Sonic is the high-performance EVM blockchain that evolved from Fantom — one of the first DAG-based Layer 1s that pioneered fast, cheap smart contract execution. Fantom launched in 2018 using Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) technology and the Lachesis consensus mechanism, achieving 1-second finality with near-zero fees. It attracted significant DeFi activity in 2021, partly driven by the involvement of Andre Cronje (creator of Yearn Finance) who built multiple protocols on Fantom. Fantom’s success spawned a rich DeFi ecosystem including SpookySwap, Beethoven X, and others. In 2024, Fantom Foundation launched Sonic —aSonic is a ground-up rebuild with 10,000 TPS capacity, sub-second finality, and a new fee monetisation model for developers. FTM tokens migrated to S (Sonic) tokens. Sonic introduced the FeeM (Fee Monetisation) system: dApp developers earn up to 90% of the gas fees their users generate, creating a fundamentally new incentive model for attracting builders. The Sonic Gateway bridge enables asset movement between Sonic and Ethereum. Andre Cronje returned to the Sonic ecosystem and has been building multiple products. S is the native token for gas, staking, and governance. Sonic’s combination of extreme speed, developer-friendly economics, and established DeFi ecosystem positions it as a serious EVM alternative to Ethereum L2s.
Example: A developer builds a DEX on Sonic and integrates FeeM. Users pay $0.001 per swap; the developer earns 90% of that fee automatically. With 1 million monthly swaps, the developer earns $900/month passively from protocol infrastructure — an entirely new business model for open-source DeFi builders who previously had no direct fee capture mechanism.
Learn more: Sonic Labs
