Original Title: “Binance Alpha Launches ‘King-level Project’ SOON, Can the 22 Million Financing Withstand the Valuation Bubble?”
Original author: Lawrence, MarsBit
On May 19, 2025, the Binance Alpha platform officially announced that it will launch the SOON token ($SOON) on May 23, becoming the first trading platform to integrate this project. This move not only marks a key breakthrough for the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) ecosystem in the Layer 2 track but also signifies a new phase in the large-scale application of modular blockchain technology. As a star project that raised over $22 million in 2025, SOON aims to address the performance bottlenecks and cross-chain interoperability challenges of public chains like Ethereum with its architecture design of “decoupled SVM+OP Stack+configurable DA layer.” The community-driven distribution mechanism in its tokenomics and its potential value capture capabilities have attracted significant market attention.
1. Team Background: From Aleo to SVM Infrastructure, Gathering Top Industry Resources
The core team of SOON can be described as an “all-star lineup” in the blockchain field.
CEO Joanna Zeng previously served as the Vice President of the privacy public chain Aleo, leading the commercialization of zero-knowledge proof technology. Earlier, she accumulated extensive Layer 2 development experience at institutions such as Coinbase and OP Labs.
Chief Marketing Officer Ruki Hu hails from the top Hong Kong investment bank JDI Global, where he led investments in SVM ecosystem projects such as Sonic SVM. His background in strategic management from the HSBC Business School at Peking University provides methodological support for SOON’s market expansion.
The technical lead AndrewZ is an expert in Rust language and has participated in the development of the Solana core client, possessing deep experience in optimizing the SVM architecture.
It is worth noting that SOON’s advisory team includes heavyweight figures such as Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana, and Mustafa Al-Bassam, a core developer of Celestia. This integration of “technology + capital + ecosystem” allows it to quickly stand out in the highly competitive Rollup track.
II. Financing Journey: Community-Based Fundraising Paradigm Innovation, $22 Million to Build a Moat
The image is sourced from @_FORAB
The financing path of SOON breaks the traditional venture capital-led model and creates an innovative fundraising mechanism of “NFT sales + community co-construction.”
In January 2025, the project raised 22 million dollars through a tiered NFT sale, where 51% of the tokens were fairly distributed through three types of NFTs: a $900 tier providing short-term liquidity with a 3-month linear unlock, a $2,850 tier designed with a 12-month lock-up period to filter long-term holders, and a $22,500 high-threshold tier that locks up for 36 months, attracting strategic investors to deeply participate in ecological construction. This design not only avoids the selling pressure impact of VC shares on the secondary market but also distinguishes user risk preferences through the time dimension.
The lineup of investors also reflects the industry’s recognition—top institutions such as Hack VC and ABCDE Capital are leading the investment, supported by strategic partners like the Solana ecosystem fund and Celestia Labs, and even traditional capital firms like IDG and PAKA are rarely getting involved. The funds are mainly directed towards three major areas: 40% for the development of the mainnet and cross-chain protocols, 30% invested in developer ecosystem incentive programs, and the remaining 30% reserved to cope with market fluctuations and security audits.
3. Technical architecture: Decoupling SVM reconstructs performance boundaries, and modular design defines industry standards
The technological innovation of SOON revolves around three core components:
1. SOON Mainnet: The First SVM Rollup Execution Layer on Ethereum
By decoupling the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) from the native consensus, the SOON mainnet achieves a block time of 50 milliseconds and a throughput of 30,000 TPS on Ethereum, more than 5 times the improvement over OP Rollups such as Optimism. Its key technological breakthrough lies in:
· Merklization Optimization: Utilizing Merkle root compression for state validation data, improving cross-chain transaction verification efficiency by 80%;
· Horizontal scaling architecture: Distributed nodes process transactions in parallel, combined with data availability solutions like EigenDA, can elastically scale up to 650,000 TPS;
· Native cross-chain settlement: Utilizing Ethereum as the final settlement layer, while being compatible with modular DA solutions such as Celestia and Avail, reducing Gas costs to 1/10 of Arbitrum.
2. SOON Stack: Multi-chain Rollup Deployment Framework
Developers can deploy customized SVM Layer2 on public chains like BNB Chain and Ton with one click through SOON Stack. Testnet data shows that the svmBNB chain built on this framework has achieved 15,000 TPS and supports high-performance scenarios such as AI agent trading and real-time game engines. This “Lego-like” architecture makes SOON the first universal Rollup solution that spans both EVM and non-EVM ecosystems.
3. InterSOON Protocol: Intermediary-free Cross-chain Communication Layer
The messaging protocol improved based on Hyperlane allows assets and smart contracts to interact directly across multiple chains, eliminating the custodial risks of cross-chain bridges. In the test cases between Solana and Ethereum, the cross-chain transfer of USDC was reduced from an average of 8 minutes to 22 seconds, with transaction fees lowered by 95%.
SOON Token Investment Value Assessment: Unlocking the Dual Risks of Selling Pressure and Valuation Bubble
Although SOON has attracted market attention due to its innovative technological architecture and community-based token distribution mechanism, its investment risks are significantly amplified under the dual pressures of the token unlock cycle and valuation model imbalance. The following analysis explores its potential risks from the perspectives of structural flaws in token economics, supply and demand imbalances in the market, and comparisons with similar projects.
