Sonic SVM: The HyperGrid Future, Powering TikTok App Layer

How Sonic SVM is Scaling TikTok’s Billion-User Reach with its Gaming Infrastructure on Solana.

MirrorWorld, through its gaming SVM (Solana Virtual Machine) Sonic, has emerged as a pioneer in bridging Web2 and Web3 gaming by onboarding more than 2 million users through TikTok's ecosystem. Launched in March 2024, Sonic has achieved what few Web3 projects have managed to achieve: genuine mainstream user adoption through its TikTok-native game SonicX, which provides a seamless entry point for traditional social media users into Web3 gaming.

Just as OP Stack enabled Coinbase's Base and other major platforms to build on Ethereum, Sonic is doing the same for Solana - but with a gaming-first approach. Through its HyperGrid framework, Sonic is enabling major gaming studios and platforms to launch their own customized Solana chains while maintaining the security of the base layer.

Sonic is the gateway via which thousands of Web3 games enter the ecosystem. Combining Solana’s speed with the customizability of Sonic, which is building the SVM L2 for gaming apps, It is able to achieve such a feat. Sonic uses the Hypergrid framework, which is a scaling framework that is a key piece of technology in Sonic’s modular future, which enables Sonic to have optimized functionality and performance. It does all these by allowing the customization of chains’ features and advanced data types.

The modular architecture of Sonic allows developers to easily customize the perfect blockchain economy while achieving Solana's fast throughput. HyperGrid is a scaling framework for SVM ecosystem. Sonic provides natively integrated tools for payment and settlement infrastructure, as well as user engagement tools necessary to build a successful Web3 game.

Key benefits that make creators and developers build on Sonic include :

• Sonic gives users an insanely fast on-chain gaming experience powered by the Solana virtual machine(SVM) at a minimal cost.

• Sonic allows for the execution of transactions without redeploying Solana programs and accounts, as it benefits from the base layer liquidity and services.

• Sonic provides native composable gaming primitives and extensible data types based on the Unity ECS framework on-chain.

• Sonic provides sandbox utilities for developers to build their business logic.

• Sonic provides in-house infrastructure for growth, traffic, payment, and game settlement.

The Social Platform Playbook: From TON to TikTok

TON proved that embedding Web3 into trusted platforms works. Through mini-apps within Telegram's messaging ecosystem, games like Hamster Kombat (300M users) and Notcoin (150M users) reached millions of users who had never touched crypto before. The key insight from this is that users will embrace Web3 when it feels like a natural extension of their daily experience rather than a separate crypto product.

Sonic takes this proven model to TikTok – a platform with over 1 billion users and unmatched engagement metrics. Where TON focused on Telegram's messaging-first audience, SonicX targets TikTok's entertainment-native users, who are already primed to discover and engage with new content.

SonicX

TikTok, the popular social media platform for creating, sharing, and discovering short videos, boasts over 1 billion users as of 2024. Known for its unmatched reach and engagement, TikTok offers incredible potential for amplifying content. SonicX, a TikTok mini-application launched by Sonic, leverages this platform to expand the reach of Web3 gaming to TikTok's vast and engaged audience. This strategy not only enhances the visibility of Web3 games but also provides significant returns on investment for Sonic and its gaming partners by capitalizing on TikTok's extensive user base.

Why TikTok Mini Apps

The vision behind launching SonicX on TikTok is to cultivate a Web3 gaming layer that’s accessible and engaging for mainstream audiences. TikTok’s popularity among KYC-verified users offers unique insights into user preferences, creating a powerful environment for Sonic’s games to gain traction. Through a well-curated user flow, SonicX is building a path for new Web3 gamers to easily explore and enjoy blockchain-powered games, seamlessly integrating with their existing TikTok experience.

This strategy - meeting users on their preferred platform rather than asking them to venture into unfamiliar territory - mirrors the proven TON's success strategy while targeting a much larger opportunity. TikTok's billion-plus users and unmatched engagement metrics offer the potential for Web3 gaming to finally reach true mainstream adoption.

