Will Fantom's upcoming Sonic chain swap + MEME reignite its ecosystem?
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Will Fantom's upcoming Sonic chain swap + MEME reignite its ecosystem?
Public chain recovery, time to get into MEME.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Frank, PANews
As a dark horse during the previous bull market, the Fantom blockchain has been making continuous moves in this cycle. On May 23, Fantom provided a new update on the progress of its brand upgrade initiative, Sonic. The Fantom Foundation announced that the community had voted to approve the first proposal regarding the upcoming Sonic chain. According to the proposal, Sonic will introduce a new token $S, which will be exchangeable with FTM at a 1:1 ratio upon launch. Additionally, a new Sonic Foundation will be established, which has already secured $10 million in funding. Perhaps in coordination with the rollout of the Sonic chain, on May 21 Fantom launched a meme competition with a prize pool of 10 million FTM tokens. For a Fantom that has recently been highly active, can the dual strategy of token swap and memecoins successfully energize the much-promoted Sonic chain?
Blockchain Revival via Memes
After witnessing Solana and Base drive on-chain activity through memecoins, Fantom has now launched its own meme season. On May 21, the Fantom Foundation introduced the Meme Season Competition, offering a prize pool of 10 million FTM tokens. With FTM trading at approximately $0.80, this prize pool amounts to roughly $8 million.
According to official details, the competition aims to spotlight top memecoins on both Opera and the upcoming Sonic chain, serving as a key strategic component of the Sonic upgrade. The event will run in multiple rounds, with the first round scheduled from June 1 to June 30, featuring a prize pool of 1 million sFTMx (FTM staked via Beethoven X).
Winners will be ranked based on a composite score derived from market cap (50%), gas usage (35%), and trading volume (15%). Notably, trading volume occurring on centralized exchanges or networks outside Opera will not count toward the score. At the end of each round, the top three memecoins will be declared winners.
In each round, 80% of the prize pool will go to holders of the winning memecoins, distributed proportionally based on their holdings, while the remaining 20% will be allocated to the teams behind the three winning projects. Prize distribution for the first round is as follows:
Winner 1 = 600k sFTMx (480k to holders, 120k to team)
Winner 2 = 300k sFTMx (240k to holders, 60k to team)
Winner 3 = 100k sFTMx (80k to holders, 20k to team)
However, Fantom did not require participating memecoin projects to launch only during the competition period. As a result, existing memecoins already established on Fantom may have a first-mover advantage. Given that only three projects win per round, the slim chances for new entrants might dampen incentives for new projects.
Meme Hype Has Yet to Ignite
To facilitate broad participation, the Fantom Foundation recommended four one-click token launch platforms on Twitter: Degen Express, Super Pump, fTails, and Bedrock Finance. According to PANews research, these platforms offer functionalities similar to Pump.fun, the recently popular one-click launch platform on Solana, but differ drastically in terms of activity levels. Among them, Degen Express shows relatively higher activity, though the highest market cap for any token on the platform is only around $27,000. The other platforms remain extremely quiet. Super Pump has listed 11 memecoins (as of May 26), all of which show zero trading activity and zero market cap.
As of May 26, the meme competition does not appear to have generated significant impact. On that day, only 20 new trading pairs were created on Fantom within 24 hours—compared to 1,252 on Solana and 2,088 on Base. The most active newly listed token on Fantom recorded just 24 trades. It may take until the official start of the Meme Season on June 1 to see more meaningful changes in these metrics.
Token Swap Yes, But Community Rejects Inflation
In addition to launching the meme competition to boost interest in the Sonic chain, Fantom is introducing a new $S token to complete its rebranding. The proposal for the Sonic Network outlines governance plans for the new $S token. It states that at launch, the supply of $S will match that of $FTM to enable a seamless 1:1 migration. However, Proposals 2 and 3 suggest minting additional $S tokens for operations, airdrops, and ecosystem incentives.
Although the full details of Proposals 2 and 3 have not yet been released, many community members have already expressed skepticism. User Paintball26 commented: "Are there any numbers behind Proposals 2 and 3? Strongly oppose blank checks with unknown dilution multiples—allocating hundreds of millions of FTM and then asking for further dilution." Another user, STACHE, stated: "I don’t think Proposals 2 or 3 are needed. I’d wager 5–10% of FTM will be lost, burned in LPs, etc., and won’t migrate. If initial supply is matched, wouldn’t that 5–10% be more than enough to cover Proposals 2 and 3? Many people’s biggest concern is further dilution."
Overall, the Sonic upgrade represents Fantom’s most significant narrative yet. From March’s focus on Sonic’s parallel EVM and 2000 TPS performance claims to today’s Meme Season and new token plan, Fantom has clearly signaled its intent to revive. However, so far, the market response for FTM has remained muted—its price hovering around $0.80, similar to pre-Sonic announcement levels. While the new Sonic chain may enhance Fantom’s technical capabilities and brand visibility, what may ultimately matter more is real on-chain activity and a sustainable tokenomics model—both of which remain unproven for now.
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