The past and present of Sonic.
Recently, I've been seeing Sonic (formerly known as Fantom) becoming popular again, with news of Andre Cronje's return flooding the screens, $FTM and $S skyrocketing from $0.5 to nearly $1, and I am late to the game!
Looking back at the last bull market (2021-2022), how did Andre Cronje, referred to as AC, lead Fantom from obscurity to prominence? Today, we will review his glorious moments with both new and old investors and unveil where the pitfalls are—don't let the narrative cloud your judgment.
At the end of 2020, Fantom was still a small transparency, with a TVL of less than $100 million, gas fees ridiculously low (0.01 dollars per transaction), but the ecosystem was as desolate as a no-man's land. After Andre Cronje joined, the situation began to reverse. Who is this guy? A legend in the DeFi circle, founder of Yearn Finance, involved in Curve, Keep3rV1, known as the 'God of Code搬砖'.
In 2021, he kicked open the door to Fantom, bringing a bunch of DeFi projects and traffic, instantly transforming Fantom from a 'cold palace' to a 'new noble'. At that time, ETH gas fees were skyrocketing, and the Layer 1 public chain battle was heating up, with Solana, Terra, and Fantom being popular tracks. Andre's arrival directly made Fantom a 'DeFi' paradise.
Three things AC did to pump the last bull market:
First, the DeFi ecosystem exploded overnight. He personally took charge and brought a bunch of projects to Fantom, such as SpookySwap (the Fantom version of Uniswap), Beefy Finance, and Scream. These projects have low gas fees and fast speeds, attracting a large number of retail investors and capital. In May 2021, Fantom's TVL surged to $2 billion, and $FTM rose from $0.02 to $3, an increase of 150 times!
Second, he optimized the technology of Fantom. Fantom uses Lachesis DAG technology, claiming 'second-level confirmation, no gas fee pressure'. AC resolved network performance and cross-chain bridges (such as interoperability with ETH), allowing DeFi users to migrate seamlessly. In the 2021 bull market, Fantom became a 'safe haven' for high gas fees on $ETH, attracting a surge of retail investors.
Third, his personal IP and community appeal are too strong. Whenever he tweets, the Fantom community erupts. In 2021, he shouted 'Fantom is the next generation Layer 1', coupled with support from CZ (the head of Binance), $FTM became the darling of the 'Binance ecosystem'. Retail investors sensed the opportunity, and FOMO emotions surged, with Fantom's social heat even surpassing Solana.
However, glory aside, AC is not a deity. Behind Fantom's brilliance, there are also hard injuries, and veteran investors need to be cautious.
The biggest problem is that Fantom's DeFi ecosystem relies too much on Andre and his projects. SpookySwap, Beefy, Scream are all led by him, and the ecosystem's decentralization is low. Once AC withdraws (for example, he suddenly 'retired' in 2022), the entire ecosystem will collapse. In the 2022 bear market, Fantom's TVL fell to $200 million, and $FTM returned to $0.2, with retail investors suffering heavy losses.
There are also technical bottlenecks: While Lachesis DAG is fast, its stability and scalability are questioned. During the peak period in 2021, the network occasionally stalled, and the cross-chain bridge was also hacked (losing millions).
Finally, the community's Fomo bubble also buried hidden dangers. AC's narrative is too strong, attracting a bunch of 'retail army', but many retail investors do not understand Fantom's technology and do not even know how to use SpookySwap. As a result, once the bull market passed, the bubble burst, community confidence collapsed, and many people cut losses and ran.
Where will $S go in 2025?
So can AC create glory again after returning to Sonic (Fantom 2.0)? Recently, the rising trend of $S and its ecosystem is fierce, but I am both optimistic and cautious.
I am optimistic because AC's coding ability and community appeal are still there. Sonic claims to have optimized Lachesis, and the ecosystem also has new projects (such as AI+DeFi attempts). But the risks are also high: AC is still a core dependency, and the ecosystem's decentralization has not changed.
$S Ecosystem Coin Simple Science.
This wave of Sonic ecosystem explosion comes from the ecological project $shadow TVL soaring to $100 million (now it has retraced a bit) directly crushing the entire chain → token staking surges → secondary market rapidly pulls up → driving the entire ecosystem to skyrocket.
Next, let's talk about Sonic ecosystem projects, purely sharing without any investment advice:
$Anon Twitter @HeyAnonai, is a defai on the Sonic chain.
$WAGMI Twitter @wagmicom, is the DEX on the Sonic chain
$yoko Twitter @yokodotlive, is the AI Agent launch platform on the Sonic chain.
$eggs Twitter @eggsonsonic, is the single coin ecosystem on the Sonic chain, staking and burning, used to collateralize loans of $S.
Twitter @derpedewdz is an NFT on the Sonic chain, most of the Sonic team members use this NFT as their avatar, with a total of 2000.
$sacra Twitter @sacra_fi, is a gamefi on the Sonic chain.
$Fa Twitter @FateAdventure, is a gamefi on the Sonic chain. It is also the gamefi represented by AC's avatar, with a cost price of 0.15, currently at 1, nearly 10x, with investment from the Sonic Foundation, currently the leader of gamefi on the Sonic chain.