Introducing SonicX: The Hub for TikTok Web3 Gaming

SonicX is the cornerstone of the TikTok initiative, bringing games directly to users and setting an example of what’s possible within a TikTok Mini App. It links the TikTok credentials to crypto wallets and simplifies the onboarding process, making it easy for users to access rewards and engage with on-chain activities without leaving TikTok. This streamlined user flow positions SonicX as the go-to hub for Web3 games on TikTok, offering users a quick and intuitive way to explore blockchain gaming.

Sonic’s Web3 applayer, SonicX, reached a major milestone of 1 million KYC-verified users on November 7, 2024, and now has over 2 million users, marking a pivotal achievement in Web3 adoption through TikTok. This milestone underscores Sonic’s commitment to building robust infrastructure and a user-friendly distribution platform. Through SonicX, the TikTok native game built on Sonic SVM, users can easily discover and interact with a wide range of Web3 games, all within the familiar environment of TikTok. SonicX team fully utilized account abstraction, creating a seamless, simplified onboarding for non crypto-native users. On the backend, a Solana wallet is automatically generated - but for users they do not need to leave the TikTok app, logging in with their TikTok account to play the games offered on SonicX.

"Achieving 1 million KYC-verified users is a testament to Sonic’s dedication to bridging the gap between mainstream social media and Web3. SonicX was designed with accessibility and engagement in mind, and we’re proud to have created an experience that brings the benefits of blockchain technology to a large, active audience on TikTok." said Chris Zhu, Co-founder and CEO of Sonic.

The Applayer’s unique features, including an aggregation page for Web3 games, an interactive leaderboard for SonicX’s flagship tap-to-earn game, and a task page where users can complete activities for rewards, have all contributed to this substantial growth. These tools foster a rich, rewarding environment for users, positioning Sonic as a leader in both Web3 gaming and social media engagement. With this milestone, Sonic SVM reinforced its commitment to innovation and user engagement, paving the way for a broader adoption of Web3 and decentralized technologies. Sonic continues to build upon this success, with further plans to enhance the Applayer’s capabilities and integrate additional applications that empower users in the Web3 space.

Strategic Partnerships and Growth

Capitalizing on this growth, Sonic has landed its first major gaming partnership with Mahjong Verse (formerly Mahjong Meta). Backed by prominent investors Dragonfly and Folius, Mahjong Verse's decision to build on Sonic signals a growing confidence in TikTok as a viable Web3 distribution channel.

Mahjong Verse will be prominently featured on SonicX's game discovery page, serving as a blueprint for how traditional games can successfully transition to Web3 while maintaining their core appeal. Through SonicX's user-friendly features, including:

• A simple tap-to-earn game mechanism that makes blockchain interaction intuitive

• A centralized hub for discovering and engaging with Web3 games

• A comprehensive task system where users complete challenges to earn points.

• Interactive leaderboards that drive engagement

"Our partnership with Mahjong Verse represents a significant step forward in our mission to make Web3 gaming accessible to mainstream audiences," says Chris Zhu, CEO at Sonic. "By combining our technical infrastructure with their innovative gameplay, we're creating new opportunities for TikTok users to engage with blockchain gaming in a seamless, user-friendly way."

This collaboration showcases the potential of Sonic's two-pronged approach: robust technical infrastructure through Sonic SVM, paired with frictionless distribution through the SonicX platform. For traditional game studios watching from the sidelines, it offers a compelling roadmap for entering Web3 without sacrificing mainstream appeal.

But Sonic isn't stopping at gaming. Sonic recently announced a strategic partnership with Injective to build a cross-chain Smart Agent Hub. This collaboration connects Solana and Injective ecosystems, enabling AI agents to operate seamlessly across both chains. By leveraging Sonic's HyperGrid technology with Injective's powerful WASM-based blockchain, they're creating an infrastructure that could reshape how AI agents interact with blockchain games and applications.

