Sonic and Beyond: Pioneering a New Age of Blockchain Innovation

Introduction to Sonic Chain

With the upgrade of our Opera chain nearing completion, we’re refocusing our efforts on utilizing our best-in-class technology to build out a new chain and want to provide additional details.

As mentioned in our previous blog post, we’re developing a new high-throughput chain named Sonic (ticker $S). The launch of the Sonic network will coincide with the introduction of the Sonic Foundation, which will be responsible for the network’s governance and treasury management functions, as well as Sonic Labs, which will now drive growth among dApps, partnerships, and users.

While our Opera chain is being upgraded with new “Sonic technology,” we’ll no longer be using the name “Sonic” to refer to our tech stack. Instead, Sonic will refer to this new chain.

Sonic Chain Launch

Designed by Professor Bernhard Scholz, one of the world’s foremost experts on virtual machine development, and his team, and led by DeFi pioneer Andre Cronje, the Sonic chain is a new layer-1 chain with a native layer-2 bridge connected to Ethereum.

The Sonic chain will be a layer-1 platform that connects to Ethereum via a bespoke layer-2 bridge, allowing Sonic to tap into vast amounts of liquidity, users, and protocols. This allows the network to combine:

• The low cost, scalability, and speed of a layer-1 platform
• The security of a layer-2 bridge for access to native ETH and other assets on Ethereum

As a result, the Sonic chain isn’t just an L1 or L2 — it’s the first chain of its kind to provide the best of both.

Building the Sonic Brand

The launch of the new Sonic chain will trigger the introduction of the Sonic Foundation and Sonic Labs.

We are in the process of building out the brand narrative and a full, comprehensive visual identity, including:

• Color schemes
• Typography
• Aesthetic elements
• Iconography
• Motion graphics
• Memes
• Stickers

$S Token

With the new token, a recently approved governance vote ensures compatibility and migration between $FTM to $S on a 1:1 basis.

Strategic Fund Raise

We’re also thrilled to announce the closing of a $10 million strategic funding round led by Hashed, one of the largest and most well-known cryptocurrency funds in Korea. This funding is part of a larger initiative for the Foundation that is expected to expand over the coming months. In addition to Hashed, the strategic funding round received support from:

• UOB Ventures
• Signum Capital
• Aave Foundation
• Angel investors including Stani Kulechov, Robert Leshner, Michael Egorov, Fernando Martinelli, Tarun Chitra, and Sam Kazemian

Capital raised during the recent round will be exclusively used to further support strategic growth and ecosystem development.

Conclusion

Our team is steadfast in exploring how the Sonic chain can impact and elevate a number of different DeFi and real-world use cases. Industries and applications such as:

• Real-world assets
• Perpetual DEXs
• Payments
• Trading
• High-transaction-based games

can be transformed by the speed and high throughput of Sonic.

There’s much more to come, including programs such as airdrops, grants, partnerships, and technology developments to be announced for the Sonic network.