Sonic, the Ethereum Virtual Machine compatible layer 1 blockchain, has announced the launch of its testnet 2.1, aimed at adding compatibility with the Pectra upgrade.

The Sonic Labs team, which helps develop the layer 1 blockchain Sonic (S), said on Aug. 12 that its testnet 2.1 upgrade was now live. Sonic’s latest testnet introduces compatibility with Ethereum (ETH)’s Pectra upgrade and adds to the blockchain network’s capabilities by allowing developers and users to deploy smart contracts and experience Sonic’s speed.

While Ethereum’s network established the crypto industry’s standard for block processing,  with the developer tools and ecosystem suitable for decentralized applications, scalability continued to impact performance. Layer 2 solutions offer the much needed performance, but Sonic goes beyond with an L1 that not only enhances EVM scalability, but offers optimized virtual machine performance with the SonicVM. 

The launch of testnet 2.1 brings these virtual machine optimizations to users with Pectra compatibility. Sonic Labs expects the upgrade to go live on the mainnet soon. 

The Ethereum Pectra upgrade deployed on the mainnet in early May, and introduced key Ethereum Improvement Proposals. 

As a major network update, Pectra brought 11 EIPs on the mainnet, with top among these including enhanced staking, smart contract functionality for wallets with externally owned accounts and account abstraction. Pectra also introduced gas optimization, significantly boosting the Ethereum network.

Sonic’s S token

The testnet upgrade goes live as the native Sonic token S gains traction across the decentralized finance ecosystem. powers giants. 

S is one of the top token integrations for Aave, the leading DeFi protocol that accounts for over $38 billion in total value locked. Sonic’s speed, low fees, and developer first-design is key to this huge traction for S.

The Sonic ecosystem is poised to get a notable boost following Sonic Foundation’s investment of 400k S tokens in Silo Labs, a non-custodial crypto bank launched on Ethereum, Sonic and Avalanche.