This hints at a more significant shift in how the industry thinks about blockchain adoption. The "if you build it, they will come" era of Web3 might end. Instead of asking users to leave their comfort zones, why not bring Web3 to platforms where billions already spend their time?

It's still in the early days, but the strategy is worth watching. If Sonic can continue converting TikTok's massive user base while attracting more established studios, they might have cracked the code that's eluded Web3 gaming for years: genuine mainstream adoption without the usual blockchain learning curve.

Why Sonic is the "OP Stack of Solana"

The rise of Layer 2 solutions has transformed blockchain scalability. On Ethereum, OP Stack emerged as the definitive solution for enterprises building their own chains, powering Coinbase's Base, Zora, and dozens of other platforms. Each of these chains maintains Ethereum's security while optimizing for specific use cases - from NFT marketplaces to social platforms.

Sonic is bringing this same transformative potential to Solana, but with key architectural differences, making it uniquely powerful for gaming applications. Sonic’s distinctive edge comes from combining mainstream user accessibility with powerful blockchain infrastructure.

But why an L2 on Solana? Part of the “innovation” behind Solana’s architecture is its memory-mapped file storage vs. the traditional storage trie with key-value mapping (Ethereum et al.), which means no global state trie and instead a flat structure of accounts. This, plus the account ownership model, allows Sealevel to process transactions in parallel.

Then, looking at it from first principles, the need for an L2 or a rollup on Solana stems at the account level (not globally) — meaning when we get hotspots (due to Solana’s flat state model). For example, an on-chain market maker doesn’t want to compete with priority fees on the L1 just to land a transaction in time, nor should a game have to spend more to record the state of a game — since this would lead to the business not being profitable. Thus, moving the accounts of a DeFi protocol to a rollup or that of a game would make sense. With Sonic SVM, This is enabled by Hypergrid, a scaling framework on Solana that employs a multi-grid approach where each grid operates semi-autonomously while anchored to the Solana mainnet for consensus and finality.

Sonic’s transactional model is specifically designed to meet the needs of gaming, enabling high-frequency, low-latency interactions essential for in-game events, player actions, and state updates. Sonic offers native composable gaming primitives and extensible data types directly based on the Unity entity component system (ECS) framework.

This framework is a data-oriented framework that is compatible with game objects. It scales the processing performance, enabling experienced creators to build more ambitious games with an unprecedented level of control and determinism. Although the Sonic protocol is known for its gaming potential, it can still be used to develop decentralized applications (DeFi) and physical infrastructure networks (DePIN).

While Sonic's initial focus is gaming - evidenced by its success with TikTok integration - its infrastructure extends beyond games. The protocol can support various decentralized applications (DeFi) and physical infrastructure networks (DePIN), similar to how OP Stack evolved beyond its initial use cases. This positions Sonic not just as a gaming platform but as a fundamental piece of Solana's scaling solutions.

For Web3 gaming to work on TikTok's scale, you need infrastructure designed specifically for that challenge. This is where HyperGrid, Sonic's scaling framework, plays a crucial role. Just as OP Stack provides the technical foundation for Base and other Ethereum L2s, HyperGrid enables TikTok-scale gaming on Solana.

What are Hypergrids?

Hypergrid is a rollup scaling and orchestration framework for dedicated Solana virtual machine ecosystem rollup operators. It utilizes state compression and Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) to achieve potentially infinite transaction throughput by enabling horizontal scaling across multiple grids, exemplified by Sonic, a gaming-specific grid that settles on Solana.

Solana’s main strength lies in composability, where one application can easily integrate with another app using the same shared ledger. Sonic aims to ensure an atomic state synchronization strategy between Solana L1 and Hypergrid.

A key feature of HyperGrid is atomic interoperability. Hypergrid is designed to be interoperable with Solana as it implements an interoperability interface that allows for wholly encapsulated programs on Solana to delegate execution to grids orchestrated by Hypergrid. This approach has some benefits, including:

• It creates a single source of truth for all programs running on Solana.

