Introduction

Blockchain networks have undergone significant architectural advancements to address scalability challenges. Solana has emerged as a high-performance blockchain, leveraging its unique execution architecture to optimize scalability and throughput. Unlike traditional blockchain designs that rely on sequential processing, Solana introduces a parallel execution model facilitated by the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM). The SVM serves as the execution environment for smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps), enabling the network to handle a significantly higher number of transactions per second (TPS) compared to other blockchain architectures.

To further extend the capabilities of SVM beyond Solana, SOON Network introduces an SVM-based Layer 2 (L2) that settles on Ethereum while maintaining Solana’s execution advantages. SOON bridges the divide across different blockchain ecosystems by extending SVM to major Layer 1 networks, ensuring seamless interoperability, reduced transaction costs, and enhanced developer experience.

This report provides an overview of SOON’s architecture, ecosystem, and growth strategy. It explores the advantages of SVM over EVM, the technical advancements powering SOON, and the SOON Big Bang campaign, a long-term incentive program designed to drive ecosystem engagement through partner integrations and NFT utilities.

Solana’s Modular Approach and the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM)

A recent shift towards modular blockchain design has further enhanced Solana’s capabilities. Previously, the Solana Validator Client and the SVM were closely integrated, limiting innovation by requiring changes to be made at a system-wide level. However, the introduction of SVM API by Anza in July 2024 marks a pivotal shift in Solana’s execution environment, allowing developers to decouple the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) from the validator client (Agave). Building on this advancement, SOON became the first protocol to leverage Decoupled SVM, extending Solana’s execution capabilities beyond its native ecosystem and enabling broader adoption of SVM-based rollups.

This modularization allows developers to experiment with, customize, and optimize the execution environment without affecting consensus, networking, or block production mechanisms. Many new projects are now leveraging this flexibility to explore a diverse range of innovations, including:

• Permissioned L1s that mirror SWIFT’s compliance structure while automating manual processes (e.g., Sphere).
• Decentralized storage solutions for expanding Solana’s program capacity (e.g., Xandeum).
• EVM and Solana Interoperability, including Ethereum on Solana, Solana on EVM, and Solana-native rollups (e.g., Ellipsis, Neon, Soon).
• Bitcoin x Solana crossovers, integrating new cross-chain applications (e.g., Yona, Molocule, Zeus).
• New Validator Clients, such as Jump’s Firedancer, which was unveiled at Breakpoint and boasts a theoretical maximum throughput of 1,000,000 TPS.
• zkSVMs, rollups, AI-integrated solutions, and other advanced blockchain paradigms.

As recently highlighted in this Solana the Modular report from Delphi, key advantages of this modular approach include:

1. Independent Innovation – Developers can iterate on the SVM without modifying the validator client.
2. Optimized Performance – Custom execution environments can be created to suit specific use cases.
3. Diversity of Implementations – Multiple SVM variants can emerge, each tailored for different applications such as DeFi, gaming, and AI-driven dApps.
4. Interoperability Standards – The rise of diverse SVM versions necessitates new interoperability frameworks.
5. Enhanced Developer Experience – Decoupling execution from consensus simplifies smart contract development and deployment.

This modular approach, combined with Solana’s execution efficiency, sets it apart from other blockchain networks, particularly those utilizing the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

SVM vs. EVM: Architectural and Performance Differences

While both the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) and the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) serve as execution environments for smart contracts, their architectural designs and transaction processing models differ significantly.

1. Execution Model

The EVM operates in a single-threaded environment, processing transactions sequentially. While this ensures security and consistency, it leads to bottlenecks during high transaction volumes, resulting in network congestion and elevated gas fees. The SVM employs parallel execution through its Sealevel engine, allowing multiple non-conflicting transactions to run simultaneously across different cores of validator hardware. This multi-threaded approach enhances scalability and reduces latency, enabling Solana to achieve significantly higher throughput at lower costs.

2. State and Data Management

Ethereum’s account model stores balances and state within individual smart contracts. This creates potential conflicts when multiple contracts attempt to read or modify the same account data concurrently.

In contrast, Solana’s explicit state access model requires transactions to specify the accounts they will interact with before execution. This design eliminates conflicts at runtime, allowing independent transactions to be processed simultaneously.

