Sonic, a Solana-based Layer 2 network focused on gaming, has successfully raised $12 million in a Series A funding round, valuing the company at $100 million. Led by Bitkraft Ventures, the round saw participation from notable investors such as Galaxy Interactive and Big Brain Holdings. This investment brings Sonic's total funding to $16 million, following a $4 million seed round in 2022.

Sonic, developed by Mirror World Labs, is building a proprietary technology called HyperGrid Framework. This enables horizontal scaling via rollups on Solana, providing an exceptionally fast on-chain game experience at minimal cost. The platform allows developers to seamlessly deploy decentralized applications from Ethereum Virtual Machine chains to Solana via HyperGrid's interpreter.

The funding round was structured as equity with token warrants, bringing Sonic's fully diluted valuation to $100 million. As part of the deal, Bitkraft joins Sonic's board of directors. The company plans to expand its core developer team, developer and game relations team, and marketing team globally. Currently, Sonic has a headcount of 20 people, with its core team based in New York.

Sonic is currently on devnet, where the first set of five gaming studios is building with its technology. An incentivized testnet campaign called "Odyssey" is set to launch, allowing users to send transactions, play games launching on Sonic, and earn "rings" for their on-chain activities. Sonic's mainnet and its own token are expected to launch in the third quarter of this year.

Sonic's closest competitor is Eclipse, which is building an SVM Layer 2 on Ethereum. Ronin Chain and Redstone Network can also be considered competitors. The company has grants and acceleration programs to onboard game developers onto its platform, with a $20 million program consisting of token grants, token swaps, and stablecoins or fiat.

In related news, Solana has surpassed Ethereum in 24-hour trading volume on decentralized exchanges. According to data from DEX Screener, Solana recorded a trading volume exceeding $1.97 billion, while Ethereum's volume trailed at $1.67 billion during the same period. This dominance is highlighted by Raydium, the leading DEX within the Solana ecosystem, which currently boasts $963 million in total value locked. Solana's growing influence and trading activity within the decentralized finance space reinforce its position as a formidable competitor to Ethereum in blockchain transactions and applications.