first season of the airdrop event ends in June 2025, and progress can be checked at any time through the official dashboard, incentivizing developers to continually contribute high-quality projects.
For official details, see:
Being skilled in marketing and spending money, while also having strong technical capabilities. As a user, how should one participate in the opportunity-filled Sonic ecosystem? We have summarized some potential entry opportunities in the current Sonic ecosystem.
Sonic Ecosystem Overview: DeFi is great, but it's not just DeFi
Sonic's DeFi project continues the excellent genes of Fantom, and recent micro-innovations have frequently won market favor. Naturally, when people first mention the Sonic ecosystem, the diverse DeFi gameplay often comes to mind. However, while DeFi continues to shine, the ecological landscape of Sonic has long since expanded beyond this. Tracks such as AI, GameFi, NFT, and Meme are also thriving on Sonic, showcasing a diverse potential (refer to the ecological application display board: Sonic Labs Apps).
Image: Sonic Ecosystem, Source: @Delphi_Digital
DeFi sector steadily gaining momentum
Shadow（@ShadowOnSonic）
Recently, the DeFi popularity of Sonic is closely related to Shadow's token $SHADOW. Shadow is a DEX based on the x(3,3) model within the Sonic ecosystem, with the innovative highlight being the transformation of the traditional yield earning ve (3,3) mechanism into the x (3,3) "early withdrawal penalty, leaving the leftover money" mutual aid model.
Users can deposit $SHADOW to obtain the staking certificate $xSHADOW, in order to earn income from various protocols. At the same time, users can withdraw their stake at any time, but a certain percentage of tokens (which varies based on the holding period) will be deducted as an early withdrawal penalty, and the deducted tokens will be distributed to users who maintain their stake.
Currently, Shadow's average daily trading volume remains stable at over 30 million dollars, and the cumulative trading fees have exceeded 10 million dollars.
Beets.fi (@beets_fi)
Beets.fi (referred to as Beets) is the LST hub within the Sonic ecosystem, developed and upgraded by the Beethoven X team. As it transitioned to Sonic along with Fantom, Beets transformed from a DEX to a core staking and liquidity infrastructure project of Sonic, becoming a pillar project of the Sonic ecosystem, suitable for users seeking stable returns and long-term participation.
Users obtain liquid staking certificates $stS by staking $S, preserving network staking rewards while maintaining asset liquidity. Beets' automatic compounding mechanism allows for continuous accumulation of profits. The platform constructs a diverse liquidity pool matrix using $stS, such as the $wOS/$stS pool in collaboration with Origin Protocol, allowing users to capture multiple rewards while maintaining exposure to $S.
$EGGS (@eggsonsonic)
Eggs Finance (abbreviated as Eggs) is a leveraged yield protocol on the Sonic ecosystem, which combines leveraged yield tools with Sonic's native token $S to create an internal capital circulation system within the ecosystem. The goal is to "allow $S holders to amplify their yields while maintaining their positions."
The operation mechanism of Eggs Finance can be summarized as "minting, leverage, and yield cycling:"
Users can stake $S into Eggs Finance to mint derivative token $EGGS, which is pegged to $S but has leveraged properties. The minting cost increases with participation time, making it cheaper for early users, while later users will have a portion of their $S payments flow back to early participants. After that, users can use $EGGS as collateral to borrow more $S and then invest in other pools (such as ShadowOnSonic or Beets) for high returns. There were mentions on X that the short-term annualized yield for the $EGGS/$S pool once reached as high as 1800%.
Currently, Eggs Finance has been listed by DeFi Llama, and trading is mainly conducted on Sonic's DEX.
Silo Finance (@SiloFinance)
Silo Finance is the protocol with the highest TVL on Sonic, with a TVL of $250 million accounting for a quarter of the total ecosystem TVL. Its isolated lending model limits risk diffusion through independent pools, allowing users to deposit $S or $scUSD for high-leverage circular lending, amplifying returns. Depositing $scUSD enjoys an 18x SonicPoint bonus, while USDE has a 12% APR. However, the proportion of circular lending in its TVL may be relatively high, and the actual scale of funds may be smaller than the data suggests, making it very suitable for players pursuing high points.
