Sonic, the newly launched, rebranded version of Fantom, has been outperforming and attracting attention during a period of crypto volatility, and it offers good opportunities to participate early and earn some high APRs and other rewards. The leading DeFi protocol on Sonic is Shadow, on which users can generate yield by providing liquidity, after bridging assets across to Sonic.
Amid all the recent controversy around Solana, alongside Ethereum’s lacklustre price performance this cycle, you might be looking for a fresh new ecosystem to explore, and in that case, Sonic–which is outperforming by many metrics–has to be on your radar. So in this guide, we’ll take a look at what Sonic is and how to use Shadow, the biggest DeFi protocol in the Sonic ecosystem.
What Is Sonic?
If you remember Layer-1 blockchain Fantom, then you know Sonic, as Fantom rebranded as Sonic Labs in January this year, which also meant swapping the FTM token 1:1 with the new Sonic token, which has the ticker S.
Sonic is an EVM-compatible Layer-1 with a strong claim as one of the fastest blockchains around, as it’s able to process 10,000 TPS, with a confirmation time below one second.
Also in its favor, Sonic has a substantial existing community from its previous era as Fantom, and there are future token airdrops planned. What’s more, co-founder Andre Cronje has highlighted the fee system on Sonic, which includes some positive-sounding dynamics, including sending 90% of gas fees to apps, and implementing fee subsidies to remove friction for new users.
Sonic Metrics
Since changing from Fantom to Sonic, the network TVL has grown from $154 million to, currently, $668 million, and although the S token price dropped during that period, it then regained value, although it has dipped again in the recent crypto sell off.
When it comes to DeFi data, Sonic at its busiest so far saw daily DEX trading activity topping $300 million, and the leading protocol with the most trading activity is Shadow, which we’ll look at in more detail below.
How to Bridge Tokens to Sonic
To use anything in the Sonic ecosystem you’ll first need to bridge some assets across to the chain. There are several ways to do this, but for example, if you want to get tokens across to Sonic from Ethereum, you can use the Sonic Gateway bridge and convert assets including WETH, USDT and USDC, and receive USDC.e, which is a bridged version of USDC operating on Sonic.
Note that if you don’t see the USDC.e in your wallet after claiming from the bridge, you may need to import the token using the USDC.e contract address. Also, when transacting on Sonic, you will need at least a small amount of the S token to cover gas fees, although costs on the network are very low.
An alternative is deBridge, where you can select from a wider range of chains and tokens, and convert them across to tokens on Sonic, so for example, I can convert directly from SOL to the S token or to the USDC.e stablecoin, among others.
Additionally, you can buy S on CEXes including Binance, OKX and Bitget, and then withdraw it to a compatible wallet, such as MetaMask (making sure you switch MetaMask to the Sonic network).
How to Use Shadow on Sonic
The biggest DEX on Sonic is Shadow, which currently has a TVL of $145 million, with that figure soaring in the second…
