Blockchain gaming-focused Layer-2 project Sonic aims to revolutionize Solana's gaming economy, having secured $12 million in a Series A funding round, bringing its total fundraising to $16 million.

The funding round was led by prominent crypto venture capital firm Bitkraft, with additional investments from Galaxy Interactive, Big Brain Holdings, and others.

Sonic, developed by GameFi company Mirror World Labs, plans to enhance Solana’s presence in the gaming sector through its modular Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) chain. This infrastructure is designed to support autonomous and self-governing game tokenomics within the Solana ecosystem, enabling the creation of "game-specific rollups" for ultra-fast transactions.

Solana has become a leading blockchain after Bitcoin and Ethereum due to its user-friendly nature and simple onboarding process. It hosts major crypto projects like DeFi services Raydium and Solend, NFT marketplace Magic Eden, and decentralized music platform Audius. However, it has struggled to gain significant traction in the GameFi industry, with many developers opting for game-oriented blockchains such as Immutable X and Oasys.

Sonic aims to change this by building a dedicated SVM infrastructure layer for gaming on Solana. Its protocol allows game developers to quickly build and deploy their own SVM chains.

The Secret Sauce

Sonic employs HyperGrid, the first horizontal scaling framework on Solana, to boost the performance of its SVM chains. HyperGrid allows developers to customize chain features and supported data types, creating what Sonic describes as a "multi-grid future" of customizable and highly scalable gaming blockchains.

HyperGrid also enables game developers to use their preferred development tools to create unique on-chain gaming experiences, simplifying the building of immersive virtual worlds. Sonic's features include traffic management, multiple payment systems, rapid transaction processing, and easy onboarding, facilitating the attraction of newcomers to Web3.

Ultimately, Sonic aims to build a dynamic, diversified gaming ecosystem on Solana by overcoming its current limitations. HyperGrid's compatibility with Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-based blockchains and smart contracts allows existing games on EVM chains to expand onto Solana.

With substantial funding, Sonic is poised to lead the growth of Solana's GameFi economy. Sonic’s co-founder and CEO Chris Zhu was inspired to build the platform after working with hundreds of game developers over the past two years, helping them launch their games on Solana.

"We believe Sonic SVM will be the key to unlocking the Solana gaming summer, onboarding thousands of games to launch and go-to-market with our support," Zhu stated.

Bitkraft Principal Justin Swart believes Sonic will become the go-to platform for game studios building on Solana. He emphasized Solana's potential as a key gaming blockchain, noting, "Over one million active addresses have been added to Solana over the past year. The Sonic HyperGrid is where some of the best games can be built for these new users."