The Solana Optimistic Network (SOON) has raised an undisclosed amount in a co-builder funding round that drew contributions from key industry figures, according to an Aug. 27 statement shared with CryptoSlate.
Notable participants in the round include Solana leaders Lily Liu and Anatoly’ Toly’ Yakovenko, Coinbase Ventures’ Principal Jonathan King, and Celestia Labs co-founder Mustafa Al-Bassam. Other contributors are Amrit Kumar, co-founder of AltLayer, Prabal Banerjee, co-founder of Avail, and Robinson Burkey, co-founder of Wormhole Foundation.
SOON
The funding will primarily advance the development of SOON Stack, aiming to create the most efficient and high-performance rollup for Layer 1 settlements, which utilizes the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) as the execution layer.
The funds will support SOON’s flagship products, including SOON Stack and SOON Mainnet. SOON Stack is a modular framework that combines SVM and OP Stack to enable the deployment of SVM Layer 2 on Layer 1s like Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Cosmos.
SOON Mainnet is a general-purpose SVM Layer 2 solution that settles on the Ethereum blockchain, deployed using SOON Stack. Once launched, SOON aims to increase Ethereum’s transaction capacity by 650,000 transactions per second (TPS) using the SVM.
Additionally, SOON plans to integrate a data availability layer, enhancing interoperability with CelestiaDA, EigenDA, and Avail.
This funding is expected to position SOON as the highest throughput rollup stack with low fees, offering scalability and efficiency for decentralized applications (dApps) across all Layer 1 blockchains.
SOON’s CEO Joanna Zeng stated that the platform will combine Solana’s powerful SVM engine with Layer 1 user bases. She added that this approach could establish SVM as the standard for every Layer 1 ecosystem, attracting developers.
Zeng added:
“With SOON, we aim to be the most efficient rollup, reducing costs and boosting performance by 100 times in every ecosystem, compared to the highest-performing EVM, while maintaining a culture that welcomes non-Solana blue chips.”