1. Token Unlocking Mechanism Hides Risks of Large-scale Selling Pressure
According to the token distribution plan announced by SOON, 51% of the tokens are allocated through community distribution (including NFT pre-sales), while the team and co-builders hold 10% of the share, and the foundation and ecological incentives account for 31%. Although the project party emphasizes the “linear unlocking” design, the actual unlocking pace may still trigger a market sell-off.
Short-term Arbitrage Motivation of NFT Holders: Among the 510 million tokens allocated to the community, the first tier (900 USD NFT) corresponds to 3,200 tokens that are only locked for 3 months. The cost of such investors is concentrated in the range of 0.28-0.31 USD. If the price breaks 0.5 USD during the initial listing, the profit-taking pressure will be quickly released. Historical data shows that retail investors sell 65%-80% of their holdings within 30 days after unlocking, which may lead to a surge in circulation of over 50%.
Impact of Team and Institutional Unlocking Delays: Although the 100 million tokens held by the team are subject to a 12-month lock-up period, based on experiences from similar projects, core members tend to reduce their holdings by an average of over 40% once the lock-up period expires. According to the current FDV (Fully Diluted Valuation), the potential selling pressure could reach 400 million USD. Additionally, the off-market shares held by strategic investors (such as Hack VC and ABCDE Capital) may be transferred early through the OTC market, indirectly increasing supply in the secondary market.
Risk of Token Dumping from Ecological Incentives: The ecological development fund, accounting for 25% of the total supply (250 million tokens), adopts a “demand-based release” mechanism. However, project parties often overissue rewards to attract developers. Referring to the operational data of projects like Optimism, the actual circulation speed of ecological incentive tokens is 2-3 times faster than planned, potentially releasing an additional 50 million tokens annually.
2. Valuation Bubble: The FDV/TVL Ratio Significantly Deviates from Industry Benchmarks
Analyzing the fully diluted valuation (FDV) before the SOON mainnet launch, if we consider the preset total supply of 1 billion tokens at the minimum valuation of the NFT presale (0.9 million USD FDV), the FDV/TVL (Total Value Locked) ratio reaches as high as 18.7 (assuming TVL is 5 million USD), far surpassing mature Layer2 projects such as Optimism (2.3) and Arbitrum (1.8). Even when comparing to Sonic SVM, which is also within the SVM ecosystem (FDV 220 million USD, TVL 110 million USD), SOON’s valuation still shows a significant premium, but the technological differentiation has yet to form a competitive moat.
What is even more concerning is that market sentiment has already overdrawn the technical expectations. The TPS (30,000) of the SOON mainnet, while higher than mainstream Rollups, relies on the Celestia DA layer which has not yet undergone large-scale stress testing, and its actual performance may be discounted by 30%-50%. If there are outages or security incidents after the mainnet goes live, the supporting logic of FDV will quickly collapse.
3. Deteriorating Competitive Landscape: The Window for First-Mover Technological Advantage is Shortening
The core narrative of SOON — decoupling SVM from a modular architecture — is facing direct challenges from projects like Eclipse and Movement. Eclipse has secured $50 million in funding led by Polychain Capital and announced the deployment of a generic Rollup based on SVM on Solana, which has better developer tool compatibility and ecological resource integration capabilities than SOON. In addition, the cost advantage of Celestia’s native DA layer (60% lower than SOON) further undermines the persuasiveness of its modular story.
In terms of market share, the SOON testnet has attracted only over 80 DApps to migrate, while the number of developers for Arbitrum and zkSync has exceeded 3,000 during the same period. The lag in the ecological cold start may cause it to become a “technical laboratory” rather than a practical application layer.
4. Investment Advice: Risk Avoidance in High Volatility Periods
In summary, the SOON token will enter a concentrated risk release period from May to August 2025:
· Short-term (1-3 months): The liquidity premium during the initial launch of Binance Alpha may push the price up to 0.4-0.5 USD, but as the first round of NFT unlocks (in August) approaches, market panic will trigger a correction, with support looking down to 0.22 USD.
· Mid-term (6-12 months): Team and institutional token unlock (Q1 2026) may create secondary selling pressure. If the TVL does not exceed 200 million USD during the same period, the FDV/TVL ratio will regress towards the industry average, and the token price may be halved to the range of 0.1-0.15 USD.
· Long-term (over 1 year): The competition in the modular track is heating up. If SOON fails to achieve breakthroughs in cross-chain interoperability, the token may become merely a “governance tool,” losing its ability to capture value.
For investors with a lower risk appetite, it is recommended to observe the on-chain data (TVL, cross-chain asset scale, developer activity) for 3 months after the mainnet launch, and to strategically allocate once the technology is validated and the token supply and demand are rebalanced.
Conclusion: Valuation Traps Under Innovative Narratives
The modular vision of SOON aligns with the evolving trends of the industry, but its token model design and market competition landscape have yet to form a safety margin. Once the technological halo fades, the resonance of unlocking selling pressure and valuation bubbles may trigger a “Davis double kill.” As the Layer2 war enters the decisive stage of “application landing,” investors should focus more on the genuine value creation of the ecosystem, rather than the inward competition of technical parameters.
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