This Week's Crypto Calendar Is Packed With Major Events, as Sonic Labs Is About to Launch Its L1 Mainnet and More

The Avalanche Etna update went live, Jupuary voting began for Jupiter, and more. Additionally, Starknet will soon begin STRK token staking, and Stacks Foundation will release a timeline for its sBTC Bitcoin-backed asset.

This week’s crypto calendar is brimming with major events, as Sonic Labs is set to launch its L1 mainnet, the Avalanche Etna update goes live, Jupuary voting begins for Jupiter, and more.

Moreover, Starknet will soon begin STRK token staking, and Stacks Foundation will unveil a timeline for its sBTC Bitcoin-backed asset.

Sonic Mainnet Is Launching in December

Sonic Labs (formerly known as Fantom) has been teasing the launch of its Layer-1 mainnet in December for several weeks now. This EVM platform, also known as Sonic, will offer attractive incentives and powerful infrastructure for developers.

However, the company has yet to confirm the precise launch date. But a social media post from earlier today dropped a few hints.

“Tired of waiting months or years for empty launch ‘promises’, and you’re ready to show the world what you can do? Come launch with us on Sonic. Our mainnet goes live this December. Earn up to 90% of your app’s fees. Real 10k at sub-second finality. Secure gateway to Ethereum. Grants available via Innovator Fund. $200 million S airdrop,” Sonic Labs wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

These breadcrumb announcements, coupled with Sonic Lab’s airdrop, have garnered the FTM token a great deal of attention in recent days. Notably, FTM has also been performing admirably, surging over 30% in the past week as the mainnet launch nears.

The network’s post-launch success could dictate a broader trend in FTM’s valuation.

Avalanche Etna Goes Live

Blockchain network Avalanche has commenced rolling out its Etna upgrade on testnet today. Following this phase, Etna will go live on the mainnet, which will be the final step before the company launches its “largest update ever.” This update, Avalanche 9000, will drastically enhance the underlying technology, and Avalanche Labs cofounder Kevin Sekniqi recently highlighted its significance:

“My excitement for mainnet deployment literally cannot be overstated. This vision has been in the works for so many years. Huge upgrade, and my expectation and hope is that it’ll spark a golden age of L1s, making ‘scaling’ a thing of the past. No more ‘how do we scale’ but now ‘ok, what do I build to get to 1 billion users?'”, stated Sekniqi.

The Etna upgrade will also grant L1 creators greater autonomy over their networks. Developers can now define custom staking mechanisms, select alternative gas tokens, and implement unique governance models tailored to their specific use cases.

Jupiter’s Jupuary Begins Voting

Jupiter, a Solana-based decentralized exchange, has begun the first round of voting for its “Jupuary” airdrop today.

In essence, Jupiter opened up a vote to the community on whether or not to conduct several massive airdrops. These airdrops require 70% community approval, and their stated goal is to build engagement.

“This current vote is for checking if the community is comfortable with 2 more JUPuaries round of 700M $JUP tokens each. Building a decentralized community has never been an easy task. Jup by Jup, you and I should strive to make $JUP the best governance token in the world and J.U.P the best community ever,” an influencer wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

This is not the platform's first Jupuary airdrop, but it is the largest. Developers stated that this airdrop's mission is to “accelerate, decentralize, unify” their broader community ecosystem. If the first vote passes, it will lead to one round of airdrops and successive votes until they lose approval.

Starknet Begins Staking

Starknet, a permissionless ZK-Rollup, will begin staking on its STRK token this week. It deployed staking infrastructure on mainnet earlier today. This will begin the platform’s overall transformation into a Proof-of-Stake network in four phases of preliminary test experiments.

“Validator tooling is now operational, and Validators are invited to begin their integration. For Delegators, UI and dApps for delegation will be available tomorrow with the official launch. Starting tomorrow, becoming a STRK Delegator will be very simple for everyone,” the firm announced via social media.

Stacks to Reveal sBTC Launch Timeline

Finally, Bitcoin L2 Stacks is expected to reveal a timeline for its sBTC Bitcoin-backed asset. The company has released a whitepaper and roadmap, but it stated that a more detailed timeline is still to come. This new asset will aim to open up new avenues for Bitcoin in nontraditional DeFi applications.

Lastly, all eyes will be on Bitcoin as it pushes towards the long-awaited $100,000 milestone. Despite the brief market corrections on Monday