While the industry was still debating about Layer 2 scalability, Sonic provided a new answer through a "foundational revolution." Recently, HTX Research released a new report titled "Sonic: A Blueprint for the DeFi New Paradigm," detailing the new blockchain Sonic. By fully EVM-compatible, Sonic achieved a throughput of over 2000 TPS, 0.7-second transaction finality, and a transaction cost of $0.0001, surpassing mainstream Layer 1 solutions in performance and even outperforming most Layer 2 solutions. The performance-redefining Sonic is reshaping the public chain infrastructure, ushering in the "sub-second era" of public chains.

Sonic's Road to Innovation: 2000+ TPS, 0.7s Finality, Near-Zero Cost

As a high-performance public chain based on a Directed Acyclic Graph (aDAG), Fantom Opera initially stood out with its high throughput and fast confirmation capabilities. However, as the on-chain ecosystem expanded, the limitations of its traditional EVM architecture became increasingly apparent: state storage bloat, slow node synchronization, and restricted execution efficiency. To address this, Fantom introduced the new upgrade solution Sonic, aiming to achieve a performance leap through bottom-up reconstruction without relying on sharding or Layer 2.

Sonic, spearheaded by the restructured Sonic Labs, brought together a core team of top industry talent: CEO Michael Kong, CTO Andre Cronje (Founder of Yearn Finance), and Chief Research Officer Bernhard Scholz. The team spent two and a half years comprehensively optimizing from the virtual machine, storage engine to consensus mechanism, ultimately creating the independent new chain Sonic. While being EVM compatible, it achieved over 2000 TPS, 0.7-second finality, $0.0001 transaction cost, a 90% improvement in storage efficiency, and reduced node synchronization time from weeks to within two days.

Technological Breakthrough: A Trinity for Performance Leap

· SonicVM: The new virtual machine dynamically compiles EVM bytecode, caches high-frequency operations (such as SHA3 hashing), pre-analyzes jump instructions, boosts execution efficiency several times, and supports high-throughput demands.

· SonicDB: Using a layered storage design, it separates real-time state (LiveDB) from historical data (ArchiveDB), compresses storage space by 90%, reduces node operation thresholds, and enhances decentralization.

· Sonic Gateway: A Layer 2-like cross-chain bridge to Ethereum, balancing security and efficiency through a batching mechanism, supporting bi-directional asset migration, and seamlessly integrating with the Ethereum ecosystem.

Tokenomics: Dual Incentives for Developers and Users

Sonic introduces its native token S, exchanged 1:1 with the old token FTM, covering functions such as Gas payment and governance staking. Its innovative mechanisms include:

· Gas Fee Monetization (FeeM): Developers can receive up to 90% of transaction fee revenue, incentivizing ecosystem app innovation; non-FeeM apps see 50% of fees burned to curb inflation.

· Point-based Airdrop System: Users earn points (Passive/Activity Points and Gems) through holding tokens, participating in DeFi, or ecosystem interactions, redeemable for a total of 200 million S tokens, forming a "usage-driven mining" positive feedback loop.

Stablecoin Ecosystem: Nested Yield and Countercyclical Growth

During the 2025 market downturn, Sonic's on-chain TVL grew over 500% against the trend, with stablecoin volume surpassing $260 million, primarily driven by high-leverage yield strategies:

· Silo v2 Looping: Collateralizing S tokens to borrow stablecoins, enabling up to 20x leverage, capturing multi-point and interest rate spreads.

· Euler+Rings Combo: Depositing USDC to mint overcollateralized stablecoin scUSD, utilizing leverage to achieve 10x amplified returns, while earning Sonic points and protocol airdrops.

· Shadow DEX Liquidity Mining: Providing liquidity for mainstream trading pairs, with an annualized yield of 169%, and receiving a share of trading fees.

The future ecosystem plan includes introducing income from RWAs (Real-World Assets) and off-chain payment scenarios, expanding through compliant asset backing and consumer app adoption to build a sustainable stablecoin utility loop.

DeFi Infrastructure Innovation: Adaptive AMM and Dynamic Risk Management

The Sonic core DEX, FlyingTulip, designed by Andre Cronje, integrates trading, lending, and leverage functions, with key technological breakthroughs including:

· Adaptive AMM Curve: Combining Curve V2's liquidity aggregation advantage with an external oracle monitoring volatility, dynamically adjusting the curve shape—approaching a constant product curve (low slippage) in low volatility and a constant product curve (preventing liquidity exhaustion) in high volatility, reducing impermanent loss by 42% and improving capital efficiency by 85%.

· Dynamic LTV Lending Model: Drawing inspiration from Curve's LLAMMA liquidation mechanism but dynamically adjusting the loan-to-value ratio (LTV) based on market volatility. For example, the ETH collateral LTV ratio can drop from 80% during calm periods to 50% during volatile periods, reducing systemic risk.

Conclusion: Significance of DeFi 2.0

With the triple advantage of "high performance, nested yield, and low threshold," Sonic is expected to surpass $2 billion in TVL within 12 months, with the token S's market cap potentially reaching billions of dollars. Its model has set a new paradigm for the industry: replacing liquidity hype with on-chain efficiency and real yields, which could trigger a fundamental shift in the logic of public chain competition.

Potential risks are mainly concentrated at the technical level, including Adaptive AMM's reliance on an external oracle, which could cause liquidity pool anomalies if the price feed is attacked; high-leverage strategies face liquidation risk during extreme market conditions and need to be paired with hedging tools (such as perpetual contract shorts) to manage volatility.

From a macro perspective, Sonic is poised to be the dark horse in the 2025 DeFi revival wave, with the success of its stablecoin ecosystem creating broad upside potential for the ecosystem token S and overall network value. Sonic's rise validates a key proposition: in a bear market, through mechanism innovation and performance breakthroughs, DeFi can still build a "yield fortress" to attract rational capital for long-term retention. Its nested yield model, developer incentive system, and efficient infrastructure provide a reusable template for the industry. If successfully integrated with RWAs and payment scenarios, Sonic may become a bridge connecting on-chain yield with real economic needs, driving DeFi into a new stage of large-scale application.

To read the full report, please visit: https://square.htx.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/HTX-Research-Latest-Report.pdf

About HTX Research

HTX Research is the dedicated research arm of the HTX Group, responsible for conducting in-depth analysis of a wide range of areas including cryptocurrency, blockchain technology, and emerging market trends. It produces comprehensive reports and offers professional assessments. HTX Research is committed to providing data-driven insights and strategic foresight, playing a key role in shaping industry views and supporting informed decision-making in the digital asset space. With a rigorous research methodology and cutting-edge data analysis, HTX Research always stays at the forefront of innovation, leading the development of industry thinking and facilitating a deep understanding of the ever-changing market dynamics.

This article is contributed content and does not represent the views of BlockBeats

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