3. Hardware Utilization

The EVM does not fully leverage modern multi-core processors due to its single-threaded nature, leading to underutilization of validator hardware. The SVM is designed to take advantage of multi-core processing capabilities effectively, distributing transaction execution across multiple threads and ensuring optimal hardware scaling.

4. Fee Market Design

Ethereum employs a global fee market, where demand spikes in one sector (e.g., NFT minting) can lead to network-wide gas fee surges, affecting unrelated transactions. This results in high and unpredictable costs for users.

Solana, leveraging Sealevel’s parallel processing capabilities, implements localized fee markets. Each smart contract operates independently in terms of fee calculation, preventing congestion in one area from affecting the entire network. This ensures lower and more predictable fees.

SOON Network: Scaling with SVM L2

SOON (Solana Optimistic Network) is a high-performance SVM Rollup designed to drive mass adoption of blockchain technology by extending Solana’s execution environment to major Layer 1 networks. Unlike traditional Ethereum-based rollups, SOON leverages the Decoupled Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) to optimize execution speed and scalability. It achieves this through a modular rollup framework called the SOON Stack, which enables the deployment of SVM-based Layer 2 chains on any L1.

SOON’s approach is built on three core components:

• SOON Mainnet – A general-purpose SVM L2 that settles on Ethereum.
• SOON Stack – A modular rollup framework that enables the creation of SVM-based rollups on different L1s.
• InterSOON – A cross-chain messaging protocol that facilitates seamless interoperability between SOON and other blockchain networks.

In the later sections, we will explore how SOON combines high-performance execution, interoperability, and scalability to build a unified blockchain ecosystem that removes barriers between different chains.

SOON is built around the Super Adoption Stack (SAS), a vision for a fully interoperable blockchain future where all networks can seamlessly communicate. The two fundamental pillars of SAS are:

1. High-Performance Execution – Bringing the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) to major L1 ecosystems like Ethereum, Bitcoin, BNB, and TON to enhance execution efficiency.
2. Seamless Interoperability – Establishing cross-chain communication between SVM-based L2 chains and all major L1s to enable frictionless asset transfers and dApp interaction.

The SOON Mainnet and SOON Stack are critical components in achieving this vision, enabling developers to deploy SVM rollups on different L1s while ensuring seamless connectivity across chains through InterSOON.

SOON Mainnet: The First Decoupled SVM Rollup

SOON Mainnet is an L2 that settles on Ethereum, utilizing Decoupled SVM as the execution layer. Unlike traditional Ethereum rollups that rely on the EVM, SOON Mainnet uses SVM, enabling unparalleled speed, scalability, and efficiency.

• SVM-Powered Execution – Faster and more efficient than traditional EVM rollups.
• Interoperability with Ethereum – Native ERC-20 <> SPL bridging for seamless asset transfers.

Security is a critical differentiator for SOON compared to traditional SVM-based rollups. According to L2Beat, SOON is a Rollup, not a sidechain. Unlike rollups, sidechains need to bootstrap their own security and rely on their own security mechanisms and validator node infrastructure, which may not be as robust as the security of the main chain, especially in the early stages of operation.

In the event of a sequencer failure, users can force transactions to be included in the chain by directly sending them to the L1, ensuring continued accessibility and security.

While many forked SVM projects replicate Solana’s execution model without adding additional safeguards, SOON enhances security by integrating Merklization and state root verification, which function like blockchain snapshots of account balances, permanently stored on Ethereum.

In simple terms, Merklization is how SOON structures blockchain data into Merkle trees, allowing efficient and secure verification of transactions and balances. It ensures fraud-proof security, improved scalability, and trustless withdrawals between Layer 2 and Layer 1.

This allows users to mathematically verify their funds anytime, eliminating reliance on trust-based security models.

• Permanent and verifiable access to transaction history, unlike other SVM projects that impose a 150-slot limitation.
• Mathematical proof-based fund verification instead of relying on the rollup’s internal data.
• Independent transaction validation via Merkle proofs, ensuring users can verify their balances without exposing others’ data.

