The AI Agent sector is experiencing explosive growth. As various types of agents and ecosystem tools continue to emerge, the market is shifting away from speculative hype toward more rational thinking, focusing on truly innovative and valuable projects. Smart Agent Hub, the first cross-chain AI agent platform, was created in collaboration between Sonic, the first SVM blockchain on Solana, and the Layer 1 blockchain network Injective. This announcement has garnered significant attention within the industry.

Although the platform is still under development, its core technology, the Sonic HyperGrid framework, and its ecosystem are particularly worth paying attention to. In this article, we will explore the Sonic project, looking at the team background, the innovative scaling architecture of HyperGrid, its ecosystem development, and the $SONIC token economy, to provide insight into the project’s potential for future growth.

Smart Agent Hub Overview

Sonic and Injective created Smart Agent Hub, the first cross-chain AI agent platform. It is designed to provide developers with powerful tools and frameworks for creating, managing, and monetizing AI agents. It also enables cross-chain asset transfers and offers a unified development experience.

Built on the Sonic HyperGrid framework, Smart Agent Hub creates a dedicated SVM Grid on Solana and uses the IBC (Inter-Blockchain Communication) protocol to enable interoperability with the Injective ecosystem. According to the team, Smart Agent Hub will be launched in phases, with the first testnet expected to go live in Q1 2025. Currently, the platform is focused on building a decentralized AI Agent ecosystem, which will expand to various verticals, such as gaming, entertainment, DeFi, and social platforms (e.g., TikTok, Web3 games) in the future.

What is Sonic?

Sonic is a game chain built on Solana that introduces and adopts the innovative scaling architecture called HyperGrid. Its goal is to expand the existing Solana gaming ecosystem and offer users and developers a new experience.

Source: sonic.game

Sonic is the first atomic-level SVM Layer2 solution on Solana. It allows developers to deploy custom SVM chains while benefiting from Solana’s security and liquidity. This solution is ideal for applications that require high performance and can cater to different needs, such as large-scale games and high-frequency trading. Thanks to the modular structure of the HyperGrid framework, Sonic SVM stands out in terms of performance and customizability compared to other Layer2 solutions like Arbitrum, Optimism, and StarkNet.

Currently, Sonic has launched the Frontier V1 testnet, and users can participate in the Odyssey Season 3 event to earn Rings rewards. Furthermore, $SONIC, the core token of the Sonic ecosystem, is now listed for trading. With a total supply of 2.4 billion, $SONIC plays a crucial role in the ecosystem, including staking rewards, validator incentives, and ecosystem governance.

Team Background and Funding

Sonic is backed by Mirror World Labs, a team focused on building Solana’s gaming infrastructure. They aim to create the essential tools and platforms needed throughout the entire gaming lifecycle, including Web2/Web3 login methods, NFT marketplace integration, wallet solutions, and NFT Launchpads, among other features.

Chris Zhu is the founder and CEO of Sonic and Mirror World. Before starting these ventures, he was the VP of Product at the metaverse project rct AI and a product manager at ByteDance. Kinsa Durst, Sonic’s CMO, has played a key role in several crypto projects, including the private investment platform Republic and the algorithmic stablecoin protocol Sperax.

In the last two to three years, Sonic has successfully raised a total of $16 million across two funding rounds. In March 2022, the project raised $4 million in a seed round, led by Republic Capital and Galaxy Interactive, with additional participation from IVC, LD Capital, OKX Ventures, Mirana Ventures, Virtuals Protocol, and Avocado DAO. In June 2024, Sonic secured $12 million in Series A funding, led by Bitkraft Ventures, with contributions from OKX Ventures, Big Brain Holdings, Mirana Ventures, Mask Network, Galaxy Interactive, and others. At the time of the funding, Sonic’s valuation reached $100 million. According to the team, these funds will be used to further develop the Sonic protocol.

HyperGrid Core Framework

Sonic focuses on building games and applications, providing developers with various built-in mechanisms compatible with Solana, such as sandbox environments, customizable game primitives, and scalable data types. At the same time, Sonic aims to provide users with faster transaction speeds and smoother gameplay.

Sonic is powered by HyperGrid, a scalability framework that enables a shared state network, coordinates interoperability between systems, and serves as the consensus layer for the Grids that run within it.

