Fast forward to March 2025, Solayer preempted TGE to occupy the hardware acceleration nesting TVL model, Sonic fully focused on games and NFT, and Eclipse launched the mainnet to integrate Ethereum ecological projects. At this time, Solana's average daily TPS is about 1,500, and a soul-searching question arises: Solana is already so fast, what is the need for SVM? Going further, even if SVM is needed by the market, why is SOON still needed?
SVM (Solana Virtual Machine) sounds like EVM and MoveVM, both of which are technologies that are restless and want to do something on other chains. Indeed, Solana is fast enough, and even in the past six months of the Meme craze, it has not been down! Therefore, to answer this soul-searching question, we need to go back to the question itself, that is, what is SVM and what shortcomings it makes up for in Solana.
1. Fast? But not flexible enough
If we only talk about the speed of cars, then Xiaomi Su7 ultra can certainly beat cows and horses in seconds, but do cows and horses really only care about speed? In cars, safety, brand value, comfort, etc. can all become the key points for customers to consider. In blockchain, the flexibility and versatility of a chain in dealing with complex applications and cross-chain interoperability are naturally also very important.
This is the shortcoming of Solana. Solana's native runtime is not as versatile and flexible for developers as EVM. The existence of SVM is to decouple Solana's core consensus mechanism (Proof of History + Proof of Stake) and its execution layer, allowing developers to build more complex applications on Solana's infrastructure, not just simple transfers or DeFi protocols.
SVM can process tasks in parallel with multiple threads. Although Sealevel already has this capability, SVM can be said to be further abstracted. It allows developers to easily write multi-threaded smart contracts, making the execution efficiency of complex applications even higher. The versatility is also further improved. SVM can be regarded as an independent virtual machine, which can theoretically be connected to any other public chain. Can Solana become the Android of blockchain? It depends on SVM!
2. Many? But not extensive enough
Today, Solana's ecosystem is already very prosperous. In 2025, the foundation began to focus on PayFi, Depin and RWA, but the old question is: Can we not reinvent the wheel? There are already many mature protocols or applications on Ethereum and other public chains, and Rust makes it difficult for novices to develop. In comparison, EVM has long created a relatively mature development ecosystem with the help of developer tools such as Truffle, Hardhat, and Remix.
SVM is particularly important at this time. It is necessary to seize the ecosystem. If you don’t do it, Aptos and Sui are conquering the city with the help of MoveVM. Is Solana still guarding Defi nesting dolls? Is it still working on NFT? AI computing, enterprise applications, games, the boundaries of the ecosystem are constantly expanding.
3. Stable, but not fair enough
Solana has been ridiculed as a computer room chain. Why? In the impossible triangle model of blockchain proposed by Vitalik Buterin, Solana resolutely chose security and scalability (performance). Decentralization? Let's increase the speed first! So at the philosophical level, SVM shoulders the task of regaining the dream of decentralization.
How to do it? Modularization and open source, the blockchain industry is moving from a monolithic chain to a modular blockchain, and SVM is Solana's response to this trend. It allows Solana's execution layer to evolve independently and even be used by other projects in a "plug-in" manner.
Since SVM is so good, there are already many SVMs on the market that claim to be unique. How should we choose? Sonic, Eclipse, and Solayer have already made their mark, while SOON seems to still be a bit mysterious. If we use SOON as a reference and compare it with other SVMs, I find that Solana's SVM has already blossomed and competed with each other in terms of economic model, technical path, and superposition effect.
Let’s first talk about the reference: SOON.
In terms of technical path, SOON aims to expand the application scope of SVM through the "Decoupled SVM" technology. SOON is not limited to the Solana ecosystem, but promotes its high-performance execution environment to other L1 blockchains to create an efficient, scalable and cross-chain compatible Rollup solution. SOON Stack is a modular framework that allows developers to deploy SVM Rollup on different L1s, and SOON Mainnet is its first instance, settled on Ethereum.
Here we need to explain the "decoupled SVM". For example, Solana is a super fast sports car. Its engine SVM is very powerful and can handle a lot of tasks at the same time, much faster than ordinary cars (such as Ethereum's EVM). Normally, this engine is installed in Solana and can only be used by Solana itself.
"Decoupled SVM" is like taking this powerful engine out of the Solana car and turning it into an independent big toy. You can install it on other cars, such as Ethereum's car or BNB Chain's car, and make these cars run fast. No matter which car it is installed on, this engine can work as usual, helping them speed up tasks (such as processing transactions, running applications), and it does not need to rely on Solana's original body (consensus mechanism or network rules).
In this way, SOON is a high-performance Layer 2 solution that leverages the parallel processing capabilities of SVM, with the goal of solving blockchain scalability, interoperability, and user experience issues through modular design.
In terms of economic model, SOON is undoubtedly different because 51% of the tokens belong to the community. This ratio is quite rare in the SVM track. SOON adopts the "no pre-mining, no VC privileges" fair launch model (Fair Launch), emphasizing community governance and participation. This design is similar to early projects such as Solana and Polkadot, which attempts to reduce the selling pressure risk of early investors through decentralized distribution, while enhancing the sense of belonging of the community.
The 51% community share is much higher than the industry average (usually the community share is 20%-30%). This is not only a marketing gimmick, but also its core concept - let the community become the leading force in the development of the project. Looking back at one of the core drivers of SVM is "decentralization", there is no doubt that SOON is absolutely outstanding in this regard.
