The Fantom Foundation, the driving force behind the Fantom platform, has recently made a significant financial commitment to support the launch of Sonic, an innovative ultra-fast network.
On June 20, the Fantom Foundation revealed its plan to allocate up to 200 million Fantom (FTM) tokens, valued at approximately $120 million, towards assisting developers and companies in transitioning their projects to Sonic through the Sonic Labs Innovator Fund.
The allocated funds will be utilized to identify and collaborate with partners who can contribute to the growth and development of the Sonic network. These partners may include app developers working directly on Fantom, creators of decentralized applications (DApps), as well as providers of essential tools and services.
A notable mention in Fantom’s announcement is the acknowledgment of Andre Cronje’s role in managing the treasury that led to the accumulation of the FTM tokens.
Initially, the focus of the allocations will be on offering strategic grants to existing applications within the Fantom ecosystem, with preference given to those showing a strong interest in leveraging Sonic technology.
In order to facilitate the launch of the Sonic Chain, a new foundation called the Sonic Foundation has been established by Fantom. This foundation will oversee the governance of Sonic, manage the network’s treasury, establish partnerships, and foster the growth of the DApp ecosystem.
Sonic, as envisioned by Fantom Foundation’s CEO Michael Kong and the development team, will introduce a new layer-1 solution and an integrated layer 2 that directly connects the Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible network to Ethereum.
Through the innovative architecture of the Sonic Chain, users will reportedly gain access to Ethereum’s extensive ecosystem of decentralized applications, liquidity providers, and community.
This move by the Fantom Foundation to support projects is not unprecedented. In a previous instance, the foundation allocated $6.5 million in FTM tokens to incentivize the development of “safer memecoins.” Additionally, the Gas Monetization Program was launched in May 2023 as a way to compensate developers for the gas fees generated by users of the Fantom Opera network.
Cointelegraph reached out to the Fantom team for further details regarding the Sonic Labs fund but has not yet received a response.