Gaming and finance are the two fields closest to money. The massive wealth effect generated in the last round from DeFi, blockchain games, and the metaverse belongs to these two areas, making them the most likely to land on blockchain. In this round, a financial chain focused on trading, hyperliquid, emerged, breaking the ceiling of on-chain derivatives, with on-chain funds even surpassing many public chains, and it is one of the few that can achieve positive cash flow for projects.
Besides financial chains, another main line is the gaming chain. Sui's initial positioning was also to serve gaming, allowing users to have a Web2 experience in Web3. Today, I want to introduce SonicSVM, which is a pioneer in acquiring users in the gaming field and on TikTok. It is a gaming chain based on Solana, fully compatible with all EVM smart contracts, providing game developers with a high-performance platform for faster transaction speeds and lower, stable transaction fees. (The following includes SonicSVM's interactive process.)
SonicSVM raised $4 million in seed funding and secured $12 million in the last funding round, with a valuation of $100 million. Investors include the chairman of the Solana Foundation, the largest compliance service provider in the Solana ecosystem, the largest gaming industry fund in Europe and the US, as well as investments from the exchanges OKX and Bybit.
Team CEO, Chris Zhu, has a background with Bilibili, Deloitte, US venture capital, and ByteDance, previously serving as a product manager at TikTok. As a Canadian of Chinese descent, he was educated in the US and has a deep understanding of TikTok's pop culture. He spoke at this year's KBW in Korea.
Recently, SonicSVM gained traction by attracting over 2 million users through airdrops to TikTok users. The SonicSVM team members have backgrounds from ByteDance, leveraging TikTok's extensive reach and user-friendly experience to enable new users to easily register and participate in games. Users log in with their TikTok accounts, and the system automatically generates a crypto wallet, eliminating the common complexities found in traditional Web3 applications. This seamless experience has garnered significant attention for SonicSVM among the younger demographic, especially among Generation Z.
SonicSVM's customer acquisition strategy from Web2 is likely influenced by this year's Telegram gaming craze, where mini-games on Telegram attracted over 20 million users, and three projects were listed on Binance. In comparison, Telegram's monthly active users exceed 950 million, while TikTok's global monthly active users reach 1.58 billion. The user base of TikTok is larger, and the number of users that can be developed will not be less than that of Telegram. Additionally, short video content has a stronger virality and ability to spread compared to text content.
Particularly, several data points show that TikTok users have higher quality than Telegram users.
Monthly active users: TikTok has 1.58 billion monthly active users, while Telegram has 950 million.
Natural traffic: TikTok's short video content has viral spreading capabilities, while Telegram's community mainly relies on private traffic.
User quality: TikTok requires real-name verification with a majority from Europe, America, and the Asia-Pacific region, while Telegram does not.
Therefore, SonicSVM's promotion strategy also revisits the previously successful Web3 strategies, and the result is that a community and influence have already been established. However, the quality of users is higher than those attracted by various mini-games on Telegram.
The Tap-to-earn mechanism of SonicX games.
Deep integration with TikTok directly generates crypto wallets.
Token airdrop to TikTok users.
Last weekend's news, SonicSVM airdropped $SONIC to eligible TikTok users. The user verification for TikTok is more stringent compared to Telegram, allowing login via Google or Apple accounts.
Open the mini-program registration page in the browser: https://sonicx.app?refer_code=6RK7LOFO
Click 'Log in with TikTok', where you can log in using TikTok QR code, Google, or Apple.
Authorize login as shown in the image below.
The remaining part is similar to the original click-to-earn mini-games, with various participatory tutorials in the Earn section to earn tokens.
In terms of narrative, SonicSVM aims to achieve landing in the gaming field, which is the area closest to money in blockchain. In finance, there is already a successful landing with hyperliquid, and a similar product will also emerge in gaming.
Technologically, it is designed based on Solana as a Layer-2 protocol specifically for gaming, characterized by high performance, low cost, and low latency. Moreover, it is compatible with all EVM smart contracts and features a native game engine, providing comprehensive on-chain game development components for game developers.
Operationally, it engages users from TikTok, but in terms of promotion strategy, it has reimplemented the previously established Web3 strategy from Telegram, accumulating a community and influence of 2 million users.
With the upcoming TGE and token airdrop of SonicSVM, the launch of more new games, and exploration of more opportunities combined with social media, TikTok represents a larger traffic pool for Web3 project teams than Telegram, allowing Web2 users to seamlessly log into games and earn rewards, with the potential to stand out in the highly competitive crypto gaming market.