SOON reveals 80 million token airdrop after raising $22 million

• Airdrop will distribute 8% of SOON token to the community
• Project raises $22 million with “COMMing SOON” NFTs
• SOON Network runs on Solana Virtual Machine instead of EVM

The Solana Optimistic Network, known as SOON, confirmed the launch of its highly anticipated airdrop, which will see community members and early supporters receive a significant share of the total supply of its native token. The distribution, which is already featured on the Binance Alpha platform, will include 8% of the total one billion SOON tokens — equivalent to 80 million units.

The full supply is split between the Community (51%), Ecosystem (25%), Team and Co-Builders (10%), and Treasury (6%). According to the team, the allocation to the Community will be made via “fair launch,” ensuring greater decentralization and engagement of network participants.

SOON stands out for its technical approach by adopting the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) instead of the traditional Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) standard, common in other layer 2 solutions. This decision aims to improve the scalability and performance of the blockchain. Unlike networks like Base, SOON applies an architecture called “decoupled SVM”, which separates the execution and settlement layers.

The project’s CEO and co-founder, Joanna Zeng, commented that this choice created tensions within the team early in development. “This fundamental conflict could have fragmented us… Through collective effort, we found an exceptional balance,” stated Zeng. She also highlighted that, although the launch of Decoupled SVM was slower than a simple fork of SVM, it brought significant gains in security and performance.

Initial funding for the mainnet was provided through an NFT sale called “COMMing SOON,” which raised $22 million. Investors including Hack VC, ABCDE, Hypersphere, and SNZ Capital participated in the round. Following launch, the network expanded beyond Ethereum to include support for Base and BNB Chain, solidifying its multichain ecosystem with a focus on scalability and community engagement.