Sorare Migrates to Solana, Abandoning Ethereum L2 StarkEx

Sorare, a blockchain-based fantasy sports activities sport the place followers can accumulate NFT participant playing cards, is altering homes once more, this time migrating from StarkEx to Layer 1 chain Solana.

In an announcement on October 8, Sorare described the migration of StarkEx, an Ethereum Layer 2 scaling answer, as “greater than a technical improve,” calling it a “step ahead in our imaginative and prescient to develop into essentially the most open and versatile platform for digital sports activities collectibles.”

Within the migration FAQ part, Sorare defined that it’s shifting to Solana to attach Sorare playing cards “to a broader ecosystem,” together with the flexibility to handle the NFTs on fashionable Solana wallets like Phantom. The staff additionally hinted at a attainable Sorare ecosystem token sooner or later, as a part of its long-term imaginative and prescient:

Whereas the announcement supplied no additional particulars as to why Sorare selected to maneuver to Solana, commentators on X have recommended that Sorare was paid an eight-figure sum to make the transfer. The Defiant has reached out to Sorare and Solana for remark however has not heard again as of press time.

Based in 2019 by Nicolas Julia and Adrien Montfort, Sorare began with Ethereum and switched to L2 StarkEx, the application-specific scaling engine from Starknet developer StarkWare, in mid-2021 to cut back fuel prices. That very same 12 months, the corporate raised a $680 million Sequence B, valuing it at roughly $4.3 billion.

Migration particulars

As a part of the migration, which begins this month, Sorare stated that customers’ ETH balances at the moment on StarkEx will migrate to Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum Layer 2, to “enhance transaction effectivity whereas conserving the expertise acquainted.”

By the tip of October, Sorare playing cards will probably be bridged as Solana NFTs whereas retaining all card attributes similar to shortage, serial quantity, season, XP and metadata, the weblog submit stated. The staff additionally stated that Sorare will cowl all fuel prices for the migration, specifying that customers “won’t signal any transactions or spend crypto in the course of the migration.”

Sorare additionally added that after the migration is full, playing cards withdrawn to Ethereum wallets will “nonetheless work in gameplay, however can’t be traded on Sorare till re-deposited or bridged to Solana,” whereas NFTs remaining on StarkEx will probably be bridged to Solana.

Are NFTs again?

NFT buying and selling quantity and variety of gross sales. Supply: DappRadar

Sorare’s migration comes as whole NFT gross sales have reached their highest degree since 2022, in accordance with information from blockchain analytics platform DappRadar.

In a analysis submit on Thursday, DappRadar wrote that the market recorded greater than 18.1 million NFTs offered within the third quarter, producing $1.6 billion in buying and selling quantity, including that “one of many main dapps” on this enjoying area is Sorare, which is liable for “thousands and thousands in buying and selling quantity, promoting a whole bunch of 1000’s of digital playing cards to gamers and collectors around the globe.”

Earlier in the present day, Larva Labs, the makers of CryptoPunks, Autoglyphs, and Meebits, accomplished the Artwork Blocks curated sequence with a brand new assortment, Quine, with gross sales ending at 7.56 ETH, or $31,000 per Quine NFT.