Sonic Labs Innovator Fund: Up to 200,000,000 S to Accelerate Migration to Sonic

TL;DR

• Sonic Foundation is committing up to 200,000,000 S to the Sonic Labs Innovator Fund to accelerate partner migration for the launch of the new, ultra-fast Sonic network. At the time of writing, that is worth over USD 100,000,000. 
• Targeted allocations include native application grants, strategic grants to apps, and first-class infrastructure tools and partners for developers and users.
• The Sonic Labs Innovator Fund will complement the community-focused 100M+ airdrop program previously announced. 

Overview

As the rollout of the four governance votes takes place, the Sonic Foundation, in conjunction with Sonic Labs, is pleased to announce the Sonic Labs Innovator Fund, to which it has allocated up to 200 million S from its treasury (based on the Foundation's FTM treasury that can be swapped 1:1 to S at the launch of Sonic) to expedite the immediate adoption of apps and other partners to the Sonic network.

The 200 million+ S token allocation was accumulated via the hyper-efficient treasury management of Andre Cronje and is not derived from any inflationary changes to token supply.

Allocations

Funding from the Sonic Labs Innovator Fund is currently being used to secure the best provision partners for the Sonic network, ensuring Sonic builders have the tools and capabilities to thrive within today’s ever-challenging marketplace.

We’re actively engaging with dozens of apps across the industry and top-tier infrastructure providers across on-chain tooling, compliance, native assets, bridge integration, wallets, indexes, strategic Web2 partnerships, and more. 

To do so, we’ll work closely with strategic angel investors such as Michael (Curve), Stani (Aave), Robert (Compound), Tarun (Gauntlet), and Sam (FRAX), as well as our venture partners Hashed, Signum Capital, and UOB Venture Management. 

The first step of these allocations is to prioritize strategic grants for applications from within the current Opera ecosystem and identify the leading applications that have shown interest in the Sonic technology. In doing so, we’ll lean on our track record of running successful incentive programs, including our August 2021 program, which featured 370,000,000 FTM allocated, boosting chain TVL from ~$400M to $7.7B within seven months.

Looking forward

This substantial allocation of up to 200,000,000 S underscores our dedication to building a robust and dynamic platform and community. Sonic’s ambition is nothing less than reinventing the future state of blockchain, empowering visionary creators of today to develop the decentralized applications of tomorrow, and enabling our community to actively co-create a vibrant, global cooperative ecosystem. 

With strategic investments in top-tier infrastructure providers and cutting-edge on-chain tooling, we are poised to offer unparalleled support to developers and users alike. The forthcoming grants will empower both incumbent Opera projects and leading applications native to the new Sonic network. This is the first of many initiatives we intend to launch in the lead-up to the launch of Sonic, a new network capable of up to 200 million transactions a day, redefining the limits of the industry.

We invite you to join us on this journey as we lay the foundation for this ecosystem and participate in the rise of Sonic.