Fantom is about to launch the sub-second trading network Sonic, which may impact the current Layer 2 landscape.

Recently, in the cryptocurrency market, FTM has once again garnered the attention of investors. In March, the price of FTM surged by 150%, and in the past week, it still rose by 30% against the backdrop of an overall market correction. Such performance has intensified the market's focus on FTM's potential.

The reasons for the resurgence of FTM can be attributed to two main aspects: first, the strong promotion by Andre Cronje, a director of the Fantom Foundation, has injected new vitality into Fantom; second, the market has positive expectations for the upcoming Fantom Sonic. AC stated that Sonic will surpass "parallel EVM," triggering a disruptive revolution and further boosting investor confidence.

Fantom was initially founded by Ahn Byung in January 2018 and later taken over by Michael Kong. The project aims to overcome the limitations of the previous generation of blockchains, balancing scalability, security, and decentralization.

In September 2018, Andre Cronje joined Fantom as a DeFi architect. He made significant contributions to Fantom's technological breakthroughs, especially in promoting achievements in multi-chain operations. Fantom utilizes the Lachesis consensus mechanism, improved based on DAG, to achieve almost instant transaction completion with higher security.

In 2019, Fantom launched the first generation of its EVM-compatible Opera mainnet, supporting full smart contracts and seamless migration of Ethereum DApps. With its modular architecture, Fantom can also provide custom blockchains for digital assets. At that time, Fantom was regarded as the "Ethereum killer."

In March 2022, rumors of Andre Cronje leaving the DeFi industry dealt a heavy blow to FTM. It wasn't until early this year that AC frequently released updates on the Fantom ecosystem, reigniting investor enthusiasm.

Since the beginning of the year, FTM has surged nearly 200%. In addition to the promotion by AC, Fantom has also made breakthroughs in technology. The Fantom Foundation announced the launch of the latest upgrade, Fantom Sonic, which AC claims is expected to surpass "parallel EVM", triggering a disruptive revolution.

Fantom Sonic is the latest technological upgrade of the Fantom network, aimed at enhancing network scalability and efficiency. The main innovations include:

1. Fantom Virtual Machine ( FVM ): Provides a more efficient smart contract execution environment.

2. Carmen Database: Reduces storage requirements by 90% and improves data management efficiency.

3. Optimize the Lachesis consensus mechanism: accelerate transaction confirmation and increase throughput.

4. High throughput and low latency: The theoretical trading limit exceeds 2000 transactions per second, with an average settlement time of 1 second.

5. Smooth Upgrade: Fully compatible with the existing FantomOpera.

The release of Sonic marks a new chapter for Fantom. After the upgrade, Fantom features no-fork upgrades, true parallel transactions, top TPS, and finality, making it an advanced platform.

The Fantom ecosystem projects have surpassed 250, but the activity level still lags behind Ethereum, Solana, and others. Compared to promoting the Meme ecosystem, developing the DeFi ecosystem is more important for Fantom. The Fantom Foundation stated that Sonic will launch plans supporting liquid staking tokens and other initiatives to enhance DeFi activities.

To attract high-quality projects, the Fantom Foundation has established the Sonic Labs incubator. The recently announced award-winning projects cover areas such as perpetual DEX, social protocols, P2P lending platforms, green technology startups, and RPG blockchain games.

After the Cancun upgrade, the market is focused on solving scalability issues through layer 2. The emergence of Sonic provides new ideas, and its performance has surpassed most Layer 2 solutions, indicating that Layer 1 public chains can also enhance scalability through technological innovation.

With the return of AC, the upgrade of Sonic, and the recovery of the DeFi ecosystem, Fantom is expected to rise again in this bull market. While it may not be the most eye-catching project, it is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated.