The Problem: Fundraising Fatigue and Broken Tokenomics

For years, building in web3 has meant signing up for a brutal trade-off: either spend months chasing VC money or launch a token that may never sustain itself. Developers—especially indie builders—have been forced to juggle code with pitch decks, watching runway vanish while hoping their dApp gains traction fast enough to justify its existence.

Even if you launch a token, there’s no guarantee it won’t turn into a short-term pump that leaves your project worse off. Unsustainable emissions, liquidity drain, and constant sell pressure are the norm—not the exception.

It’s a model that rewards hype, not product. And it’s made the "build-first" approach harder than it needs to be. It’s a model that rewards “hype” and “gimmicks” more than real use-case.

Enter Sonic’s FeeM Model: Revenue Sharing, Reimagined

Sonic flipped the script with one simple idea: What if developers could earn based on the actual value they bring to the network?

With FeeM (Fee Monetization), Sonic lets builders earn 90% of the gas fees their app generates—on-chain, in real-time. No need for an airdrop, no pre-sale, no token launch. If your app drives usage, you earn. Period.

It’s the on-chain equivalent of a YouTube revenue model—but for smart contracts.

Here’s how it works:

• Every time a user interacts with your app and pays gas, 90% of that fee flows to your dApp’s registered address.
  
  
• The remaining 10%? A small cut goes to validators, and a portion is routed to the Sonic Ecosystem Vault to fund future innovation.
  
  

No inflation. No VC middlemen. Just code, usage, and reward.

How Sonic Built  a Sustainable Loop for Builders, Validators, and the Ecosystem

This isn’t just a new model. It’s a whole new economic design.

With FeeM, Sonic has created a value loop where:

• Builders get paid for actual usage—not speculation.
• Validators earn from increased transaction volume.
• The Sonic core team gets a small, steady inflow to reinvest in the ecosystem.
• Users benefit from an ecosystem full of well-maintained, value-aligned applications.

The result? A network that grows because it works—not because it’s hyped.

And here’s the kicker: builders no longer have to choose between product and survival. With FeeM, building great apps is the monetization strategy.

Sonic isn’t just tweaking economics—it’s rethinking what a blockchain should prioritize. Instead of inflating tokens or chasing artificial growth, it rewards real builders creating real usage. The FeeM model proves that you don’t need a speculative cycle to bootstrap a thriving ecosystem—you need aligned incentives, transparent rewards, and a structure where value flows to those who create it.

In doing so, Sonic is quietly rewriting the playbook for what Layer 1s should be. Not just platforms to deploy on, but partners in growth for the next generation of builders. A chain where devs don’t have to beg for capital—they just need to build.