To put it in a comprehensive way, in terms of technology, SOON breaks the limitation of a single ecosystem by decoupling the cross-chain design of SVM, pursuing universality and developer applicability; in terms of economic model, through ultra-high community allocation and fair launch, it attempts to reproduce the decentralized spirit of early blockchains and give the community greater power. The combination of community drive and technological innovation has created a project that is both idealistic and has real potential.
Now, let’s continue to disassemble and compare it with other SVM projects.
Community-driven x Decoupled SVM
Compared with Sonic: Sonic's community rewards serve game users more rather than empowering developers; Eclipse and Solayer rely more on institutional resources, and the depth and breadth of community participation are not as good as SOON.
The uniqueness of SOON's economic model lies in the strongest decentralized narrative: 51% community allocation + no VC privileges, SOON's fair launch model is the most radical in the SVM track, giving the community the greatest power. By distributing tokens through on-chain activities (such as Big Bang activities), SOON's community participation model is more flexible and may evolve into DAO-style governance in the future.
Given the current progress of TGE, SOON’s token usage and vesting plan have not been fully disclosed, and its transparency is slightly lower than Solaye.
Decentralized narrative x cross-chain ambition
SOON creates a decentralized narrative through fair launch and community governance, while using cross-chain technology to break the barriers of a single ecosystem. This combination of "idealism + pragmatism" caters to the core values of Web3 and adapts to the market reality of multi-chain coexistence. Other projects such as Sonic focus more on vertical fields (games), while Eclipse and Solayer are limited to specific ecosystems (Ethereum or Solana), and their narrative and technical coverage are not as broad as SOON.
From the comparison of technical paths, SOON has the strongest cross-chain versatility. Decoupling SVM enables it to adapt to multiple chains (such as svmBNB), and its scope of application far exceeds Solayer, Sonic and Eclipse. EVM compatibility lowers the threshold for developers, making it more attractive than Rust development of Solayer and Sonic.
On the downside, if the individual PK performance (30k TPS) is lower than Solayer’s 1MM TPS, the technology verification is not sufficient.
Furthermore, SOON, which is about to undergo TGE, needs to find a reference to summarize its business lessons from a bird's eye view. Solaye, as an SVM project that recently underwent TGE, can actually give SOON a lot of inspiration.
Strategic level: The importance of clear positioning and narrative
Solayer has changed its direction from staking protocol to hardware-accelerated SVM, and has adjusted its direction many times, which has led to a vague narrative. The market is not clear about its positioning, and ultimately failed to effectively attract investors and users after TGE. SOO N's "decoupled SVM" positioning is its core advantage, and this narrative should be continuously strengthened to avoid frequent shifts to other directions. At the same time, it must be made clear that SOON is the "first choice for high-performance cross-chain Rollup", and it must be distinguished from Sonic (game specialization) and Solayer (hardware acceleration) to avoid market confusion.
Technical layer: Technology implementation needs to be supported by verified data
Solayer claims 1 million TPS and 100Gbps bandwidth, but lacks actual data support after going online, and the user experience has not been significantly improved, leading to doubts about the "PPT chain". SOON's svmBNB has achieved 30,000-100,000 TPS, and should regularly release on-chain data (such as transaction volume, latency, and Gas cost) to enhance technical credibility.
In terms of prioritizing the optimization of user experience, the cross-chain bridging process should be simple (such as one-click bridging ETH to SOON Mainnet), and mainstream wallets (such as MetaMask, Phantom) should be supported to lower the threshold for use. SOON's InterSOON protocol should prioritize the seamless migration of popular assets (such as USDT, USDC) and dApps (such as Uniswap, PancakeSwap).
Community layer: community participation determines success or failure
Although Solayer has 200,000 depositors participating in the event, the community activity is low and has not been converted into long-term supporters. SOON's fair launch is an advantage. Compared with Solaye's hardware dependence, which has been accused of "centralization" and "rich man's game", it has alienated ordinary users. It continues to promote the "no pre-mining, no private investor privileges" model to attract retail investors' trust.
In the future, the DAO mechanism can be further introduced to allow the community to participate in key decisions (such as token allocation, new chain support). By launching developer tutorials and retail investor participation guides (such as "How to bridge to svmBNB"), the participation threshold can be lowered and the basic user base can be expanded.
Come on, let's make a summary of the whole article
Overall, Solana's TPS is already very fast, but the necessity of SVM is not to make it "faster", but to make it "smarter and more open". It is to transform Solana from a high-performance soloist to a stage that can carry thousands of applications. Speed is the starting point of Solana, and SVM is the bridge to a greater future.
Among the existing SVM players, SOON's advantages lie in its technological foresight (decoupled SVM + cross-chain compatibility) and developer-friendliness, which makes it potentially a "dark horse" in the SVM track. However, its weaknesses also need to be supplemented in a short period of time through actual implementation (such as the widespread application of svmBNB) and stronger community operations.
Compared with its competitors, SOON's differentiation lies in "universality" and "cross-ecological synergy", but to truly stand out, it must prove its execution capabilities in 2025, especially in attracting developers and user traffic.
Do you think SOON's strategy can win in the SVM track?
