zkSync 'hyperchain' Sophon raises $60 million via node sale

Sophon, a zkSync "hyperchain" or a Layer 2 network being built using Matter Labs' modular, open-source framework ZK Stack, has raised around $60 million via a node sale.

The sale offered 200,000 nodes for purchase with a tiered pricing model, ranging from 0.0813 ETH to 2.0556 ETH per node. However, investors purchased 121,000 nodes, yielding Sophon around $60 million in wrapped ether (wETH), the startup said Wednesday.

In terms of wETH, Sophon collected 20,800 wETH, Sebastien ("Seb"), Sophon's semi-anonymous co-founder and former head of DeFi at zkSync, told The Block in an interview. Sophon's other two co-founders are crypto Twitter personality Pentoshi, who has nearly 800,000 followers, and "a trader and team member at Merit Circle," a gaming-focused decentralized autonomous organization.

Node sale

Sophon's node sale started and closed within the past two weeks, Seb said. Several investors participated in the sale, including investors who backed Sophon's $10 million seed round earlier this year, such as Maven 11, Paper Ventures, Spartan Group and SevenX Ventures, Seb said, adding that several launchpads and syndicates such as Impossible Finance, ICO Drops and Holdstation also helped with the node sale with public participation.

Out of the $60 million investment, around $45 million came from private investors and about $15 million from retail investors, said Seb. Node sale involves selling node licenses, and it is a relatively new way of raising money. Earlier this year, the DePIN project Aethir raised around $100 million via node sales.

According to Seb, node sales empower communities as they essentially get exposure to project tokens at an early stage at a discounted price and receive token airdrops. Sophon has earmarked 20% of its token's (SOPH's) total supply for node license holders to distribute over the first 36 months after Sophon's mainnet launch.

Since Sophon has yet to launch its mainnet and token, node purchases have received ERC-721 NFTs representing their node licenses, Seb said.

Sophon launch

Sophon expects to launch its network in the coming months. When it launches, there will be a single centralized sequencer, and node license holders will be able to delegate their licenses to Sophon and earn their share of network fees, the startup said.

"These holders will also be able to participate in the functioning of Sophon, for instance by indexing the chain or by running a light node with the DA [data availability] layer Sophon elects to use," the project said. "In the future, if and when the Matter Labs team will decentralize their consensus, node licenses will be required to operate the network — whether in a PoA [proof of authority] or PoS [proof of stake] setup."