The once high-profile metaverse company Improbable on Tuesday launched the mainnet for its Layer 1 blockchain Somnia, along with the blockchain's SOMI token.
"Purpose-built for commercial-scale applications including DeFi, social, and gaming, Somnia enters mainnet after a six-month testnet phase that processed over 10 billion transactions, onboarded more than 118 million unique wallet addresses, and attracted over 70 ecosystem partners," according to a statement.
In 2022, the British-based Improbable ranked as one of the buzzier metaverse startups after raising $150 million from investors like SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and a16z. Amid a bearish cycle for crypto, in 2023, Improbable sought to chart a new trajectory when it sold its gaming services subsidiary, MPG, for nearly $100 million. At the time, MPG had 360 employees and clients that included Activision Blizzard, Bethesda, and Epic.
The sale represented part of Improbable's decision to focus on growing its metaverse ambitions, including working with Yuga Labs on its Otherside platform. Activity across the metaverse has been minimal for nearly two years, with platforms like Meta's Horizon Worlds, The Sandbox, and Decentraland failing to attract large user numbers.
"We’ve been waiting for this moment for some time. Somnia’s mainnet launch is an inflection point for real-world blockchain use cases, as well as commercial adoption," Improbable founder and CEO Herman Narula said in the firm's statement. "It is the first blockchain designed for the speed, scale, and responsiveness required to power real-time virtual experiences."
The Somnia mainnet "delivers over one million transactions per second with sub-second finality," according to Somnia. The ecosystem has more than "70 active projects," including Variance and Maelstrom, among others.
According to its website, the Somnia ecosystem has benefitted from $270 million in "combined" capital.