Data source: DefiLlama
NFT
Derp（@derpedewdz）：NFT & Meme
The Derp series is the leading NFT in the Sonic ecosystem. Most members of the Sonic team and ecosystem OGs, including AC, own Derp NFTs and use them as their avatars.
Among them, the first generation of Derp NFT, the Derpe Dewdz series, was initially sold at auction on Paintswap, with an initial quantity of 100 pieces. The current total quantity is 99, making it the Derp series NFT with the highest floor price weight, and the current floor price is 8900 $S.
The most popular Derp NFT second generation Derps series has a total of 2000 pieces. As of April 2025, the floor price of derps in the secondary market is 3100 $S, with the highest transaction record at 4850 $S.
The value of the DERP series lies not only in its collectibility but also in the ecological dividends that come after community recognition of its value. Derp holders have successively received airdrops from projects such as goglz, oil, shadow, and others.
At the same time, Derp NFT holders can mint 100 Meme tokens $derp every 24 hours and can use $derp to mint Snacks. Finally, they can feed the Snacks back to the Derp NFT to burn 45% of the $derp tokens. Additionally, feeding a certain amount will also mint new Derp NFT Generation 3 Berp series, achieving token deflation.
Paintswap (@paint_swap): NFT & GameFi & AI
Paintswap, which originated from the Fantom era, is currently the largest NFT trading platform in the Sonic ecosystem, allowing users to mint and trade NFTs. At the same time, Paintswap has issued its own NFT Beardies, and holding Beardies allows users to earn a 3% share of the transaction fees from Paintswap.
However, rather than saying that Paintswap is currently an NFT platform, it might be more appropriate to describe it as a comprehensive application layer. After all, beyond NFT trading, the Paintswap team has also developed its own game EstforKingdom (@EstforKingdom), a classic medieval adventure-themed idle game where players explore the world through NFT characters and earn tokens and various rewards. It is worth mentioning that EstforKingdom and the Paintswap platform share the use of the $BRUSH token, which greatly helps to avoid the diversion of funds and credibility.
Recently, Paintswap launched the tokenomics designed around the ecological token $BRUSH for GameFAI (AI game engine). This allows users with 0 experience to create Web3 games using AI and design a series of asset token plans. (The actual product has not yet been launched.)
GameFi
Petroleum Finance（@Petroleum_Defi）
Petroleum Finance is a project that combines NFT and DeFi mechanisms, centered around virtual "Petroleum Plot" NFTs and the native token $OIL. Users can purchase Petroleum Plot NFTs on Paintswap (current floor price 50 $S) and stake them on the platform to mine $cOIL (crude oil). Only after refining (locking) can $cOIL become tradable $OIL (current price 0.79 USD). The longer the lock-up period, the less tax is required for withdrawals. The rarity of the NFTs determines the output efficiency, with higher-tier plots yielding greater returns.
Fate Adventure（@FateAdventure）
Fate Adventure is a full-chain 2D RPG game in the Sonic ecosystem.
Set in a conflict-ridden fantasy world, players take on the role of an adventurer who works with a trainer to summon, train, and evolve a monster pet named "Lings" to fight against the threat of "Consensus", which seeks to reset the world. The core token $FA had a high price of $1.75 and is now trading at $0.24, with a circulating market capitalization of about $2.4 million. Players earn $FA through PvE battles, missions, or co-op modes, and can stake $FA to earn gear NFTs.
All game assets in Fate Adventure (such as Lings and equipment) are NFTs and can be traded on Paintswap. In addition, account abstraction technology lowers the barrier to blockchain interaction, allowing newcomers to participate without needing to understand private keys in depth.
Abysscards (@abysscards)
Abysscards is a 1v1 collectible card game in the Sonic ecosystem. Starting from March 25, players can mint a unique AI-generated NFT card for free every day, featuring exclusive art and stories. Characters and clans are randomly assigned based on wallet addresses, and the event lasts for 30 days. After the 30-day event ends, players can use their cards for free battles. At the same time, players will no longer be able to mint cards, and all cards circulated during the Genesis event will become the final version.