• It facilitates the delegation of program computation to hypergrid.

• It enables rollups to benefit from the Base layer's services and liquidity.

Hypergrid has two core components which enable it to work :

• Grids - Grids are configurable SVM rollups for optimized performance.

• Hypergrid Shared State Network(HSSN) - This is an interoperability layer for grids, and it serves as a consensus layer that seeks to securely roll up state transitions to Solana.

How HyperGrid Powers TikTok-Scale Gaming

The real innovation in HyperGrid comes from how it handles the massive amount of data and transactions that social platform gaming generates. Rather than trying to put everything directly on Solana's mainnet, HyperGrid uses compressed accounts - a way of storing game data that's both secure and efficient.

Think of it like this: every action in a TikTok game - whether it's scoring points, earning rewards, or updating leaderboards - is represented as a compressed account. These accounts are programmable, meaning games can customize how they work, but they don't take up expensive blockchain space. Instead, HyperGrid uses concurrent Merkle trees to track all these actions efficiently.

Compressed Accounts

When a TikTok user plays a game on SonicX, each of their actions is represented as a compressed account in Sonic's rollup system. These accounts, implemented through program-derived addresses (PDAs), are fully programmable and customizable while being orders of magnitude more efficient than traditional on-chain storage. Instead of maintaining expensive account tables with exact addresses, Sonic's architecture only needs to track the deterministic inputs used for account derivation - a perfect match for high-frequency gaming interactions.

In Sonic's implementation, each account is uniquely identifiable through its cryptographic hash in the state tree. When players trigger state changes - whether that's updating scores, collecting rewards, or modifying game assets - these changes propagate through the hash chain, ensuring data integrity. Under the hood, RPC nodes index these compression programs and maintain the concurrent Merkle tree structure, enabling games to efficiently read from and write to this compressed state without sacrificing security.

This architecture is what allows SonicX to support millions of concurrent user interactions while maintaining Solana-level security guarantees. Every gaming action, from the smallest score update to complex multi-step transactions, is represented as a compressed leaf in the state tree, with only the 32-byte root hash stored on-chain. It's this technical foundation that makes TikTok-scale Web3 gaming not just possible, but economically viable.

Concurrent Merkle Trees

Traditional Merkle trees have been a cornerstone of blockchain technology, providing an efficient way to verify data in peer-to-peer networks. They work like a pyramid of hashes: at the bottom, you have individual transaction hashes (leaf nodes), which pair up to form branches, ultimately combining into a single root hash at the top.

Imagine four players making moves simultaneously (transactions A, B, C, and D). Each action gets its own hash (Hash A through D). These hashes pair up - A with B, C with D - creating intermediate branches (Hash AB and CD). These branches then combine to form a final root hash (Hash ABCD), which serves as a cryptographic fingerprint of all the gaming activity.

But traditional Merkle trees face critical limitations when dealing with TikTok's volume. In high-throughput environments like Solana, validators receive updates rapidly — often multiple changes within the same slot. Traditional trees process these changes in series, meaning each subsequent update could fail as it invalidates the previous root hash and proof.

This is where Sonic's concurrent Merkle trees shine. Instead of processing changes one by one, they maintain a smart "changelog buffer" on-chain. Think of it as a high-speed memory system that tracks recent changes, their root hashes, and proofs. When multiple players take actions in the same slot, this buffer serves as a source of truth, allowing up to maxBufferSize simultaneous updates to the same tree. For TikTok gaming, this means thousands of players can interact simultaneously without transactions failing.

Practical Implementation in Sonic

In Sonic's protocol, every gaming interaction is stored as a leaf in this concurrent Merkle tree structure. Whether earning points, updating leaderboards, or collecting rewards, each action becomes part of the state tree. But here's the efficiency gain: instead of storing every piece of data on-chain, only a compact 32-byte root hash needs to be stored. The system uses zero-knowledge cryptography to compress the validity proofs of all these gaming actions into a tiny 128-byte proof.

