Tap-to-Earn Gaming Expands From Telegram to TikTok via Solana’s Sonic SVM

Faucet-to-earn took over the crypto gaming panorama this summer time, as Telegram primarily based mini apps attracted over 300 million gamers at a time. However a Solana-based venture has launched a tap-to-earn sport known as SonicX that launches natively within TikTok, within the pursuit of turning into the Notcoin of the Gen Z-favored social media platform.

Sonic SVM, a layer-2 gaming chain constructed on prime of Solana, plans to accomplice with content material creators and run a collection of adverts on TikTok that gamers will have the ability to click on to open the SonicX sport natively inside TikTok. Very like mini apps on Telegram, TikTok permits customers to open webpages inside its native browser, the place avid gamers will begin gathering in-game factors after utilizing a social login.

The sport finally follows the same premise to the opposite video games within the tap-to-earn style. Gamers will furiously faucet their screens to gather rings, buy upgrades to passively progress in-game, and invite mates to leap the ranks—all within the hopes of a future token airdrop that has but to be confirmed.

All of this takes place inside a world branded equally to the traditional Sonic The Hedgehog online game collection, though there isn’t any official connection to Sega.

One fascinating quirk is that each in-game faucet can be recorded as an on-chain transaction. We’ve seen this earlier than with a “tickle-to-earn” cat sport known as Tapos on Aptos, which recorded over 115 million transactions in a single day in Might with simply over 63,000 gamers. For perspective, Ethereum processed simply 1 million transactions a number of days prior. 

“We discuss bringing a billion customers after we do not also have a million oftentimes, and I feel one million is a low bar,” Chris Zhu, CEO and co-founder of Sonic SVM, advised Decrypt. “Even with simply 1% of the complete TikTok inhabitants, we’re at 10 million customers. So I feel that is not a dream anymore.”

TikTok has 1 billion month-to-month lively customers, with its complete consumer base anticipated to develop to 2.35 billion by 2029, in response to Shopify. For comparability, Telegram, which has been the epicenter of the tap-to-earn craze to this point, has 950 million month-to-month lively customers as of this summer time. Whereas these figures aren’t far off, Zhu believes that TikTok is an untapped market that’s a lot simpler to succeed in by way of promoting.

“Gen Alpha, Gen Z are already buying and selling meme cash and this content material on [TikTok],” Zhu defined. “There’s a really shitty expertise relating to promoting on prime of Telegram. That being stated, we predict TikTok can be one of many largest site visitors swimming pools, if performed proper.”

Sonic SVM is a Solana layer-2 community, additionally known as a “community extension,” that’s performing as a writer for crypto video games—much like the mannequin that Ronin has deployed on Ethereum. Sonic SVM already performs host to 67 playable video games, however the staff believed that TikTok was the very best place to launch SonicX.

This was as a result of staff’s background working at Bytedance, the developer of TikTok. Zhu believes that they will maximize utilization of the platform

After all, gamers have interaction in tap-to-earn gaming as a result of promise of their in-game progress translating to token rewards. SonicX isn’t any totally different with a Sonic token on the horizon, though the sport doesn’t formally promote this as such.

Many different tap-to-earn video games have additionally performed this, prone to keep away from any potential regulatory points, however SonicX is particularly contending with TikTok promoting restrictions on this case. In any other case, Sonic SVM might face having its predominant distribution channel being eliminated.

Notcoin was the pioneer of the Telegram tap-to-earn motion. The sport efficiently launched its NOT token on The Open Community (TON), peaking at a market cap simply shy of $3 billion because the largest crypto gaming token launch of 2024. Since then, Notcoin has reinvented itself by partnering with different tasks and aiming to turn into the ‘Netflix’ of social, viral video games.

It is a comparable mannequin that SonicX goals to copy, albeit on TikTok. Zhu explains that the imaginative and prescient is to onboard different video games into the tap-to-earn style, because it goals to share its viewers across the Sonic SVM ecosystem.

This may be performed by way of social duties that reward gamers, akin to following a venture’s TikTok account. That’s the same methodology that many Telegram tap-to-earn video games have additionally employed, which Zhu calls “decentralized promoting.”

SonicX on TikTok in some ways is designed as a “progress technique” for the broader Sonic SVM gaming ecosystem. And with each in-game click on being recorded on-chain, it might function an commercial for the extent of scalability that Sonic SVM presents, ought to it discover a sizable viewers.

Edited by Andrew Hayward