Meme
GOGLZ (@GOGLZ_SONIC) vs INDI (@indi_sonic): Meme & NFT & GameFi
GOGLZ is a leading Meme project on Sonic themed around the "goggles" concept. Recently, GOGLZ collaborated with another Sonic Meme project, Indi, to launch Goglz vs Indi, a wolf-sheep game based on Sonic. The IP images of GOGLZ and Indi are designed as wolves and sheep NFTs, respectively, integrating risk strategy and profit distribution mechanisms.
The core gameplay of Goglz vs Indi is as follows:
Indi NFT (Sheep): Represents the "Sheep" character, users can mine the game token $MEOW by staking Indi NFT. The total daily output is 7500 $MEOW, distributed per second among all staked sheep. Users can claim 80% of the accumulated $MEOW, while the remaining 20% is divided among the wolves. Unstaking requires at least 15000 $MEOW output, and there is a certain probability that $MEOW will be eaten by the wolves.
GOGLZ NFT (Wolf): Represents the "Wolf" character, which does not directly produce $MEOW, but instead shares 20% of the sheep's output revenue through the "plunder" mechanism when staked. The wolf's revenue distribution is linked to the "heart power value".
Among them, $MEOW is the core token in the game, and users can choose to exchange it for Sonic's native token $S, or continue to use it to mint more NFTs, further participating in the game loop.
Similar to the classic Wolf-Sheep game, sheep holders face potential threats from wolves (such as the risk of NFT or earnings being plundered), while wolves rely on the production of sheep to profit.
TinHat Cat (@TinHat_Cat)
TinHat Cat features a pink cat wearing a tin foil hat, and it ranked high in the previous Sonic ecosystem's first Meme Contest, with trading popularity second only to $GOGLZ.
AI
Hey Anon（@HeyAnonai）：DeFi + AI
Hey Anon is a DeFAI protocol developed by Daniele Sestagalli, allowing users to quickly obtain information such as price changes, community sentiment, and development dynamics through natural language, while executing complex DeFi operations. For example, users just need to say "Help me stake 100 $S" or "Convert $scUSD to $stS", and Hey Anon will execute it automatically.
The functionality of Hey Anon is closely tied to the main asset depth of Sonic, supporting asset operations such as $S, $scUSD, and $stS. Meanwhile, the native token of Hey Anon, $ANON, circulates across multiple chains including Sonic.
Allora Network (@AlloraNetwork)
Allora Network is a decentralized AI network developed by Allora Labs, built on the Cosmos SDK, aimed at assisting in on-chain data prediction and optimization. In early 2025, Allora will join the Sonic ecosystem.
In the Sonic ecosystem, Allora optimizes DeFi and GameFi applications. It provides market trend predictions for Shadow and Wagmi, adjusts liquidity pool yields; analyzes user behavior for Sonic's points system (Passive and Activity Points), dynamically optimizing reward weights; and offers data support for games like Fate Adventure, balancing economic models. Currently, Allora has launched on Dev Mainnet.
Yoko (@yokodotlive)
Yoko is an AI agent economic platform of the Sonic ecosystem, where users can easily create their own AI agents through the Yoko platform and perform a series of on-chain transaction operations using the AI agents.
After the reconstruction, the truth reveals itself through trials and tribulations.
Clearly, under the repeated baptism of bearish market sentiment, the demand for public chains has quietly shifted. Although the temptation of short-term gains still exists, more and more users are beginning to realize that the projects that can truly withstand cycles often possess more patience and long-termism.
The development trajectory of Sonic just confirms this point. Unlike other projects that only pursue short-term bursts, Sonic has chosen a path of "slow work leads to fine products." Since the reconstruction started last December, what we have seen is not a fleeting Meme carnival, but a gradual development from a small number of initial ecological projects to the current situation where DeFi innovations are emerging one after another and the ecosystem is thriving in symbiosis. Achieving a steady growth of 1 billion USD TVL in just four months, the market is paying for Sonic with real money.
In the current context where stories of getting rich quickly bring ecological traffic, Sonic's development approach may seem a bit "slow." However, its step-by-step strategy is guiding the entire ecosystem towards long-term construction. Sonic is building an ecosystem that can withstand market tests.
As the market gradually bids farewell to the speculative phase that purely relies on narratives, those projects that consistently focus on value creation and adhere to long-termism will inevitably stand out in the cycle. The rebuilt Sonic is slowly but surely moving towards the next round.