Solana Optimistic Network (SOON) Raises $22M in NFT Sale Led by Hack VC

SOON leverages the Solana Virtual Machine’s Parallel Processing Model to process smart contract and DeFi transactions

Solana Optimistic Network (SOON), an Ethereum layer-2 (L2) network built using the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM), has raised $22 million in an NFT sale led by Hack VC.

ABCDE, Anagram, Hypersphere, SNZ Capital, ArkStream Capital, GeekCartel, PAKA, Web3Port, MH Ventures and IDG Capital also participated in the fundraising round.

Soon leverages the Solana Virtual Machine’s Parallel Processing Model to process smart contract and decentralized finance (DeFi) transactions, which Joanna Zeng, co-founder and CEO of SOON, says enhances the transaction speeds of the L2.

According to the announcement, SOON, which also launched its mainnet on Ethereum on March 15, averages a block time of 50 milliseconds.

“By decoupling the transaction processing unit (TPU), SOON has engineered a rollup-specialised SVM that achieves horizontal scaling with an average block time of approximately 50 ms, outperforming other leading blockchain networks,” Zeng told Cointelegraph.

The company is adopting a community-first approach for its tokenomics model, with 51% of the token supply allocated to the community. The company has chosen to reserve 25% of the tokens for the ecosystem fund, while a further 8% has been allocated to airdrops and liquidity provision.

The team and core contributors have 10% to share, while 6% goes to the project’s treasury.

Commenting on the fundraising and the company’s tokenomics, Zeng said: “Many founders chose a traditional route and raised exclusively from VCs, but we chose to offer equal deal terms for VCs and our community, ensuring a fair launch token distribution and allowing both to participate on an equal footing.”

Alexander Pack, co-founder of Hack VC, which led the round added: “Solana’s SVM has joined Ethereum’s EVM to become one of the two most important developer environments in crypto, and SOON is an ideal solution for making it ubiquitous across all blockchains.”