Binance listed VIC, doubling in two days. Is the 0gas public chain worth investing in?

On March 13, 2025, at 01:00 (UTC+8), Binance launched the VIC perpetual contract, causing the VIC token price to increase by approximately 2.5 times over two days in such a sluggish market. As an L1 public chain token, VIC's market capitalization is only over 70 million USD, which can be considered a bargain. It is worth noting that more than half of the VIC tokens have been unlocked, without the excessive selling pressure seen in previous VC tokens. So, is the VIC token worth buying? This article will conduct an in-depth analysis based on its fundamentals.

Project Overview

Basic Introduction: Viction (formerly known as TomoChain) is officially described as a human-centered L1 public chain, with its main features being the vision of "zero fees" and "enhanced transaction security," aimed at lowering the barriers to using Web3.

Development History: Viction's predecessor, TomoChain, was officially launched in March 2018, with a founding team that includes Long Vuong (who participated in the creation of the NEM blockchain), Le Ho, and Nguyen Sy Thanh Son. In 2018, the project raised approximately 8.5 million USD through an ICO, launched its mainnet, and issued the native token TOMO, with a total supply of 100 million tokens.

In 2019, the team released the decentralized trading protocol TomoX, and in 2020, collaborated with the Vietnamese Ministry of Education to put graduation certificates on the blockchain, demonstrating its application potential in business and government sectors. At the end of 2023, the team announced the official renaming of TomoChain to Viction, with the token symbol changed from TOMO to VIC, on a 1:1 exchange basis, while maintaining the original total supply, and introduced the "zero gas fee" feature, held the Viction Horizon startup hackathon, launched community incentive activities Viction Swag, and implemented token staking in the official wallet.

Core Technology and Innovation

Underlying Architecture: Viction continues and improves upon TomoChain's technical architecture, utilizing a Proof of Stake Voting (PoSV) mechanism for its main node network to maintain blockchain security and performance. The network consists of 150 main nodes elected through token voting, responsible for verifying transactions and producing blocks. The main nodes participate in consensus by staking VIC, enabling second-level block production and rapid transaction confirmation, while the network also employs an election mechanism to prevent a few nodes from monopolizing.

Viction also employs Double Validation and random seed technologies to enhance security and finality, requiring each transaction to be confirmed by two independent validators, reducing the risk of malicious behavior, and ensuring block irreversibility through random selection of validators. In terms of smart contracts, Viction is fully compatible with EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine), supporting most smart contracts and protocols in the Ethereum ecosystem, allowing developers to easily deploy or migrate DApps to Viction. Additionally, Viction supports atomic-level cross-chain token transfers, facilitating interoperability between different blockchains.

Key Innovations: Viction's most significant technological innovation is the introduction of the VRC25 token standard, known as the "zero gas token" standard. With VRC25, users do not need to hold the native token to pay gas fees when transferring or using a specific token—the network allows transaction fees to be paid directly with the token itself. For example, if I want to transfer USDT from Ethereum to an exchange but do not have ETH, I would normally need to deposit ETH from the exchange to Ethereum to cover gas fees before proceeding with the transfer.

This process can be cumbersome, and users familiar with deposit and withdrawal operations on-chain can relate. However, with VRC25, users can directly use USDT for transfers, significantly enhancing user experience in certain scenarios.

Technical Advantage Comparison: The competition in the public chain space is fierce. Compared to Ethereum, Viction achieves faster transaction confirmations and lower fees through its main node PoS consensus, eliminating the pain point of users needing to hold the main chain token for fees. In contrast to other chains that use Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) mechanisms (such as Tron, EOS, etc.), Viction's double validation and random election mechanisms provide additional security, reducing the risk of node malfeasance and forks.

Emerging public chains like Aptos and Sui have introduced new consensus and parallel processing technologies to enhance performance, but their smart contract ecosystems need to be rebuilt, making them less convenient than EVM-compatible public chains like Viction, which have lower migration costs for developers. It is not uncommon for public chains to wither due to developers' inability to participate; CKB is a typical example.

Market Environment and Fundamental Analysis

As of mid-March 2025, VIC's market performance has significantly improved, with recent price volatility and a surge in trading volume. According to CoinMarketCap data, VIC's latest price is approximately 0.37 USD, with a daily increase of 89.55%. This surge is accompanied by a dramatic increase in trading activity—24-hour trading volume skyrocketed to about 119 million USD.

It is noteworthy that VIC reached an all-time high in 2024, with TradingView data showing that on March 28, 2024, the VIC price peaked at $1.3437, followed by a market correction, dropping to a historical low of $0.2134 on February 3, 2025. Overall, Viction's current circulating supply is approximately 120 million tokens, accounting for 57% of the total supply, with a fully diluted market cap of about 70 million USD. Such a market cap is relatively small in the public chain space, offering some upward potential in a bull market, but it is also susceptible to short-term speculative influences.

