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Fantom (FTM) price is in a mildly explosive growth mode today amid the positive update in its ecosystem featuring Sonic. As the newly branded startup revealed, its Sonic Testnet has finally gone live, pushing it closer to mainnet launch. As one of the industry’s key Decentralized Finance (DeFi) protocols, the Sonic push marks a big shift in its evolution.
Fantom Ecosystem In Low Adoption Mode
The journey toward Sonic’s development dates back over a year. Before its rebrand, Fantom had prospects but limited adoption compared to its counterparts. Data from DeFiLlama pegs the protocol’s Total Value Locked (TVL) at $111.8 million. This is a tiny fraction of Ethereum’s $77.67 billion TVL. The Fantom TVL figure dropped from its high of $8.4 billion in March 2022.
This negative trend started around May 2022, when the Terra (LUNA) crash started a painful crypto winter. This Fantom TVL figure has stayed flat since June 2022.
Fantom (FTM) Price Impact
Unsurprisingly, Fantom price could not initiate a rebound in adoption following this unexpected crash. From that time to date, the crypto industry has recorded the emergence of many competing alternatives. From Optimism to Coinbase-backed Base, users now have more options.
Despite its impressive technology, Fantom has yet to evolve like other networks. From Non-Fungible Token (NFT) boom to memecoins, the Fantom ecosystem has not followed the general market trend as it should. This explains its fall from grace and why returning capital as DeFi liquidity has remained difficult.
The Sonic Testnet – What to Note
The rebranding to Sonic Labs is one of its strategies for addressing its ecosystem challenges. Sonic is designed as an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible chain that can expand the reach of applications on Fantom. This testnet marks one of the most visible pushes to realizing its enhanced smart contract dream.
The Sonic testnet is considered an advanced tech based on preliminary performance numbers. As co-founder Andre Cronje noted, it recorded a 400ms responsiveness check. This, he noted, makes the Sonic chain “perfect for synchronous events.”
It also boasts of 720ms finality with a ‘true, not probabilistic – no “please wait 30 blocks.”’ In addition, the protocol will send 90% of the generated fees to developers, and it comes with no gas subsidies. Overall, the new protocol will lower entry barriers as users do not need wallets to connect to the chain.
Other stats registered thus far include an average block time of 0.4 seconds. As showcased, the new chain can handle more than 2 million transactions daily.
For Sonic to challenge current EVM-compatible blockchains, it must be faster, cheaper, and user-friendly. These are some of the checklists the developers hope to put in place before the mainnet launch.
Fantom Price Rally
The latest update in the ecosystem has sent Fantom (FTM) price into a rebound mode. When this was written, the coin was trading for $0.3983, up by 2.3% in 24 hours. This mild uptick comes after a 3% drop over the week.
Notably, it remains to be seen if FTM can sustain this positive trend based on the general market downturn. However, should the Sonic testnet show more advances in the coming weeks, it might catalyze investors to go all out for the coin.