Sonic Gems

Apply for your app to earn Gems.

Sonic Gems are developer-focused airdrop points designed to reward apps for driving user engagement and innovation. These Gems can be redeemed for S tokens, which apps can then distribute as rewards to their users.

This system helps apps grow by driving consistent user activity and maintaining long-term engagement. Gems are distributed across multiple seasons, ensuring a dynamic and sustainable reward structure. The first season is set to end around June 2025.

— What are Sonic Gems? ‎‎‎‏‏‎‎— Gems Season 1 — Distribution of Gems — Gems Revocation Policy — Example Distribution of Gems

What are Sonic Gems?

Sonic Gems are airdrop points exclusively designed for apps. Each season, a fixed supply of Gems is allocated to apps based on performance metrics. Apps can track their progress through the points dashboard.

To distribute the S tokens earned through Gems to their users, apps must manage the process independently. For example, an app could:

• Mint a new token representing its share of Gems.

• Maintain an internal record of user balances.

• Use the third-party Merkl program

• Join Sonic Builders on Telegram for further support

Unlike Sonic Points, which are airdrop points designed for users, Gems empower apps to claim liquid S tokens instead of vested NFT airdrop position. Once the S tokens are claimed, it’s the app’s responsibility to determine how they’re distributed to their users.

While there’s no strict requirement for apps to share a specific percentage of their claimed S tokens with their users, the design of Gems incentivizes generosity. Apps that share a larger portion of their claimed S with their communities are rewarded more favorably compared to those that do not.

Gems Season 1

A total of 1,680,000 Gems will be distributed during season 1. Out of this, 262,500 Gems are pre-allocated to Sonic Boom winners. The chart below shows the number of Gems allocated to each tier in Sonic Boom.

Category	Gems Per Winner
Emerald	13,125
Sapphire	8,750
Ruby	4,375

The remaining 1,417,500 Gems will be available for any app to earn throughout the season — whether they’re Sonic Boom winners or not. At the end of season 1, all eligible apps will be able to claim S tokens based on the number of Gems they have earned.

Distribution of Gems

Sonic Gems are distributed by considering factors such as category type, Sonic exclusivity, and effective reward distribution, promoting fairness and incentivizing active participation.

The competitive PvP nature and fixed supply of Gems mean that an app's Gem balance may fluctuate daily, influenced by the performance of other apps on the platform.

Below are the key criteria that will determine an app's share of Gems in season 1.

Category

Apps are assessed across several weighted categories, with each app assigned a weight based on its primary category. For season 1, the specific weights are detailed below. If an app falls into multiple categories, the weight of its dominant category will be applied.

Category	Weight
Bridges	5
CLOB DEX	4
Lending Markets / CDPs	4
Fixed Yield / Yield Tokenization	4
Spot DEX	4
GambleFi	3
Perps	3
Derivatives	3
Yield	2
Gaming	2
Tooling, Misc, and Payment	1

Sonic Native

Apps are assigned different weights depending on their level of exclusivity to Sonic:

• Weight 2: Exclusively available on Sonic

• Weight 1: Primarily on Sonic but accessible elsewhere

• Weight 0.5: Available across multiple chains

Note: An app's Sonic-native weight cannot be upgraded during a season. However, if an app takes actions that reduce its Sonic nativeness, its weight will be reduced immediately and remain in effect for the following season as well.

Point Score

Point score is determined by calculating the total amount of Sonic Points that an app has generated for its users. This score is then divided by the total points generated across all eligible apps.

$$\text{Point Score} = \frac{\text{Sonic Points Generated By App}}{\text{Total Sonic Points Generated}}$$

Incentive

Only applicable from season 2 onwards.

This assesses how effectively an app distributes its claimed S to its users. An app's incentive weight is determined by the percentage of its claimed S that was distributed to its users during the previous season.

$$\text{Incentive Weight} = \frac{\text{S Distributed to Users}}{\text{S Claimed}}$$

For example, if an app distributed 100% of its claimed S to its users, it’ll receive a weight of 1 in the next season, while distributing only 80% would give it a weight of 0.8.

While there’s no requirement for apps to distribute a specific amount of their claimed S to users, it’s mandatory for all apps to publicly disclose the percentage they intend to share with their communities.

This transparency allows users to make informed decisions about allocating their capital. Any instances of false communication or misuse of claimed S will result in blacklisting for subsequent seasons.

Final Gems Calculation

Apps will receive a pro-rata share of Sonic Gems based on their final weights, determined by the calculations below.

Step 1 — App Gem Score

$\text{App Gem Score} = \frac{\text{Category Weight} \times \text{Sonic Native Weight} \times \text{Incentive Weight} \, (\text{N/A in Season 1})}{\text{Total Gem Score}}$

Step 2 — App Point Score

$\text{App Point Score} = \text{Total activity points generated by app for its users}$

Step 3 — App Final Score

$\text{App Final Score} = \text{App Gem Score} \times \text{App Point Score}$

Step 4 — Share of Gems

$\text{Share of Sonic Gems} = \frac{\text{App Final Score}}{\text{Total Final Score}} \times \text{Total Gems}$

In the calculations above, the Total Gem Score is the sum of the App Gem Scores for all apps, and the same applies to the Total Final Score.

Gems Revocation Policy

The following actions by the app can cause their Sonic Gems to be revoked.

1. Incentivizing Project Tokens or NFTs with Gems Allocating Gems as rewards for activities like holding, staking, or providing liquidity (LPing) for a project’s token or NFT. For apps that have a voting mechanism to direct emissions, Gems can be used as vote incentives for any pool other than those that contain the project's token.

2. Suspicious Distribution Practices Distributing large quantities of Gems non-transparently, such as allocating them disproportionately to insiders or KOLs without clear disclosure.

3. Misrepresenting Gem Redistribution Providing false information about the amount of claimed S being distributed to users during any season.

Users are encouraged to report any suspicious activity or malpractice to Sonic Labs.