Fantom introduces $120M fund to drive development on Sonic blockchain

Fantom Foundation said it allocated 200 million FTM tokens, worth about $120 million, to the Sonic Labs Innovator Fund to support projects migrating to the new Sonic network. The Foundation clarified that Fantom network creator, Andre Cronje, generated the fund through strategic financial management, which did not increase FTM’s total token supply.

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In addition to this fund, the Foundation previously announced a community-focused airdrop program to boost the adoption of the Sonic chain. Sonic is a Layer-1 blockchain with a Layer-2 bridge directly connected to Ethereum, providing ultra-fast transactions.

Fantom incentivizes partners to migrate to Sonic

The $120 million allocation is intended to attract key partners, including decentralized application (dApps) developers and infrastructure providers, to build on the Sonic network. The Foundation also aims to integrate existing developers within the Fantom ecosystem into Sonic.

Additionally, the Foundation is engaging with strategic investors across multiple DeFi platforms and venture partners, including Hashed and Curve founder, Michael Egorov. It stated :

“We’re actively engaging with dozens of dApps across the industry and top-tier infrastructure providers across on-chain tooling, compliance, native assets, bridge integration, wallets, indexes, strategic Web2 partnerships, and more.”

Fantom is a blockchain network that was launched in 2019 to much acclaim. The network had enjoyed rapid adoption from the crypto community, with the total value of assets locked (TVL) on the platform peaking at over $13 billion in 2021. However, the network has experienced a dearth of activities lately, with its TVL plummeting to $135 million as of press time, according to DeFillama data .

More blockchain networks embrace incentives

The Fantom Foundation’s initiative underscores a growing trend of blockchain networks allocating funds to encourage development on their platforms. Although these processes are not entirely new, competition within the sector has intensified, and crypto projects need to be more creative to attract top talents to their ecosystems.

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For instance, in May, Ethereum layer-2 network Polygon launched a $720 million Community Treasure to fund blockchain projects on Ethereum and Polygon over the next decade. The first season will distribute 35 million MATIC, with plans to award 100 million POL tokens annually. POL will eventually replace MATIC as the network’s native token.

Similarly, Arbitrum’s Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) approved a $222 million funding proposal to enhance its ecosystem’s gaming sector. According to the proposal, the funding would be used to drive user engagement across the Arbitrum, Orbit, and Stylus gaming communities.