Sonic Brings Back DeFi Summer Vibes as Ecosystem Outperforms Other Layer 1s

Sonic, the Layer 1 (L1) blockchain formerly known as Fantom, is thriving despite the recent crypto market volatility, with its key metrics at all-time highs as users flock to the ecosystem.

The blockchain’s total value locked (TVL) is up to $723 million, a 246% increase in the last 30 days, as it flips Hyperliquid to become the 13th largest blockchain by TVL. Activity on the chain is also surging, with weekly transactions and weekly active users increasing by 140% and 180% compared to last week.

The chain’s native token, S, has held up well considering the carnage in the altcoin market and is up 47% over the last week, while some of the top alternative Layer 1 tokens, such as AVAX, HYPE, and TON, are down between 4% and 9% in the same period.

The Sonic rally comes amid an ongoing renaissance in the alternative Layer 1 market, as other new L1 tokens are also doing well. Story Protocol’s IP token, is up 150% over the last week, and SEI and Bittensor TAO are both also up 21%.

The Shadow decentralized exchange (DEX) is the ecosystem’s top performer so far and accounts for $161 million, or 22%, of the chain’s TVL. Shadow’s TVL is up 1350% in the last 30 days.

Sonic co-founder Andre Cronje has been beating the Sonic drum, and is making sure that his social media followers are aware of everything that is happening on Sonic.

Many dApps on the chain invoke memories of DeFi summer with extremely high, but still unsustainable, yield offerings that Cronje is happy to promote.

The ecosystem's success can be partially attributed to its ongoing incentive mechanism. Sonic users can earn points for participation in the ecosystem, allowing them to earn a portion of the upcoming S airdop.

The airdrop event will distribute 190,500,000 S tokens, worth $160 million at current prices, to early users and developers within the Sonic ecosystem.