Fantom (FTM) Surges 33% to a Record High Ahead of the Sonic Chain Launch

Fantom's (FTM) price soared by 33% to a peak price of $1.33 this Tuesday afternoon (UTC) from a $0.9946 low. This came alongside a 180% increase

Fantom (FTM) encountered a 33% price surge on Tuesday, reaching a peak of $1.33 from a $0.9946 low. This price movement was accompanied by a 180% increase in trading volume, with $1.77 billion of FTM being transferred across crypto wallet addresses. As a result of this price spike, the total circulating supply of 2.8 billion FTM tokens increased to $3.79 billion.

On longer timeframes, FTM's value appreciated by approximately 25% in a week, 125% in a month, and 312% in a year. The current peak price marks the highest level for the token in over two years.

Driving Fantom's (FTM) Rally While Fantom's latest price action can be attributed, in part, to the bullish cryptocurrency market sentiment - primarily driven by Bitcoin (BTC) and key markets like the US - the crypto community's anticipation for the Sonic chain launch is what's mainly putting the token on investors’ radar.

Today, Sonic Labs (formerly Fantom) teased the incoming launch of its new chain on X. According to the Layer 1 blockchain project, it has already generated its first block of transactions. With that, it just crossed its “Genesis” stage.

Next up is the launch of the Sonic chain, which will succeed the Fantom Opera network that was launched five years ago. However, the organization didn't mention a specific date for its infrastructure's public rollout.

In preparation for the big event, Sonic Labs also closed its Sonic Arcade, which featured play-to-earn mini-games. All points earned by players during the wait for Sonic Chain will count toward the project's upcoming 200 million “S” airdrop. Those who wish to earn additional points can do so by interacting with the Sonic mainnet after its launch to be eligible.

A Possible Rival to Solana and Base Currently, the Fantom blockchain can only handle 30 transactions per second (TPS). Sonic bumps the numbers up to 10,000 TPS, with only 720 milliseconds for a transaction to achieve finality (a state or immutability). This reportedly positions it as a potential contender for Solana and Base as the fastest Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains.

Sonic is also looking to attract a significant number of developers to its chain. It allocates 90% of the transaction fees as an incentive for them.