Source: hyperfusedocs.sonic.game

HyperGrid uses a modular, semi-autonomous, multi-grid architecture, which allows it to maintain compatibility with the Solana mainnet while offering developers greater flexibility and performance optimization, particularly for high-performance applications like games. The key components of HyperGrid include:

1) Solana Base Layer

This is the foundation of the HyperGrid system, ensuring consensus and finality by anchoring it to the Solana mainnet.

2) HyperGrid Shared State Network (HSSN)

At the heart of the architecture, the HSSN is built on the Cosmos framework and operates between the Grids and the Solana base layer. It manages all communication states, including interactions between Grids and block data regularly synced to the Solana base layer.

Source: docs.sonic.game

In the HSSN architecture, transaction gas fees are divided into four parts: the burn portion, the HSSN validator fee, the Sonic fee, and the Grid node fee. The specific distribution ratio varies depending on the transaction, but this transparent and fair fee allocation system helps maintain the ecosystem’s sustainability and efficiency.

3) Grid Structure

Each Grid represents a semi-autonomous ecosystem that hosts high-demand applications like games, DeFi, and on-chain AI agents. Each Grid includes the following components:

• SVM Runtime: The execution environment for Grids on the Solana Virtual Machine;
• Sonic Gas Engine: Manages computational resources;
• Concurrent Merkle Tree Generator: Efficiently handles state transitions;
• ZK-Coprocessor: Designed to accelerate the generation and verification of zero-knowledge proofs. Sonic is currently collaborating with Light Protocol to integrate a full zero-knowledge Rollup solution.

With the HyperGrid solution, different applications can maintain their independence while benefiting from Solana’s security and stability. This approach reduces the performance pressure on the Solana base layer and ensures that each application’s performance and scalability needs are met.

Network Validation and Incentives

In HyperGrid, a validator mechanism is employed when the HSSN publishes an updated state to Solana. The validator nodes in the system are known as HyperFuse Guardians. Their primary role is to detect any discrepancies in transactions or state changes and notify the network. Users need to own a HyperFuse Guardian node NFT to become a node and meet specific hardware requirements.

The HyperFuse Guardian node is designed to be lightweight, meaning it has low hardware requirements. Specifically, users only need 8GB of RAM, a single-core CPU, and at least 1GB of available disk space. The node NFT follows a dynamic pricing model, with prices ranging from $155 to $554, depending on the NFT level. The official sale of all three stages of NFTs has already ended.

Once users own the node NFT, they have the option to either run their own node or delegate it to existing nodes. Users who participate in node operations and network expansion will receive token rewards. Node operators share 9% of the total token supply based on proof of work, with rewards halving yearly and distributed daily. Additionally, users who refer others to join the network will accumulate 1% of the total rewards.

$SONIC Tokenomics

$SONIC, the core token of Sonic, is designed to ensure the long-term growth of the ecosystem, community engagement, and network security. The total supply of $SONIC is 2.4 billion tokens, currently circulating on the Solana mainnet, with future support planned for the Sonic SVM mainnet. As of the latest data, there are about 44,115 on-chain wallets holding $SONIC, with 360 million tokens in circulation and a market cap of approximately $172 million.

Here is the distribution breakdown for $SONIC:

Source: Sonic

• Ecosystem and Community (30%): This portion is allocated to support ecosystem growth, mainly by funding game teams and Dapp developers within the Sonic SVM ecosystem.
• Sonic HyperGrid Rewards (20%): Includes rewards for validators and observer nodes within the network.
• Foundation (20%): This allocation supports product development, marketing, business development, and strategic initiatives. It has an 18-month lock-up period followed by a 36-month linear unlock.
• Investors (15%): Investors’ tokens are locked for 12 months, after which they unlock linearly over 24 months.
• Early Supporters (8%): Rewards early supporters who helped fund the project. This allocation has a 12-month lock-up period, followed by a 24-month linear unlock.
• Initial Airdrop (7%): Airdrop funds reward early participants in the ecosystem, such as Sonic AVS, Sonic Odyssey, SonicX, HyperFuse Observer node holders, and early supporters from Mirror World and World Store.

