Sonic Raises $12M To Energize Solana's Nascent GameFi Sector
Source: Depositphotos
Blockchain gaming-focused Layer-2 infrastructure project Sonic is hoping to boost Solana's video games economy after closing on a $12 million Series A round of funding, bringing its total amount raised to date to $16 million.
Today's round was led by the prominent crypto VC Bitkraft, which was joined by new investors including Galaxy Interactive, Big Brain Holdings and others.
Sonic, built by the GameFi developer Mirror World Labs, is betting on its ability to accelerate Solana's presence in the gaming space through its modular Solana Virtual machine chain. It's designed to support autonomous and self-governing game tokenomics within the Solana ecosystem, with infrastructure that supports the creation of "game-specific rollups" to ensure blazing-fast transactions.
Solana has emerged as one of the most successful blockchains after Bitcoin and Ethereum, thanks to its retail-friendly nature and its simplified onboarding. Its platform hosts some of the best known crypto projects around, including DeFi services such as Raydium and Solend, NFT marketplaces like Magic Eden and the decentralized music-streaming platform Audius. However, if there's one area where Solana has struggled to gain impressive traction, it's the GameFi industry, where many developers instead have opted to build on game-oriented blockchain infrastructures such as Immutable X and Oasys.
By building a dedicated SVM infrastructure layer for gaming on top of Solana, Sonic aims to change that. With its protocol, games developers have the ability to quickly build and deploy their own SVM chains.
Secret Sauce
Sonic utilizes HyperGrid, the first horizontal scaling framework on Solana, to enhance the performance of its SVM chains. With HyperGrid, developers have the flexibility to customize their chains features and supported data types, paving the way for what Sonic calls a "multi-grid future" of customizable and highly scalable gaming blockchains.
1/While Solana offers high-speed and low-cost transactions, the platform still struggles with game-specific demands:High player demand outpaces the network's ability to process transactions swiftly, disrupting real-time gaming interaction and immersion pic.twitter.com/bkIZrqBVMN
— Sonic (@SonicSVM) April 6, 2024
Another key advantage of HyperGrid is that games developers can use their preferred development tools to craft unique on-chain gaming experiences, simplifying the process of building immersive virtual worlds. Meanwhile, Sonic's functionality expands to traffic management, multiple payment systems, rapid transaction processing and simple onboarding, making it easier for games to attract newcomers to Web3.
Ultimately, Sonic aims to be the foundation of a dynamic, diversified gaming ecosystem built atop of Solana by overcoming its current limitations. With HyperGrid, it has the key advantage of being compatible with Ethereum Virtual Machine-based blockchains and smart contracts, so existing games built on EVM chains can also expand onto Solana.
With millions of dollars stuffed into its war chest, Sonic believes it's ready to assume pole position in the race to grow Solana's GameFi economy. The company's co-founder and Chief Executive Chris Zhu said he was inspired to build Sonic after working with hundreds of games developers in the last two years, helping them to launch their games on Solana.
"We believe Sonic SVM will be the key to unlocking the Solana gaming summer, onboarding thousands of games to launch and go-to-market with our support," he insisted.
Bitkraft Principal Justin Swart said he thinks Sonic is destined to become the go-to platform for any game studio that wants to build on Solana. He's a firm believer in Solana's potential to become a key gaming blockchain.
"Over one million active addresses have been added to Solana over the past year," he pointed out. "The Sonic HyperGrid is where some of the best games can be built for these new users."
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