This architectural choice is what enables Sonic to handle TikTok's massive scale while maintaining Solana's security guarantees. Games can process thousands of player actions per second, all while keeping blockchain storage costs minimal and verification efficient.

Building on Sonic SVM

Developers interested in launching their games can do so on TikTok via SonicX, which offers a robust infrastructure to make it happen. With Sonic Origin and Sonic Frontier networks available, games can be deployed easily through the guides.

Sonic framework supports wallet integrations, like OKX, Backpack, and Nightly Wallet, ensuring users have seamless access to in-game assets and blockchain functionality. Sonic provides good infrastructure for developers who plan to deploy apps via Sonic on tiktok, some of the support Sonic provides are :

• Network Support: Easily deploy games on Sonic networks, with specific guides for Solana-based developers.

• Embedded Wallet Connection: Integrate wallet connections via Sonic embedded H5 iframe solution.

• Mobile Optimization: SonicX is optimized for mobile, ensuring the majority of users enjoy an effortless experience.

Campaigns and Promotions for Sonic Games on TikTok

To accelerate adoption and support games launching on its platform, Sonic has rolled out several key initiatives.

• The Sonic Odyssey campaign integrates new games into its incentivized testnet, giving developers immediate access to over 2 million active users, along with dedicated PR and social media exposure.

• On the marketing front, Sonic is heavily investing in TikTok's ecosystem, combining targeted advertising with strategic influencer partnerships. This two-pronged approach helps games reach both casual players and dedicated Web3 users.

• To incentivize early adoption, Sonic has also created exclusive prize pools using Sonic Rings, rewarding users who discover and engage with new games through the TikTok platform.

Building Solana's Application Layer

What started as a solution for TikTok gaming is evolving into something much broader. Just as OP Stack grew beyond Base to power diverse applications on Ethereum, Sonic is emerging as a fundamental piece of Solana's application layer. The recent partnership with Injective to build a cross-chain Smart Agent Hub demonstrates this evolution – where gaming is just the first of many use cases.

This expansion mirrors an important pattern in blockchain infrastructure. TON began by powering simple Telegram mini-apps but grew into a complete ecosystem. Similarly, Base started as Coinbase's L2 but now supports everything from NFT marketplaces to DeFi protocols. Sonic is following this trajectory, but with a crucial difference: it's building with social platform integration as a core feature, not an afterthought.

The staking ecosystem provides early validation of this broader vision. Through partnerships with Solayer and Adrastea, Sonic has accumulated over $140 million worth of staked SOL, becoming the largest actively validated service (AVS) on Solayer. This demonstrates how Sonic's infrastructure can extend beyond gaming to support fundamental blockchain services.

Looking ahead, the launch of the $SONIC token further accelerates this expansion. With 57% of the supply allocated to community and ecosystem development, Sonic is building an economic model that incentivizes social platform integration and technical infrastructure development. This dual focus—making blockchain accessible through platforms like TikTok while providing robust technical infrastructure—positions Sonic uniquely in the Web3 landscape.

Think of a small game studio launching its first Web3 title on SonicX. Or a DeFi protocol scaling effortlessly with Sonic’s HyperGrid framework. Or even a TikTok creator using $SONIC rewards to build a stronger connection with their audience.

What's Next for Sonic

The Web3 gaming landscape has seen many ambitious projects, but adoption has remained elusive. TON showed the first glimpse of a solution through Telegram mini-apps, proving that bringing Web3 to existing social platforms could work. Sonic took this insight further, targeting TikTok's billion-plus users instead of Telegram's messaging-first audience.

With over 2 million KYC-verified users, partnerships (like Mahjong Verse and Injective) and Sonic's TikTok-first strategy have validated this approach. The platform's success demonstrates that Web3 adoption doesn't require users to leave their comfort zones—instead, blockchain functionality can be seamlessly integrated into platforms they already use daily.