SOON’s Core Technical Innovations

1. Decoupled SVM – SOON separates SVM execution from Solana’s native consensus, allowing SVM to be used as a standalone execution layer for rollups.
2. Merklization – Uses Merkle Patricia Trees (MPT) to efficiently verify state transitions, aligning with Ethereum’s proof verification model for seamless integration.
3. Horizontal Scaling – Enables unlimited scalability by adding more validator nodes, ensuring high throughput and reliability without overloading individual machines.

By combining Ethereum’s security and liquidity with Solana’s high-performance execution, SOON Mainnet provides a next-generation Layer 2 experience for both Solana and Ethereum developers.

SOON’s Public Mainnet recently went live, with 20+ ecosystem projects deployed, including the official SOON Native Bridge for Ethereum and InterSOON for Solana and TON. With Round 1 NFT mint raising $22M, details on COMMing SOON NFT Round 2 will be announced soon, offering new benefits for early participants (we will cover more about COMMing SOON NFTs and SOON Big Bang)

SOON Stack: A Modular SVM Rollup Framework

The SOON Stack is a flexible rollup infrastructure that allows developers to deploy SVM-based rollups on different L1s. Chains built using SOON Stack are called SOON Chains, and they retain the benefits of SOON’s Decoupled SVM along with SVM’s parallel execution capabilities, while maintaining compatibility with Ethereum’s OP Stack.

Key Features of SOON Stack

• Multi-L1 Support – Supports Ethereum as a settlement layer and integrates EigenDA, Celestia, and Avail for data availability.
• Optimized for Performance – Uses Decoupled SVM, separating execution from Solana’s consensus, reducing unnecessary data availability costs.
• Customizable Rollups – Enables builders to launch SVM rollups with fine-tuned parameters for DeFi, gaming, and other applications.

Use Cases for SOON Stack

1. AI & DePIN – SOON Stack enables high-performance execution for DePIN and AI driven applications. For instance, SOON recently partnered with IoTeX, to enable real-time data processing, device-to-blockchain interactions and AI automation at scale. DePIN networks require fast and cost-efficient transaction processing for IoT devices, sensors, and machine learning models, while AI-powered dApps demand low-latency inference and secure data exchange—both of which SOON facilitates through Decoupled SVM and parallel transaction execution.
2. Financial & DeFi Protocols – Optimized for high-volume transactions with low latency.
3. Custom Gas Fee Models – Applications can implement tailored gas structures, improving UX.

SOON Stack Adoption & Growth

SOON Stack has already onboarded Cytonic, CARV, and Lucent Network, marking a significant step in expanding the SVM-based rollup ecosystem. These projects leverage SOON’s Decoupled SVM architecture to build scalable, high-performance blockchains:

• Cytonic is pioneering multi-VM interoperability, enabling dApps from Solana, Ethereum, and other blockchains to coexist seamlessly. Cytonic is leveraging Caldera and SOON Stack to build their first SVM-based Chain.
• SOON is powering CARV’s SVM chain with SOON Stack. CARV is building an AI-powered data economy chain, integrating trusted execution environments (TEE) and zk-proofs for privacy and security.
• Lucent Network (formerly Clover) is introducing an AI-optimized financial and SocialFi ecosystem, and will use SOON Stack to build an SVM-based AI-driven network.

Additionally, SOON has partnered with Caldera, the fastest-growing Rollups-as-a-Service (RaaS) provider, to enable SVM-based rollups. This collaboration makes it easier for projects to launch application-specific SVM chains with one-click deployment and modular execution.

By providing a standardized SVM rollup framework, SOON Stack empowers developers to build and scale high-performance Layer 2 chains, facilitating next-generation AI, DePIN, and decentralized financial solutions without the limitations of EVM.

InterSOON: Enabling Seamless Cross-Chain Communication

InterSOON is a cross-chain messaging protocol that enables smooth interaction between SOON Mainnet, SOON Stack, and other L1s. Unlike traditional token bridges that create liquidity fragmentation, InterSOON allows smart contracts and assets to interact natively across multiple chains.

Key Features of InterSOON

• Unified Messaging Standard – Eliminates the need for custom bridges by enabling standardized communication.
• Preserved Liquidity – Avoids liquidity fragmentation by maintaining assets in their native form.
• Improved Performance – Decoupled SVM optimizes cross-chain interactions by removing unnecessary bridging overhead.

By using Hyperlane as its messaging backbone, InterSOON provides a scalable and trustless communication layer for the next generation of multi-chain applications.

