Sonic Labs’ Massive Rise as Native DEX Platform “Shadow” Crosses $10B in Volume

Quick take:

• Activity on Sonic Labs has spiked since the beginning of the year, following its mainnet launch in December 2024.
• Returning users have more than doubled since January, hitting a record 419K in June – that’s more than 2.5x since the beginning of the year.
• The EVM-compatible layer-1 blockchain also processed over 104 million transactions in the first half of 2025, with a clear upward trend into May.

Sonic Labs, the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible layer-1 blockchain with transaction speeds of up to 400,000 per second, has experienced an uptick in activity since the beginning of the year.

The protocol processed over 104 million transactions in the first half of 2025, with a clear upward trend into May. Users have also more than doubled since January, hitting a record 419K in June – that’s more than 2.5x since the beginning of the year.

The platform is also experiencing a steady contract activity with 15K–18K returning active contracts each month since March.

So, what is driving activity on Sonic?

The Sonic blockchain is built for decentralised finance apps, which means most of the activity will likely stem from native apps on the platform and their ability to attract users.

One of the leading applications on Sonic is Shadow, a DEX platform that describes itself as a “concentrated liquidity exchange”.

The platform recently crossed the $10 billion transaction volume milestone, according to a post shared on the X platform.

The platform runs on an innovative Fee Monetisation (FeeM) model, which returns 90% of gas fees to developers, as an added incentive to developers who build apps tailored for boosting on-chain traffic.

Sonic is also incentivising developers to build on its ecosystem with a 200 million S token innovation fund, equivalent to about $72 million, at the time of writing, given the prevailing S price of $0.36. According to documentation on its platform.

The Sonic Innovator Fund is backed by angels from Curve, Aave, Compound Finance, Gauntlet and FRAX, as well as venture partners Hashed, Signum Capital and UOB Venture Management.

Coinciding with the May-June spike in the number of returning users is the company’s first season of its 190 million S token airdrop (approximately $68 million) that ended on June 18. The company has not disclosed how many tokens are being airdropped per season. The second season immediately after the closure of the first season, according to company documentation.

Earlier this month, Sonic also introduced the Sonic Creator program, further incentivising users and social media creators with 100,000 S tokens in monthly rewards to those who post engaging, original videos or clips about Sonic on TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts.

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