Sophon 101: Inside the New Consumer-Focused L2
Sophon, an up-and-coming consumer crypto L2, reached a new ATH of +$251M in total value secured (TVS) last week in the wake of its $SOPH token launch.
The newer chain has flown under the radar so far, but it's looking to keep its momentum going and gain a foothold in crypto's entertainment scene. Let's catch you up on all the basics here.
What is Sophon?
A member of ZKsync's Elastic Chain ecosystem, Sophon is an Ethereum Layer 2 network built on the ZK Stack framework.
Instead of using the rollup architecture, Sophon operates as a Validium. Specifically, it processes data offchain via Avail and ensures its transactions by submitting zero-knowledge proofs to Ethereum.
This design lets the network keep transaction fees low and throughput high while inheriting Ethereum's security. Additionally, its smart account and Paymaster pillars are aimed at providing UX that can win over everyday users from outside crypto.
Why Sophon?
Sophon's central mission is to support onchain consumer apps and platforms that offer broad appeal, so think things like betting, collectibles, gaming, social media, ticketing, and beyond.
This focus puts Sophon in the same ballpark as Abstract, which has been gaining steam in consumer crypto since the start of the year.
Yet there's plenty of pie to go around. With +5 billion social media users worldwide and the online betting and gaming markets on track to top $100B and $500B this year, the field is wide open for disruption.
In other words, the first movers here today could become the consumer titans of tomorrow. That's the bet Sophon is making.
The $SOPH token
$SOPH is the native utility token of Sophon. It's used as gas for paying transaction costs on the chain and for security via staking.
With 2B tokens circulating after last week's token generation event (TGE) from a 10B max supply, $SOPH is now trading just under $0.05 per coin, giving the project a market cap of $96 million and a fully-diluted valuation of $479 million.
As for staking, users can deposit their $SOPH to Sophon's Earn platform to help secure the network and to earn a cut of its transaction fees. At the time of writing, over 5,000 holders were staking 2.7% of the $SOPH supply and earning 4% APY for doing so.
How to dive in
🪙 Acquire $SOPH
You'll need some tokens to cover your transaction costs. One option is to acquire $SOPH via Uniswap on Ethereum if it's not supported on your CEX of choice.
🪪 Create a Sophon account
Head to app.sophon.xyz and press "Log in." In the ensuing interface, use an existing wallet to create an account or get started via your email, Discord, Google, Telegram, or X account.
🌉 Bridge in
If you're starting with your $SOPH funds on Ethereum, you'll need to move them over to Sophon. I recommend using the Sophon Bridge for this, but third-party platforms like Orbiter Finance are also available.
🔍 Explore Sophon apps
Sophon Home is the Sophon community's frontpage. You can use this hub to find and try apps across categories like DeFi, NFTs, and gaming, and it's also where you can track and manage your Sophon activity and profile. Start here if you're looking to explore the ecosystem.