Launch Mechanism for Community Raise: A New Model for Value Distribution

A major challenge in token launches today is the lack of accessibility, fairness, and alignment between projects and their communities. Existing distribution models often favor venture capitalists (VCs) and early insiders, sidelining the very users who contribute to network growth. This disconnect results in poor long-term alignment, speculative cycles, and reduced community engagement.

A Community NFT Mint-based launch (such as the recent COMMing SOON NFT round by SOON, which we will discuss more closely in the later sections) provides a permissionless, transparent, and incentive-driven mechanism for community raises while ensuring value distribution back to investors. This approach integrates customizable pricing, flexible vesting, and NFT-bound token rights, creating a sustainable and decentralized token launch framework.

How Community NFT Mint Enables Fair and Efficient Capital Raising

Unlike traditional token launches that prioritize exclusive allocations, the Community NFT Mint model offers a transparent and adaptable mechanism for raising capital while ensuring that community participants receive long-term incentives and governance influence.

1.Tokenized Participation Through NFTs

• Instead of direct token sales, participants mint NFTs that encapsulate token rights, vesting conditions, and additional benefits.
• These NFTs represent customized token access, allowing users to select terms based on their risk appetite.
• Investors can trade these NFTs, providing a liquid market for vested token rights before the actual token unlock.
• This model minimizes regulatory complications and the associated legal risks.

2.Configurable Pricing and Vesting Structures

• Multi-tier pricing models enable users to choose between immediate liquidity at a higher price or longer vesting at discounted rates.
• This eliminates forced price distortions caused by fixed unlock schedules and reduces sell pressure post-launch.
• Fair entry conditions ensure that retail users and large investors can both access token supply under transparent terms.

3.Community-First Fundraising Model

• No private rounds or backdoor deals—every allocation is open to the community.
• Smart contracts govern issuance, vesting, and token distribution, ensuring trustless execution.
• Eliminates pre-market speculation by structuring release schedules that incentivize long-term participation rather than quick exits.

Mechanism for Distributing Value Back to Investors

To create sustainable incentives and ensure long-term alignment with investors, the Community NFT Mint model integrates multiple value-return mechanisms, reducing the risks typically associated with early-stage participation.

1.Revenue-Generating Utility for Community NFTs

• Projects can attach additional benefits to minted NFTs, such as:
  • Fee-sharing from platform revenue
  • Governance participation and voting weight
• This transforms the Community NFT Mint into an asset that accrues value beyond token unlocks, ensuring ongoing investor engagement.

2.Dynamic Unlocks Based on Network Growth

• Token release schedules can adapt to network adoption metrics, preventing premature liquidity events.
• Community NFTs encourage investors to support ecosystem growth rather than engage in short-term speculation.

3.Embedded Referral and Reputation Systems

• Participants who drive adoption through referrals and organic contributions can earn additional token incentives.
• Ranking-based reward mechanisms (e.g., Kaito-style rankings) further align power users with project success.

The Community NFT Mint model presents a transformative approach to capital raises, integrating liquidity, flexibility, and decentralization into token issuance. By enabling NFT-bound token rights, dynamic vesting models, and ongoing value accrual mechanisms, this system ensures long-term alignment between projects, investors, and communities.

This model is not just a fundraising mechanism but a foundation for sustainable token economies, ensuring that projects maintain decentralization, mitigate early speculation risks, and foster long-term adoption. In an industry where liquidity and alignment are critical factors for success, Community NFT Mint stands as a scalable, inclusive, and market-responsive innovation for the next generation of Web3 projects.

Learn more about Community NFT Mint: A New Paradigm of Token Launch.

SOON Big Bang Season 1 & COMMing SOON NFT Utilities

The SOON Big Bang program is a long-term ecosystem growth initiative designed to reward both COMMing SOON NFT holders and general users who interact with projects within the SOON ecosystem. With over 12% of the total $SOON supply allocated to the Battle Pass Pool (for NFT holders) and the Airdrop Pool (for general users), this program provides a structured reward mechanism that incentivizes active participation.