Viction's direct comparable competitors include some regional or niche public chains, such as KardiaChain and Coin98 Network, which are influential in Southeast Asia, or those emphasizing low fees and high speed like Tron and Polygon (sidechains). Compared to Tron, Viction has stronger decentralized governance (Tron's super representatives are relatively centralized) and has introduced an innovative token payment mechanism; compared to sidechains like Polygon, Viction, as an independent main chain, offers higher security and autonomy.

In the emerging public chain space, some recent projects like Aptos, Sui, and Sei have made significant capital and technological strides, but most of these projects are still in the early stages of ecosystem development. Viction, having developed over several years, has established a certain user base and functionality (DEX, privacy protocols, etc.), giving it an advantage in maturity. Furthermore, as Viction originates from the early TomoChain community, it has brand recognition in Vietnam and the Asian market, giving it a first-mover advantage in local market competition.

However, it should also be noted that Viction's current market cap and user base are relatively limited, and to break through globally, it needs to continuously expand its ecological applications and compete with the network effects of larger public chains. At the same time, the rise of Layer 2 solutions (such as Ethereum Rollups) poses a threat to smaller Layer 1 chains: as Ethereum reduces gas fees through Layer 2, the zero gas advantage may be diminished. Therefore, Viction should fully leverage its unique positioning and community foundation to solidify its niche market through technological iteration and market promotion.

Should You Buy or Not

In March 2025, Binance officially announced the launch of the VIC/USDT perpetual contract, supporting up to 75x leverage, with trading set to begin at 01:00 Beijing time on March 13. This news has had various impacts on the market performance of the Viction project and the VIC token. So, what is the investment potential of the VIC token?

First, as one of the few public chains with years of technical accumulation that is still actively iterating, a market cap of around 70 million USD is certainly undervalued compared to the functions it provides and the problems it addresses (scalability, zero fees), indicating room for growth. Additionally, Viction has received support from institutions like DWF Labs and platforms like Binance, indicating that strong capital is optimistic about its prospects.

Second, Viction has a strong policy and networking advantage in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. The Vietnamese government has encouraged blockchain innovation in recent years, and it is not unreasonable to expect Viction to participate in more government or enterprise-level blockchain infrastructure projects, which would greatly broaden its application prospects. Furthermore, from the perspective of the crypto market cycle, public chains and infrastructure tracks have always been hotspots for capital in bull markets. If the next market cycle begins, public chain platforms like Viction, which have products and users, may achieve excess returns. Its unique zero gas model may become a promotional highlight, attracting more users to "vote with their feet" and migrate, driving ecological prosperity.

Having looked at the positives, let's consider the negatives. VIC's investors include DWF, which engages in both investment and market-making. Projects that DWF invests in typically also see market-making involvement. However, DWF's market-making style often involves a rapid price surge followed by a significant drop, and many projects they market-make end up going to zero, which poses a risk for VIC. Historically, VIC has experienced extreme volatility, losing over 80% of its value within a year, presenting high risks for medium to short-term investors.

Additionally, the Layer 1 public chain space where Viction operates is highly competitive. As Ethereum lowers fees and improves performance through Layer 2 technology, it may re-attract the majority of users and developers, squeezing the space available for independent public chains. Moreover, other L1 chains like Solana have established large ecosystems globally, creating uncertainty for Viction's breakout potential. If it cannot continuously launch differentiated applications and expand its user base, project enthusiasm may decline. Similar non-EVM feature L1 chains like CKB, INJ, and Canto have also shown poor performance over the past year.

On the other hand, technical and governance risks need to be considered. Although it employs 150 nodes in a PoSV mechanism, if VIC holdings become too concentrated, the main node elections may be manipulated by large holders, leading to centralized governance. Especially since the newly introduced 80 million ecological tokens are currently held by the foundation, this is something investors must pay attention to.

In summary, Viction is an L1 public chain with unique technical selling points and an ecosystem, and its market cap of 70 million USD is indeed relatively low. We know that the market cap of a non-top-tier L1 public chain generally ranges from 500 million to 1 billion USD. However, as pointed out in a research report by Gate.io: "VIC's strengths lie in its efficient PoSV consensus, transparent governance, and good incentives, but its high dependence on main nodes may also bring concerns of centralization when token distribution is imbalanced." Especially in a poor market environment, with even Bitcoin not having found its bottom, for VIC, while there may be some potential, it seems that the best strategy is to remain observant.