In-Depth Analysis of Fluent: How to Make Every Virtual Machine a Lego Brick?

This report is authored by Tiger Research. Each blockchain has its own LEGO bricks. Fluent aims to explore what happens when all these bricks can be assembled on the same baseplate.

Key Highlights

The performance arms race has come to an end; cross-virtual machine composability will be the next main battleground.

Fluent’s hybrid execution technology integrates EVM, SVM, and Wasm on the same chain, completely eliminating the need for cross-chain bridges.

A good chain doesn’t necessarily attract good applications. Fluent is building its own reputation layer, Prints, to demonstrate its value.

1. The Performance Race Is Over, The Next Contest Has Begun

The competition for blockchain infrastructure starts with performance—faster, cheaper, higher throughput. Today, this race has largely concluded. There are dozens of public chains in the market, and outside of extreme financial scenarios, performance is no longer the bottleneck.

Looking back, the true breakthrough in blockchain has never been performance, but rather composability. The summer of DeFi in 2020 is the strongest proof: lending protocols and exchange functions layered on top of each other, liquidity mining built upon these layers. LEGO-style modular assembly was the biggest secret of that summer.

However, this kind of composability faces an invisible barrier—it only works within the same virtual machine. Ethereum’s bricks cannot be embedded into Solana, and Solana’s bricks cannot be inserted into Ethereum. This VM-to-VM barrier is precisely the chain that Fluent set out to break from the very beginning.

2. The LEGO Baseplate in Fluent’s Mind

Fluent is a project designed specifically to eliminate virtual machine boundaries. Its core solution is called “Hybrid Execution”—allowing applications built on different VMs to run collaboratively on the same chain.

Using LEGO as an analogy: Ethereum’s bricks are square, Solana’s bricks are round. Both have their strengths, but their sizes are incompatible. Even if you want to connect a lending app on Ethereum with a trading app on Solana, they can only stay in their own boxes, unable to assemble together.

Fluent is that unified standard baseplate. As an Ethereum Layer 2, it inherits Ethereum’s security foundation while creating a separate execution layer. Architecturally, Fluent is similar to other Ethereum Layer 2s like Arbitrum and Base—until the execution phase, where it truly differs.

The key difference: inside Fluent, contracts written in EVM, SVM, and Wasm coexist on the same chain, sharing the same state. Wasm (WebAssembly), originally designed for high-performance browser applications, can compile code written in Rust, C++, TypeScript, and other languages into a common, universal format.

Fluent uses Wasm as a medium, compiling all contracts into a common format called rWasm (a streamlined version of Wasm). Regardless of whether the bricks are square or round, they are converted into the same standard, enabling free assembly on the same baseplate. This means Solidity contracts can directly call functions in Rust contracts—without cross-chain bridges or message relays, all within a single transaction. Fluent calls this “Hybrid Execution.”

Currently, hybrid execution between EVM and Wasm is live on the testnet; support for SVM has completed development and is in performance optimization.

3. Speaking Through Prints

The question arises: can building a good chain automatically attract high-quality applications?

The answer is: not necessarily.

Hyperliquid is a vivid example. Its self-built perpetual contract DEX has become one of the most prominent success stories in crypto. Before Hyperliquid, the Web3 market was vastly different. Previously, teams relied on subsidy programs to recruit external developers for flagship applications; afterward, a new paradigm quietly emerged: building in-house, using results to endorse themselves.

Following this trend, Fluent is developing a product called Prints. Prints is a “Reputation Aggregator” that consolidates scattered trust data from across the internet into one place, identifying genuine users and trustworthy entities. In short, it’s a reputation platform for the information age—collecting scores from multiple platforms into a single view.

Currently, Prints has integrated Ethos trust scores, Kaito’s intelligent follower data, and Talent Protocol’s developer ratings. Single metrics are easy to manipulate, but forging multiple dimensions simultaneously becomes exponentially harder.