$SONIC has significant utility within Sonic SVM and plays a crucial role across the broader multi-SVM ecosystem powered by HyperGrid:

1) In Sonic SVM:

• Payment Currency: $SONIC can be used to purchase goods and services within the platform.
• Staking Rewards: Stake $SONIC to support ecosystem growth while earning additional $SONIC tokens as rewards.
• Ecosystem Governance: Holders of $SONIC tokens are granted governance voting rights within the ecosystem.

2) In the Sonic HyperGrid Ecosystem:

• Validators: Validators must stake $SONIC to participate in network operations.
• Delegation: Users can delegate their $SONIC tokens to validators and earn additional rewards.

The official staking service is live; token holders can stake $SONIC through the official website. Currently, 37.74 million tokens have been staked, with an annual return rate (APR) of up to 16.12%. It’s important to note that staking is divided into wallet staking and airdrop staking, with airdrop staking only allowing full staking with a 12-month lock-up period.

Overall, as the Sonic SVM ecosystem expands and more HyperGrid-powered SVM chains are launched, $SONIC is expected to gain more real-world utility, driving up its value and supporting broader adoption.

Ecosystem Growth and Expansion

Sonic aims to become the go-to platform for game and app developers building on Solana. To make this happen, the team has integrated a wide range of tools, engines, and software to help developers overcome the steep learning curve of complex technologies, making the development process much easier.

To further promote ecosystem growth, Sonic has launched several tailored partnership programs. For game developers, the team introduced the Sonic Accelerator program, designed to help promising teams incubate Web3 games. The winning teams will have the opportunity to receive grants worth up to $20 million. For ecosystem partners, Sonic launched the SPIN program, providing all-around support, including funding, technology, marketing, and access to industry resources.

While building strong partnerships, the Sonic team is also developing its own products. In late November last year, they launched Sonic X, a mini-app based on TikTok. This app allows users to experience Solana games directly through their TikTok accounts and earn rewards by completing various tasks.

Source: sonicx.app

With this intuitive and fast approach, Sonic aims to make Web3 games more accessible to a wider audience, helping drive the adoption of decentralized technologies on a larger scale. Additionally, developers can use Sonic’s game portal and development tools to easily deploy and promote their games, contributing to building a more vibrant and sustainable gaming ecosystem.

Earlier this month, Sonic also teamed up with Galaxy Interactive to launch the G.A.M.E. (Game, AI, Meme, Ecosystem) Fund No. 1, focused on supporting the development of Web3 games, AI agents, and TikTok Web3 apps within the Sonic SVM ecosystem.

Future Prospects and Challenges

At present, Sonic is in its network’s early phase, having launched a testnet and utility tokens. The next steps for the team involve deploying the Sonic SVM mainnet in the first quarter of 2025, rolling out native Android and iOS apps for Sonic X, and releasing additional ecosystem tools such as cross-chain bridges and HSSN validators. In the second quarter, the focus will shift to expanding the ecosystem by integrating more SVM chains, launching the $SONIC staking program, and enhancing the Rush ECS framework.

Based on the current trajectory, the team primarily focuses on the Sonic SVM and HyperGrid frameworks. They are working to attract more developers and teams from the Solana ecosystem to adopt Sonic’s tools and products while pushing for the wider implementation of applications, which will in turn strengthen $SONIC.

However, even though Sonic offers innovative solutions, there are still several hurdles to overcome. For instance, the ZK-Coprocessor is a complex and emerging technology, and its stability and functionality have yet to be fully validated by the market. Although the team is focused on building a strong developer community, creating a vibrant and high-quality ecosystem requires significant effort. To maintain a competitive edge, ongoing technical updates, resources, and funding will be crucial. Additionally, ensuring that the $SONIC token can effectively incentivize key players within the ecosystem—such as developers, validators, and users—will require regular evaluation and refinement of the incentive structures.

Conclusion

While Smart Agent Hub holds great promise, its core technical architecture, Sonic HyperGrid, shows immense potential in scalability and interoperability—qualities that should not be overlooked.

Sonic SVM is the first real-world implementation of this framework, and the team is actively developing products and tools. By supporting and partnering with top-tier projects, they aim to build a robust Web3 gaming ecosystem. With ongoing improvements to the HyperGrid framework and future expansion into other sectors like DeFi and entertainment, the overall ecosystem’s value is expected to grow significantly.