$Metro Twitter @MetropolisDEX, is a DLLM DEX on the Sonic chain, similar to Meteora on the SOL chain, and can also earn through LP. The two names are very similar, likely imitating each other, but @MetropolisDEX has the token $Metro, currently with a market cap of $1.3 million.
Official website https://app.metropolis.exchange/liquidityv3
@SonicLabs is the Sonic Points system, airdropping a total of 200 million $S tokens, ended in June.
Official website https://my.soniclabs.com/apps
Ways to earn points: passive points, activity points, APP points.
@SonicLabs announced the airdrop points panel, and points are directly linked to the airdrop of 200 million $S tokens.
The point system is not complicated and is divided into three parts:
Total points = passive points + activity points + Dapps points.
1. Passive points
Holding whitelist assets in your wallet can earn points, and different whitelist assets have different point multipliers.
2. Activity points
Provide whitelist asset liquidity for any dapps to earn activity points;
3. Dapps Points
Dapps redistribute points to users. A portion of $S airdrops is distributed to dapps developers in the form of Sonic Gems, and dapps can customize the reallocation of this portion of $S tokens, which ultimately flows to protocol users.
This is the introduction to @SonicLabs. If you want to explore, you can also check this person's Twitter link.
https://x.com/btctianze/status/1847481671291195441
$SHADOW Twitter @ShadowOnSonic, is the hottest DEX on Sonic, and also the platform with the most on-chain trading exchanges.
https://www.shadow.so/trade, basically you can find almost anything you want to buy, if you can't find it, you can add the CA yourself to buy.
$GOGGLES Twitter @GOGLZ_SONIC, is the mascot of the Sonic ecosystem, and is the leader of Meme.
$NAVI Twitter @NaviExSonic, a multifunctional DEX on Sonic.
Sonic's fair launch platform https://degen.express/sonic, once the token market cap reaches $75,000, it will be fairly launched similar to the PUMP on the SOL chain; $12,000 of initial liquidity was deployed to Equaliser.
Sonic news source: @0xSonictalk, focus on the Twitter of Sonic's founder, especially the projects he calls out. Paying attention to this Twitter @andreCronjeTech is an opportunity.
Currently, Sonic is promoting the Meme Mania event: the first meme to reach a market cap of $100 million can win a prize.
Currently, the OKX wallet does not support direct purchases of tokens on the Sonic ecosystem chain; you need to connect to a DEX to buy. Most can go to https://www.shadow.so/trade, and if that doesn't work, just look at the attributes I listed as DEX to find the corresponding Twitter handle for trading.
Analysis of 3,3 on the Sonic chain.
Currently, apart from MEME coins, most tokens on the Sonic chain have 3,3 properties. So what is 3,3? Below is a brief explanation:
Traders: Utilize LP liquidity, and all transaction fees go to token Stakers.
DEX Token Holder: Spend money to buy coins + Stake, can receive transaction fees.
LP: Give up all transaction fee income, only mine token inflation.
In an ideal situation, all three benefit together, in line with the prisoner's dilemma, so it's called 3,3.
But if it crashes, the outcome is usually:
DEV: Slightly profitable or moderately profitable.
Traders: Enjoyed the depth.
LP (other tokens): Worked for two months for free.
LP (DEX native coin): Living Bodhisattva.
DEX Token Stakers: Living Bodhisattva No. 2, but there are also souvenirs (transaction fees)
In simple terms: whoever touches the DEX native coin pays the bill.
But if you win, the DEX ranks first in the ecosystem and is successfully listed by BN or CB.
The outcome has changed to:
DEV: Moderately profitable or highly profitable.
Traders: Enjoyed the depth.
LP (other tokens): Slightly profitable pig's feet rice.
LP (DEX native coin): Sold off, moderately profitable.
DEX Token Stakers: Diamond hands, eating and taking.
BN CB users: Paying for dreams.
So no matter what, the DEV won't lose.
Sonic Opportunity
I have 4 DeFi projects that I personally recommend to everyone.
@beets_fi
Do S stake, then go to shadow, do S/stS LP to directly enjoy three benefits in one.
@ShadowOnSonic
Do S/usdc.e, currently the large range can reach over 700%, even if you exit immediately, there is also over 350%, you can open short S for hedging, but I personally feel S will still be very strong, directly doing usdc.e/usdt. Currently, the APY is 96%, even if you exit immediately, you still have over 40% yield.
@SnakeOnSonic
Higher risk, niche projects, be mentally prepared for theft, buy Snake, go to @ShadowOnSonic S/Snake LP, then go to @SnakeOnSonic, stake LP, yield 2000%.
@MetropolisDEX
Click to enter https://app.metropolis.exchange/liquidityv3, do LP to earn returns as mentioned in the Meteora tutorial, try to choose the stable ones in the red box, the 7-day annualized return can be as high as 3226%, and the lowest is also over 500%. There is only one risk point, which is whether S will fall.
Additionally, MEME on Sonic is still in its infancy, and currently, there are not many coins in the ecosystem with a market cap over a million, and they are all very small. For small capital speculation, there is also an opportunity. When buying MEME, it's best to have a zero-sum mentality. You can check the link directly on dexscreener: https://dexscreener.com/sonic
This concludes the sharing, this sharing is not an investment advice, and it is kindly reminded that any transaction carries the risk of loss or zeroing, please manage risks well!