Introduction

In early 2025, the optimistic sentiment in the U.S. stock market drove the S&P 500 to new highs, while the cryptocurrency market remained under pressure and sluggish, with meme coins experiencing extreme volatility. Against this backdrop, Sonic ($S) stood out with its price increase and technical upgrades, becoming the market focus. This article will analyze its performance and potential.

This Monday coincided with Presidents' Day, and the U.S. stock market was closed. After the market opened on Tuesday, the overall market sentiment was optimistic, with the S&P 500 index rising by 0.24% to set a new historical high, and the Nasdaq Composite also slightly increasing by 0.07%.

In contrast to the strong performance of U.S. stocks, the cryptocurrency market faced a downward adjustment.

Recently, the entire cryptocurrency market has been experiencing a round of downward volatility, with overall market sentiment appearing low, and trading volume and investor confidence being impacted to some extent. Meanwhile, the meme coin market has been like a roller coaster, with prices fluctuating wildly, leaving many investors feeling lost amid such uncertainty. However, in this weak and unpredictable market environment, the token S has emerged, showcasing remarkable growth momentum. Not only has it shown a steady increase in price performance, but the active community and support behind it have also added to its appeal. Compared to the erratic performance of other tokens, S's outstanding performance undoubtedly injects a bit of vitality into the currently sluggish cryptocurrency market, making it one of the focal points for investors.

I. $S Price Brewing for Increase, Potential Expected

Sonic is an EVM Layer 1 blockchain platform evolved from Fantom, focusing on providing high performance and scalability for decentralized applications. The platform supports the native token $S, which is used for transaction fees, staking, governance, and running validators. After the new network launches, users holding the old FTM tokens will be able to convert them to $S at a 1:1 ratio.

Key Features:

• High Performance: Sonic has the capability to process over 10,000 transactions per second, with completion times in the sub-second range, making it suitable for high-demand applications in various fields such as gaming and finance.

• Interoperability: The platform emphasizes seamless interaction between different blockchains.

• Developer Incentives: Sonic Labs plans to implement various incentive programs to attract developers and promote innovation within its ecosystem.

II. Fantom Upgraded to Sonic, Fundamentals Fully Optimized

Three Aspects of Upgrade

• Fantom Virtual Machine (FVM)

• Storage System (DataBase)

• Bridge (Sonic Gateway)

1) On-chain Internal Optimization:

• Blockchain Scalability Challenges: Existing blockchains face trade-offs between decentralization, security, and scalability. Fantom plans to achieve a balance among the three.

• Bottleneck Analysis (Aida Project): By testing 40 million blocks, it was found that EVM only accounted for 13% of processing time, while StateDB accounted for 84%, indicating that the storage system is the main bottleneck.

• Storage Upgrade (Carmen Project): The existing Merkle Patricia Trie (MPT) solution has performance bottlenecks, and Fantom adopts a new file-based StateDB to optimize storage efficiency.

• Fantom Virtual Machine Upgrade (Tosca Project): FVM replaces EVM, supporting Solidity and Vyper compatibility, and uses "super instructions" to improve execution efficiency.

Test Results:

• The FVM solution increases transaction speed by 8.1 times and reduces storage usage by 98%, significantly optimizing network performance.

• Fantom enhances transaction processing capabilities and reduces node operating costs through upgrades to the storage and virtual machine systems, further strengthening on-chain scalability.

2) Off-chain Optimization:

Sonic Gateway is a decentralized cross-chain bridge designed to connect Ethereum and the Sonic network, aiming to enhance interoperability while eliminating users' custodial risks.

Core Features of Sonic Gateway:

• Allows secure transfer of ERC-20 assets between Ethereum and Sonic.

• Transfers from Ethereum to Sonic take about 10 minutes, while transfers back from Sonic to Ethereum take about 1 hour.

Security Mechanism:

• Built-in fail-safe mechanism: If the gateway is unavailable for 14 consecutive days, users can retrieve their assets on Ethereum.

• Monitors gateway status through inter-chain "heartbeat" signals to ensure user fund safety.

Comparison with Layer-2 Solutions:

• Sonic offers a faster transfer experience without a challenge period and provides instant finality, superior to the typical 7-day challenge period of Optimistic Rollup solutions.

User Benefits:

• Allows users to access native assets (such as BTC, ETH, SOL) on Sonic without relying on wrapped assets.

Different from Layer-2 Operation Mode:

• Sonic operates as Layer-1, not as an extension layer of Ethereum, using Merkle proofs to verify asset states instead of relying on Ethereum's consensus mechanism.

Efficient Data Storage:

• Only stores the Merkle root hash and block height, significantly reducing Ethereum's data storage burden and improving on-chain efficiency.

III. Sonic On-chain TVL Soars, Ecosystem Growth Accelerates

According to the latest data from the DefiLlama platform, Sonic currently ranks 16th in total value locked (TVL) across various blockchains, demonstrating its strong performance in the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. Notably, Sonic's TVL growth over the past month reached an astonishing 180%, indicating a significant increase in market confidence and capital inflow into the platform. Additionally, compared to the TVL level in December last year, Sonic's total value locked has nearly tripled, highlighting its accelerated expansion in the DeFi space and investors' optimistic expectations for its future prospects. This growth not only reflects the platform's development momentum but also indicates the continuous inflow of market capital into the Sonic ecosystem, further solidifying its competitive position in the industry.

IV. Sonic On-chain Data Active, Price Support Solid

According to trading volume data provided by SonicSca:

The highest trading volume on the Sonic chain occurred on January 13, 2025, reaching 975,252 transactions. Since December 16, trading volume began to increase significantly, followed by volatile growth; after peaking on January 13, trading volume declined but remained relatively high; at the beginning of February, trading volume slightly rebounded, increasing market activity and returning to a growth trajectory, which is worth monitoring for future developments. Similar conclusions can be drawn from the Gas usage chart, which shows that the Sonic network experienced a period of active growth from December to January, peaking in Gas usage in mid-January. Although Gas usage fluctuated in February, it remained at a relatively high level, indicating that the network is still active.

Despite the significant increase in TVL and robust on-chain data performance, the price of $S has been suppressed by moving averages since its launch at the beginning of the year, failing to fully reflect the impact of fundamental improvements. It was not until February 8 that the price ended its downward trend and began to recover. However, the current price is still far below the historical high. If $S can maintain above the support level of $0.57 and steadily rise along the moving averages, the subsequent trend is expected to strengthen further, targeting around $0.72.

In summary, since its rebranding from Fantom, Sonic has demonstrated strong development momentum. Its total locked value (TVL) has achieved significant growth in a short period, and on-chain data activity has increased, reflecting the rapid expansion of its ecosystem and improved user participation. Nevertheless, the price of $S has not yet fully reflected these positive fundamental changes. As market attention on Sonic increases, along with its continuous optimization in technology and ecosystem, the price of $S is expected to rise further in the future. Investors should closely monitor market dynamics and on-chain data to seize potential upward opportunities in this rapidly rotating market.