The blockchain di Fantom ha annunciato lo stanziamento di un fondo crypto da 200 milioni di token FTM, pari ad un controvalore di 120 milioni di USD, per sostenere la migrazione dei propri partner verso la nuova rete L1 ad elevato throughput Sonic.
The fund in question comes from the treasury of Fantom, managed by co-founder Andre Cronje, and does not foresee any increase in the circulating supply of the crypto FTM.
The transition to Sonic could help the rebirth of DeFi on Fantom, which has seen a strong reduction in decentralized activity since 2022 onwards.
Let’s see all the details below.
Summary
Fantom and the transition to the ultra-fast Sonic blockchain: commitment of 120 million USD in FTM crypto
Fantom, a well-known layer-1 blockchain protagonist of the last “DeFi season” of 2021, has announced a commitment of 120 million USD in crypto to accelerate the migration of its partners to the new high-performance cryptographic network Sonic.
The fund provides for the use of cryptographic resources for 200 million FTM tokens, which will be taken from the tesoreria of Fantom, excellently managed by the developer Andre Cronje, without affecting the supply of the cryptocurrency and without adding inflationary components.
The targeted allocations include grants for native applications, strategic grants to dApps, and first-class infrastructure tools and partners for developers and users.
Sonic, not to be confused with the homonymous layer-2 network built on Solana, is a new first-level blockchain equipped with layer-2 bridge for Ethereum and capable of supporting a high transaction throughput.
Presented for the first time by the Fantom team in March after the completion of the Opera upgrade, the chain is supported by the Sonic Foundation, responsible for governance functions, and by Sonic Labs which will guide the growth of dapps and users.
Thanks to the allocation of the 120 million USD fund, it is likely that the migration of Fantom will happen very quickly, simultaneously allowing the crypto community to create an on-chain environment full of successful applications.
The blockchain infrastructure team has already moved to ensure the presence of high-level tools on Sonic such as native resources, bridge integration, non-custodial wallets, onboarding platforms, web2 partnerships, and much more.
Among the angel investors of the project, we find Michael Egorov (Curve), Stani Kulechov (Aave), Robert Leshner (Compound), Tarun Chitra (Gauntlet), and Sam Kazemian (FRAX), as well as the venture partners Hashed, Signum, and UOB Ventures.
In the post published by the Fantom Foundation, it is also stated that there will be an airdrop for early users and all FTM crypto will be converted at a 1:1 ratio with the upcoming “S” token (gas and governance token of Sonic).
According to a recent governance proposal, the airdrop should take place 6 months after the launch of Sonic’s mainnet and will include a points incentive program.
The last time the Fantom Foundation established a web3 acceleration fund in July 2021, with an allocation of 370,000,000 FTM crypto equivalent to 74 million USD, its blockchain network had grown significantly, bringing the TVL from 400 million USD to 7.7 billion USD in just 7 months.
FTM had also grown significantly on that occasion, seeing its value multiply by about 17 times in just over 3 months.
DeFi on Fantom in serious trouble and price of FTM crushed
The support from the Fantom Foundation with a fund of 120 million USD for the migration to Sonic comes after a long period of suffering for the DeFi of the Fantom blockchain characterized by low on-chain activity and a flat TVL.
After the strong growth of the network during the two-year period 2020-2021 which saw an explosion of decentralized finance markets, from 2022 onwards we have witnessed a continuous decline in locked value and trading volumes.
In particular from March 2022 to the present day, the TVL has gone from 7.89 billion USD to 168 million USD. Even the daily trading volumes have drastically reduced, going from values generally above 600 million USD to levels below 20 million USD.
In all this, even with the recovery of the DeFi sector in 2023 and the first half of 2024, Fantom did not see significant growth progress, and remained crushed while other blockchain competitor solutions like Solana or the layer-2 of Ethereum resumed their bull run.
Even the crypto FTM has not gone through a good period in the last 2 years, seeing its quotations plummet from a high of 3.37 USD to a low of 0.16 USD.
In any case, unlike the TVL which has continuously decreased, the price of FTM has gone through a phase of partial recovery from 2023 onwards: supported by the favorable price action of BTC, the coin of the Fantom ecosystem has grown by about 150%.
At the moment, the weekly chart of the cryptocurrency shows a support area around the 0.5 USD zone, where a positive speculative phase could start again from here until the end of the year.
The rebranding to Sonic and the migration to a new blockchain more efficient in terms of scalability could give Fantom the breath of fresh air needed to recover the ground lost in the last two years and reestablish itself as the dominant infrastructure in the DeFi sector.
The airdrop initiative could also ensure a constant flow of new users in the first months of the mainnet, thus attracting new investment capital and new developments on the chain.
In a scenario like this, it is possible that the TVL of Fantom (soon to be Sonic) will return above the 1 billion USD mark; while the price of the FTM crypto, which will be converted into S, will exceed the threshold of 1 USD.
The substantial allocation of 200 million FTM underscores the commitment of the Fantom Foundation in building a robust and dynamic ecosystem, capable of surviving the growing and changing demands of the market and investors.
We expect a fiery return for Andre Cronje and his team of blockchain applications.
