Sorare Migrates to Solana, Abandoning Ethereum L2 StarkEx

Sorare, a blockchain-based fantasy sports game where fans can collect $NFT player cards, is once again changing its home, this time migrating from StarkEx to Layer 1 chain Solana.

In an announcement on Oct. 8, Sorare described the migration from StarkEx, an Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution, as “more than a technical upgrade,” calling it a “step forward in our vision to become the most open and flexible platform for digital sports collectibles.”

In its FAQ section for the migration, Sorare explained that it’s moving to Solana to connect Sorare cards “to a broader ecosystem,” including the ability to manage the NFTs on popular Solana wallets like Phantom. The team also hinted at a possible Sorare ecosystem token in the future, as part of its long-term vision:

While the announcement didn’t provide further detail as to why Sorare chose to move to Solana, commentators on X have suggested that Sorare was paid an eight-figure sum to make the switch. The Defiant reached out to Sorare and Solana for comments, but haven’t heard back by press time.

Founded in 2019 by Nicolas Julia and Adrien Montfort, Sorare started on Ethereum and by mid-2021 moved onto L2 StarkEx, the application-specific scaling engine from Starknet developer, StarkWare, to cut gas costs. That same year the company raised a $680 million Series B that valued it at roughly $4.3 billion.

Migration Details

As part of the migration, starting this month, Sorare said that users’ $ETH balances currently on StarkEx will migrate to Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum Layer 2, to improve “transaction efficiency while keeping the experience familiar.”

By the end of October, Sorare cards will be bridged as Solana NFTs while preserving all cards’ attributes like scarcity, serial number, season, XP, and metadata, per the blog post. The team also said that Sorare will cover all gas fees for the migration, specifying that users “won’t sign transactions or spend crypto during migration.”

Sorare also added that once the migration is complete, cards withdrawn to Ethereum wallets “still work in gameplay but cannot trade on Sorare until re-deposited or bridged to Solana,” while NFTs left on StarkEx will be bridged to Solana.

Are NFTs Back?

$NFT trading volume and sales count. Source: DappRadar

Sorare's migration comes as the total number of $NFT sales has reached its highest level since 2022, per data from blockchain analytics platform DappRadar.

In a Thursday research post, the DappRadar wrote that in Q3, the market recorded over 18.1 million NFTs sold, generating $1.6 billion in trading volume, adding that “one of the leading dapps” in this sports field is Sorare, which is responsible for “multimillions in trading volume, selling hundreds of thousands of digital cards to players and collectors around the globe.”

Earlier today, Larva Labs, the creators of CryptoPunks, Autoglyphs, and Meebits, wrapped up Art Blocks’ curated series with a new collection, Quine, with the sale closing at 7.56 $ETH, or $31,000 per Quine $NFT.