Sonic, the first gaming Layer-2 (L2) infrastructure on Solana, has achieved two major milestones with its recent launch. Within one week of starting the Sonic Testnet Odyssey, the platform reached over 100,000 unique wallets and processed 17 million transactions. This achievement highlights the potential of the Sonic protocol, designed to enhance gaming on the Solana blockchain.
Sonic Breakthrough
Sonic stands out as the first atomic Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) Layer-2 built for gaming. It offers various features to support game development and execution on Solana, such as customizable gaming tools, a sandbox environment, and flexible data types. With these features, Sonic aims to deliver fast on-chain video game experiences using Solana’s rapid processing speeds.
In fact, just 36 hours into the Sonic Testnet Odyssey, the protocol announced on X that it had already achieved over 45,000 wallets and 3.2 million transactions. The subsequent increase to 100,000 wallets and 17 million transactions demonstrates huge interest and the rapid adoption of Sonic’s L2 infrastructure.
Engagement and Ecosystem Integration
A marked portion of Sonic’s transactions comes from user interactions with games integrated into its Odyssey campaign. These games, including Jogojogo, Fomoney, Rage Effect, and Lowlife Forms, reward users for making transactions within the games, encouraging engagement and adoption.
Solana is known as a retail-friendly blockchain network due to its onboarding process and strong incentives from its memecoin surge. However, the gaming sector on Solana has yet to see the same success levels as in DeFi, NFTs, and SocialFi. Sonic aims to bridge this gap by providing developers with a way to quickly deploy high-speed SBM chains for GameFi projects and other initiatives on Solana.
Strategic Initiatives and Future Prospects
Sonic was developed by Mirror World Labs, a GameFi infrastructure company established two years ago. The company has announced several growth initiatives, including ecosystem grants and accelerator programs to expedite developer onboarding to the Sonic SVM and HyperGrid Framework. HyperGrid simplifies the deployment of game engines and virtual machines on Solana, enabling the rapid creation of new SVM environments for gaming.
The wallet and transaction milestones follow Sonic’s $12 million Series A funding round, led by BITKRAFT and supported by Galaxy Interactive, Big Brain Holdings, and others.
Furthermore, Sonic has implemented its first major upgrade to the Sonic Testnet Odyssey, enhancing speed and stability to meet high demand. Successful game launches, such as the tap-to-earn game Snake Lite, have already taken place.
Looking ahead, Sonic’s team is preparing for a busy summer, including hosting the Solana Kick Off: Shenzhen event with RateX and participating in the Kyoto Web3 Gaming Summer event during #IVS2024 happening next month.