Sophon, an emerging consumer L2, reached a new high of $251+ million in Total Secured Value (TVS) after the launch of its SOPH token last week.
This newer blockchain has so far been keeping a low profile, but it is looking to maintain its momentum and gain a foothold in the entertainment consumption space of cryptocurrency. This article will walk you through all the basics.
What is Sophon?
As a member of the ZKsync Elastic Chain ecosystem, Sophon is an Ethereum Layer 2 network built on the ZK Stack framework.
Sophon does not use the Rollup architecture, but instead runs as Validium. Specifically, it processes data offline through Avail and secures its transactions by submitting zero-knowledge proofs to Ethereum.
This design allows the network to maintain low transaction fees and high throughput while inheriting the security of Ethereum. In addition, its Smart Account and Paymaster pillars are designed to provide an everyday user experience that can appeal beyond the cryptocurrency space.
Why choose Sophon?
Sophon’s core mission is to support on-chain consumer applications and platforms with broad appeal, so conceivable use cases include gambling, collectibles, games, social media, ticketing, and more.
This focus puts Sophon in the same space as Abstract, which has been gaining momentum in the consumer crypto space since the beginning of the year.
However, the market space is still huge. There are more than 5 billion social media users in the world, and the online gambling and gaming markets are expected to exceed US$100 billion and US$500 billion respectively this year, so the capital market is vast.
In other words, today’s first movers could become tomorrow’s consumer giants. That’s what Sophon is betting on.
$SOPH Token
$SOPH is the native utility token of Sophon. It is used as gas to pay for on-chain transaction costs and provides security through staking.
With 2 billion tokens in circulation and a maximum supply of 10 billion following last week’s Token Generation Event (TGE), $SOPH is currently trading at 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 into Sophon’s Earn platform to help secure the network and earn a share of its transaction fees. As of this writing, over 5,000 holders have staked 2.7% of the $SOPH supply and are earning a 4% annualized yield as a result.
How to participate deeply
Get $SOPH
You’ll need some tokens to pay for your trading fees. If your preferred centralized exchange (CEX) doesn’t support $SOPH, one option is to get it through Uniswap on Ethereum.
Create a Sophon account
Go to app.sophon.xyz and click “Log in.” On the subsequent screen, create an account using an existing wallet, or start with an email, Discord, Google, Telegram, or X account.
Bridge Funding
If your $SOPH funds are originally on Ethereum, you will need to transfer them to Sophon, it is recommended to use Sophon Bridge to do this, but third-party platforms such as Orbiter Finance can also be used.
Explore Sophon App
Sophon Home is the homepage of the Sophon community. Users can use this hub to find and try out applications in categories such as DeFi, NFTs, and games. It is also where you can track and manage your Sophon activities and profile. If you want to explore its ecosystem, start with Sophon Home.
