The Fantom Foundation has made a significant leap in blockchain scalability with the launch of its first validator using Sonic technology. This development marks a key advancement for the Layer-1 scalable network, promising to address longstanding issues related to blockchain scalability.
The Sonic technology, built upon the foundation of the initial Opera network released in December 2019, aims to overcome challenges faced by the earlier network. Led by Fantom founder Andre Cronje, the Opera network, a permissionless Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG)-based protocol, achieved a remarkable throughput of nearly 200 transactions per second (TPS) and sub-600ms finality. Despite these improvements in scalability and transaction speed compared to Ethereum, the Opera network struggled during high congestion periods, affecting the user experience. This led to the two-year research and development journey towards creating Sonic technology.
The integration of Sonic technology is seen as a pivotal upgrade for Fantom, showcasing the foundation’s dedication to innovation and opening a new chapter in blockchain infrastructure. Sonic’s design focuses on creating a shared sequencer capable of handling over 180 million daily transactions with real-time confirmation. Following the announcement of the Sonic upgrade, Fantom’s native token, FTM, experienced a notable price surge of 20%, reaching $1.22, and later stabilizing at $1.15, with a market capitalization of $3.22 billion. The recent news of the validator going live further boosted FTM’s price by 8%, with the token trading at $1 at press time.
In addition to the Sonic validator, the Fantom ecosystem is witnessing other significant developments. Andre Cronje hinted at the potential introduction of memecoins in the ecosystem amidst a widespread frenzy for such tokens. Moreover, on April 5, Fantom launched its canonical stablecoin, USDC.e, backed by Circle and Wormhole. This stablecoin, bridged from USDC, offers advantages to both users and developers and may be upgraded to a native asset in the future, further enhancing its utility within the community. These milestones reflect Fantom’s growing influence and innovation in the blockchain sector.