Season 1 of the SOON Big Bang started in the 3rd week of Jan, introducing tasks from 9 ecosystem projects, including wallets, bridges, DEXs, lending platforms, and consumer applications. Users can head to the discover SOON dashboard connect their wallets, complete on-chain tasks, and earn points to climb the Big Bang Leaderboard, securing $SOON token rewards.

The COMMing SOON NFT Mint Round 1 officially concluded with an impressive $22,000,000 raised, highlighting strong demand and confidence in the SOON ecosystem. A total of 3,015 participants joined the mint, including notable venture firms such as @hackvc, @anagramxyz, @hypersphere, @ABCDELabs, @snzholding, @geek_cartel, @ark_stream, @pakafund, @MH_Ventures, @Web3Port_Labs, @IDGCV, and more.

COMMing SOON NFT holders gain significant advantages, including a point boost and access to the Battle Pass Pool, allowing them to earn up to 50% more $SOON tokens over multiple seasons. The Battle Pass Pool provides additional rewards for SOON Squad and SOONer NFT holders, with multipliers based on NFT tiers

You can learn more about it in this blog

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

According to the recent developer report by Electric Capital, there are over 24K active monthly developers. Solana is the #1 ecosystem for new developers, with over 7.5K new developers exploring Solana and the SVM stack. This is the first year since 2016 that any ecosystem has attracted more new developers than Ethereum.

As blockchain ecosystems evolve in 2025, developers essentially have three major options to choose from:

• SVM
• EVM
• Move

EVM will be by far the most competitive, with ecosystems like Monad, Berachain, Base, MegaETH, and many new EVM L2s emerging. If an existing EVM ecosystem fails to meet a team’s needs, migration to another EVM ecosystem will be relatively seamless, leading to intense competition among EVM environments. Since developer experiences across these ecosystems will be similar, differentiation will largely come from ecosystem support, liquidity, and community strength. While cross-deploying across multiple EVM environments is possible, managing multiple deployments increases complexity and often results in a loss of product focus.

As this landscape unfolds, SVM and Move will have an edge in developer retention and talent density due to fewer competing options. Developers within these ecosystems will have stronger incentives to remain, fostering deeper expertise and innovation.

Since EVM is the most mature ecosystem, it may present fewer opportunities for new and groundbreaking advancements, leading to slower relative progress. In contrast, SVM and Move ecosystems have an inherent technical edge in 2025, benefiting from less competition, higher talent density, and stronger incentives for developers.

However, their long-term success hinges on one critical factor: how quickly SVM and Move ecosystems can enhance their developer experience—from contract-level improvements to better read-level and core protocol optimizations.

As 0xMert_, co-founder of Helios Labs, recently pointed out:

“If Solana can improve its developer experience by 2-5x in 2025, its growth could be 10x relative to other ecosystems.”

Currently, there are over 500 full-time developers building on the SVM stack, with 3.3K+ monthly active developers, 54K+ total repositories, and 15M+ commits. As developer adoption accelerates, SVM’s growing ecosystem is emerging as a key player in blockchain innovation. This growth highlights the increasing demand for SVM and its potential upside as a scalable, high-performance stack.

This brings us to SOON Network, which has a strong edge for developers, users, and enterprises looking to deploy app-specific chains in 2025.

Appchains are emerging as the preferred solution for enterprise applications requiring controlled access and high scalability, particularly in finance and gaming. They offer:

• Seamless performance and enhanced security
• Cost-efficiency, customization, and experimentation
• Greater flexibility in governance, consensus mechanisms, and economic models

Unlike general-purpose L2s, appchains rely on a Layer-1 chain for security and network operations, avoiding competition for storage and computation with other applications. This allows developers to extract greater value while maintaining control over their execution environment.

With rising demand for scalable, app-specific chains, projects like SOON Network are positioned at the forefront of modular execution, enabling Solana’s SVM to serve as a dedicated execution layer across multiple L1s.

By leveraging Decoupled SVM, Merklization, and Horizontal Scaling, SOON enhances scalability, efficiency, and interoperability. As SVM adoption grows, SOON’s modular framework positions itself as a key player in blockchain scaling, bridging Solana’s speed with Ethereum’s security and fostering a more interconnected, efficient multi-chain ecosystem.

Additionally, InterSOON messaging infrastructure enhances interoperability and composability between appchains, reinforcing the SVM stack as a viable framework for next-generation blockchain scaling.

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