S Token
The S token is the native token of Sonic. It has multiple roles within the network, such as paying for transaction fees, staking, running validators, and participating in governance.
— Staking — Supply and Tokenomics — Institutional Expansion — Airdrop — Ongoing Funding — Block Rewards — Token Burn — Validator Rewards — Ecosystem Vault
Staking
You can help secure the network and earn rewards by staking your S tokens.
Visit MySonic.
Connect your wallet.
Choose a reputable validator and delegate your stake.
Staking your S involves a 14-day waiting period if you choose to withdraw. When staking your S, choose a reputable validator carefully. If your validator is penalized for misconduct or errors in their setup, it could impact your delegated S stake as well.
Supply and Tokenomics
The current total supply of S is approximately 3.8 billion. As decided by multiple governance proposals, the following adjustments have been or will gradually be integrated into the tokenomics of S.
Institutional Expansion
A governance proposal approved the issuance of $50M in S for the pursuit of an ETF, $100M in S for the pursuit of a Nasdaq DAT, and 150M S tokens for the newly established Sonic USA entity, as part of our institutional expansion into the U.S. capital markets.
The first issuance of 472,372,662.8 S occurred on September 4, 2025. This covered the full allocation for our Nasdaq DAT and Sonic USA entity. An additional $50 million in S may also be issued to support our pursuit of an S ETF.
The following transactions provide transparency into how the issued funds have been used to date, mainly involving SonicStrategy.
126,622,348.845 S transfer to old SonicStrategy DAT Multisig
500,000 S transfer to new SonicStrategy DAT Multisig for validator setup
126,122,433.845 S transfer to new SonicStrategy DAT Multisig from the old SonicStrategy DAT Multisig
Importantly, if a Nasdaq DAT is not achieved during SonicStrategy’s pursuit, all funds will be returned to the Sonic Foundation to be leveraged for an alternative DAT or burned.
Airdrop
190.5 million S will be issued in phases exclusively used for the airdrop program. The airdrop features an innovative burn mechanism that rewards active participation and gradually reduces the total supply of S tokens.
The first issuance of 89,778,181.9 S occurred on July 17, 2025 and July 31, 2025.
Ongoing Funding
To fund ongoing growth and expansion, the Sonic network could issue additional S tokens to:
Increase S adoption and global presence
Grow the team and scale operations to drive increased adoption
Implement robust marketing initiatives and DeFi onboarding campaigns
To fund this program, 47,625,000 tokens will be issued annually for six years, starting six months after Sonic's mainnet launch. Issued tokens will be sent to this wallet. The first issuance of 47,625,000 S occurred on June 18, 2025.
However, to guard against inflation, the network will burn newly issued tokens not used during the year, ensuring that 100% of all newly issued tokens from this initiative are allocated toward network growth rather than being held by the treasury for later use.
For example, if Sonic Labs uses only 5,000,000 tokens in the first year, the network will burn the remaining 42,625,000 tokens.
Block Rewards
Block rewards were migrated Fantom Opera to Sonic. As validators and stakers moved to Sonic, Opera's block rewards were reduced to zero, and the saved funds are used to reward Sonic validators. The Sonic Foundation will maintain Opera validators for now.
To achieve a 3.5% APR for Sonic without causing further inflation in the first four years, we're reallocating the remaining block rewards from Opera to Sonic, comprising around 70 million tokens per year, which will be distributed as validator rewards over the first four years, avoiding the need to issue new S tokens during this period for block rewards.
As a result, Opera's APR dropped to zero upon Sonic's launch. To preserve value and avoid new inflationary rewards at Sonic's inception, we will not issue new tokens for block rewards during the initial four years, as stated. After that period, S block rewards will resume by issuing new tokens at a rate of 1.75% per year to reward validators.
Token Burn
We have two burn mechanisms in place that will decrease the emission of new S tokens.
Users who choose not to wait for the full 270-day maturation period for 75% of their airdrop will lose a portion of their S tokens, which will be burned.
From the 47,625,000 S tokens issued annually in the first six years of Sonic to fund growth, the network will burn any of the tokens not used during the year.
Validator Rewards
To help secure the Sonic network by running a validator and staking a certain amount of S, you can earn block rewards as well as transaction fees paid by users on Sonic.
Block Rewards
The target reward rate for validators on Sonic is 3.5% when 50% of the network is staked. The network issues tokens each epoch to provide this, except during Sonic's first four years when rewards stem from block rewards migrated from Opera, as outlined above.
The reward rate adjusts proportionally, e.g. if all S tokens are staked, the annual reward is 1.75%. Conversely, if only 25% of S tokens are staked, the annual reward is 7%.
Network Fees
Network fees are generated when users pay gas to interact with the network. Validators earn a percentage of these fees, which are distributed equally among all staked S tokens. For a detailed breakdown of how much a validator earns from gas fees, see here.
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