Sorare Migrates to Solana

Sorare, a blockchain-based fantasy sports game enabling fans to collect NFT player cards, is migrating from StarkEx to the Layer 1 chain Solana.

In an announcement on Oct. 8, Sorare stated that this migration from StarkEx, an Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution, is not just a technical upgrade but a step towards becoming the most open and flexible platform for digital sports collectibles.

In its FAQ section for the migration, Sorare explained that moving to Solana will connect Sorare cards to a broader ecosystem, allowing management of NFTs on popular Solana wallets like Phantom. The team hinted at a future Sorare ecosystem token as part of their long-term vision:

> “In the long term, we are exploring every opportunity in front of us: forging partnerships with other communities, unlocking new forms of gameplay and utility, and possibly expanding our own ecosystem powered by a Sorare token.”

While the announcement did not detail why Sorare chose to switch to Solana, commentators on X suggested that Sorare was compensated with an eight-figure sum for the move. The Defiant reached out to Sorare and Solana for comments but did not receive a response by press time.

Founded in 2019 by Nicolas Julia and Adrien Montfort, Sorare initially operated on Ethereum, moving to L2 StarkEx in mid-2021 to reduce gas costs. That same year, the company completed a $680 million Series B funding round, valuing it at approximately $4.3 billion.

Migration Details

As part of the migration, Sorare stated that starting this month, users’ ETH balances currently on StarkEx will migrate to Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum Layer 2, enhancing transaction efficiency while maintaining a familiar experience.

By the end of October, Sorare cards will be converted to Solana NFTs, preserving attributes such as scarcity, serial number, season, XP, and metadata, according to the blog post. The team noted that Sorare would cover all gas fees for the migration, assuring users that they “won’t sign transactions or spend crypto during migration.”

Furthermore, once the migration is complete, cards withdrawn to Ethereum wallets “will still work in gameplay but cannot trade on Sorare until re-deposited or bridged to Solana,” while NFTs left on StarkEx will be transferred to Solana.

Are NFTs Back?

NFT trading volume and sales count. Source: DappRadar

Sorare’s migration occurs at a time when NFT sales have reached their highest level since 2022, based on data from blockchain analytics platform DappRadar.

In a Thursday research post, DappRadar reported that in Q3, the market recorded over 18.1 million NFTs sold, generating $1.6 billion in trading volume. It also noted that Sorare is “one of the leading dapps” in the sports field, responsible for “multimillions in trading volume, selling hundreds of thousands of digital cards to players and collectors worldwide.”

Earlier today, Larva Labs, creators of CryptoPunks, Autoglyphs, and Meebits, concluded Art Blocks’ curated series with a new collection, Quine, with sales totaling 7.56 ETH, or $31,000 per Quine NFT.