For users, Prints is a Web3 reputation resume—demonstrating their credibility across various fields on one page. For developers, it’s a reputation tool that can be directly embedded into applications.

Built on Prints, Fluent has also launched Fluent Connect: developers can access reputation data to filter users matching specific profiles, and use the “Perks” feature to deliver early access or token benefits to targeted users. Essentially, it’s a precise matchmaking platform connecting developers with genuine users.

Third-party adoption has already begun. Vena Finance announced it will incorporate reputation-based interest rates from Prints, offering better borrowing terms to high-credit users. Since launch, about 40,000 users have registered, and API integrations for developers are actively in development.

Of course, Prints currently relies heavily on external data sources and lacks its own independent reputation signals. To address this, Fluent has established an internal feedback scoring system and plans to incorporate additional data such as market prediction performance, revenue history, and AI agent reputation.

4. Ecosystem Map

Prints is still in its growth phase; transforming into a comprehensive reputation system will take time. Fluent is not waiting passively but actively building the ecosystem—by incubating external developers through its accelerator program: Blended Builders Club (BBC).

The first five teams selected are:

Pump Pals: A social trading platform enabling community-driven collaborative trading.

Sprout: An automated yield optimization platform that intelligently matches investment strategies based on user risk preferences.

Buzzing: A prediction market platform where users can create markets and bet freely.

Yumi Finance: On-chain credit infrastructure embedding credit scores into crypto cards, supporting buy-now-pay-later.

Blend Money: An on-chain savings platform where users deposit local currency, and the system automatically executes yield strategies and currency hedging.

Among these, Pump Pals, Sprout, and Buzzing have completed testnet user testing. Notably, Fluent’s approach to testnets differs from most chains: in many cases, testnets are just a playground for airdrops and superficial activity—users perform meaningless repetitive actions, and teams misinterpret inflated data as genuine demand.

Fluent redefines testnets as “feedback collection grounds”: real user opinions directly inform product iteration; users providing high-quality feedback earn reputation points in Prints and gain priority for future benefits. Applications are not launched all at once but are rolled out in waves every few weeks, ensuring each team receives focused and meaningful feedback.

Beyond BBC, more ecosystem forces are emerging. Nerona, for example, is an on-chain asset management platform integrating mobile apps, crypto cards, stablecoin yield, and lending functions. Previously, these features were scattered and funds often idle; Nerona consolidates them to keep capital in motion. Coupled with Prints’ reputation data, the platform can offer differentiated interest rates and service terms based on user credit profiles—similar to Vena Finance’s reputation interest rate mechanism.

5. Fluent’s Visionary Blueprint

Fluent is advancing three main initiatives simultaneously.

First, the chain itself. Hybrid execution enables applications built on EVM, SVM, and Wasm to freely compose on the same chain. The technical direction is clear: EVM-Wasm hybrid execution is stable on the testnet. However, SVM integration is still being optimized, and whether all three VM types can operate seamlessly on mainnet remains to be seen.

Second, Prints. Its design to aggregate multi-dimensional reputation signals and cross-verify is promising—while a single metric can be manipulated, forging multiple dimensions simultaneously is significantly more difficult. Yet, the current set of signals is limited and mostly reliant on external services. Whether Prints can develop its own reputation signals and establish an internal verification loop remains to be seen over time.

Third, the ecosystem. BBC is nurturing developers, and projects like Vena Finance and Nerona are experimenting with linking reputation to financial terms. But most projects are still early-stage or conceptual. How they will achieve genuine user growth remains an open question.

Though Fluent is still in its early days, it has designed an integrated structure that combines chain, product, and ecosystem from the outset—already sketching the outline of a complete form. Early execution shows promise: hybrid execution is running on the testnet, and services based on Prints are beginning to take shape.

In the previous cycle, dozens of Layer 2s emerged, mostly relying on performance metrics to attract attention, but ultimately becoming deserted chains. Whether Fluent can break this pattern depends on the number of real users and on-chain activity after mainnet launch—these will be the most honest indicators.