Like how OP Stack evolved from powering Base to enabling a whole ecosystem of applications, Sonic is expanding its reach. The recent partnership with Injective to build a cross-chain Smart Agent Hub hints at this broader vision - where gaming is just one of many applications running on Sonic's infrastructure.

This two-pronged approach - social platform integration paired with robust technical infrastructure - positions Sonic uniquely in the Web3 landscape. While other chains struggle with the gaming trilemma of speed, cost, and decentralization, Solana's core architecture gives Sonic a natural advantage. Games can tap into Solana's sub-second finality and negligible fees while maintaining decentralization - crucial factors for any mainstream gaming application.

Web3 gaming proved the perfect testing ground, demanding both technical excellence and mainstream appeal. As traditional platforms explore Web3, they all face the same challenge: maintaining a seamless user experience while adding blockchain functionality. Sonic's approach of meeting users where they are, built on Solana's robust infrastructure, may well be the blueprint others follow.

FAQs

Q: Can game developers access end users’ TikTok usernames, follower counts, IP addresses, and other data?

A: Developers can obtain users' TikTok usernames with user authorization. For other data, please refer to the TikTok API documentation. IP addresses can be obtained through landing pages directly.

Q: How is user session data stored? Can TikTok games support an offline earnings feature like some Telegram games do?

A: User session data is managed based on the app's setup and API capabilities. Offline earning features depend on specific game configurations and API integrations.

Q: Can game developers monetize through in-app purchases? Is there a system similar to Telegram Stars (purchasable with Apple Pay in fiat) in TikTok?

A: Monetization through in-app purchases can be optimized by using Pixel for tracking and reporting data.

Q: Can game developers monetize through in-app advertising? Which platform or tool should they use?

A: Yes, developers can monetize through in-app advertising, typically by integrating with AdSense or similar ad networks.

Q: Can TikTok end users invite friends to the game via TikTok DM? Can game developers track referrer and referee data?

A: Users can share the game through third-party MMP platforms, which can generate links with attribution tracking. Additionally, Google Analytics can generate UTM links for tracking shares, or specific invite codes can be used for tracking. Multiple solutions are available to track referral data.

References

1. Sonic SVM tops $50M in Solana staking, announces new partnerships. Cointelegraph. Retrieved from https://cointelegraph.com/news/sonic-svm-tops-50m-solana-staking-new-partnerships

2. Introducing Hypergrid Framework - the Technology Behind Sonic SVM. Sonic SVM blog. Retrieved from https://blog.sonic.game/introducing-hypergrid-framework---the-technology-behind-sonic-svm

3. State Compression. Solana Official Documentation. Retrieved from https://solana.com/docs/advanced/state-compression

4. Merkle Tree in Blockchain( Part 5- Blockchain Series). Techskill Brew. Retrieved from https://medium.com/techskill-brew/merkle-tree-in-blockchain-part-5-blockchain-basics-4e25b61179a2

5. What are Merkle Trees? Alchemy. Retrieved from https://docs.alchemy.com/docs/what-are-merkle-trees

6. Introducing Sonic. Official Documentation. Retrieved from https://docs.sonic.game/

7. ECS for Unity. Unity Official Documentation. Retrieved from https://unity.com/ecs

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Not financial or tax advice. The purpose of this post is purely educational and should not be considered as investment advice, legal advice, a request to buy or sell any assets, or a suggestion to make any financial decisions. It is not a substitute for tax advice. Please consult with your accountant and conduct your own research.

Disclosures. All posts are the author's own, not the views of their employer. This post has been created sponsored by Sonic Protocol. At Shoal Research, we aim to ensure all content is objective and independent. Our internal review processes uphold the highest standards of integrity, and all potential conflicts of interest are disclosed and rigorously managed to maintain the credibility and impartiality of our research.