Author: Ru7, Tian Daxia Donny
In his 26 years of life, he has crossed multiple fields. He calls himself an "explorer," yet he always seeks the true storm beneath the calm surface of the sea.
He is more widely known for leading the project Sonic, which, along with his team, secured $16 million in funding.
He is Chris Zhu, the founder and CEO of Mirror World. Sonic, under Mirror World, is the first atomic interoperability SVM Layer 2 project in the Solana ecosystem, and it continues to lead technological innovation, aiming to achieve a sovereign game economy ultimately settled on Solana.
Today, let's talk about Chris's story—from initial exploration to current achievements, and understand how this young founder is carving new paths in the ever-changing Web3 landscape.
Chris Zhu
Entering the Scene: A "Turning Point"
Before entering the Web3 space, Chris was passionate about culture and fashion. During his student years, he interned at many top fashion companies, laying the first cornerstone for his future career.
After returning to China, he worked for a while at Bilibili, Deloitte, and a dollar venture capital firm. However, it was his experience at ByteDance that truly made Chris reevaluate his career path. After joining ByteDance's strategic investment team, he quickly realized that he lacked passion for projects that were repeatedly packaged and redefined.
Many things seemed trendy, but in essence, they were just renovations of past theories. He candidly stated that those technologies that were once exciting could actually be summarized as "known repetitions."
He gradually realized that what he truly craved was a boundless exploration, rather than wandering around relying on path dependence.
This reflection prompted him to turn his attention to Web3 and AI.
In 2021, he joined rct AI, a company exploring the combination of AI and blockchain. That year, amidst the NFT craze, he led his team to create a unique NFT series—Mirror World, generating $1.3 million in revenue in just 45 days, which later became the name of their company.
The success of the NFT project inspired him to explore broader possibilities, and he began to think about how to use blockchain technology to create a truly interconnected world. This line of thought led him to the Solana chain, where he chose to further expand the ecological landscape of Mirror World.
Initially, they considered many directions, including Polygon, StarkWare, and Arbitrum, but ultimately he chose Solana because, in his view, Solana was not only a public chain with excellent technical performance but also a digital city-state capable of supporting the explosive growth of large-scale financial applications.
In early 2022, Chris's team decided to seek seed round financing for the project. With the impressive performance of their early product and the foresight of the team, they quickly attracted the attention of capital, and several well-known investment institutions extended olive branches to them. Subsequently, in the Pre-A round of financing, Chris and the team successfully raised $4 million, injecting significant momentum into the project's development.
The Company Almost Collapsed
What was initially thought to be a good start turned into a chain reaction due to the FTX collapse that year.
"We had raised about $4 million at the time, with about $1.2 million stored in FTX, along with some funds paid to partners. We did not anticipate that FTX's collapse would trigger a subsequent chain reaction."
By the second half of 2022, the Mirror World team had rapidly expanded to 29 people, and the sudden collapse of FTX nearly caught the team off guard, making it impossible to access funds. That night, the team held an emergency meeting and had to lay off half of the staff, reducing the team size to about 13 or 14 people.
After the FTX incident, the number of Mirror World’s clients plummeted. Previously, their clients were mainly game projects on Solana, helping them issue assets, but the impact of FTX left the team facing an unprecedented low.
The industry became increasingly difficult to operate in without external energy injection, and the pressure of entropy nearly suffocated the Mirror World team.
"By early 2024, our operating funds were almost depleted, with less than two months of survival time left. At that time, our options included seeking possibilities for team mergers or sales, but negotiations did not go smoothly. We ultimately decided to fully invest in the development of Sonic."
Chris Zhu
Team: Challenges and Breakthroughs in Leveraging Eastern and Western Cultures on Solana
Finally, in March 2024, Mirror World announced the launch of the SVM HyperGrid-based gaming public chain Sonic on Solana. Mirror World stated that Sonic is the first Gaming Chain on Solana, proposing the first scalability architecture HyperGrid, which can help game developers efficiently handle and manage game states, logic, and events.
In this conversation, Chris shared the team's development journey on Solana, the complex situations they faced, and how he views the collaborative relationships among team members.
"When making a gaming chain on Solana, we saw the opportunity to bring users and diversity to the ecosystem. Although certain types of blockchain games have been market-validated as failures, games centered around users and traffic can still bring new user growth and drive industry development," he explained.
The team insisted on moving against the wind in the Web3 gaming track, and seeing fewer and fewer peers survive became the motivation for Chris's team to continue moving forward. Coupled with retail investors' acceptance of RON and IMX in the Ethereum ecosystem, Sonic's popularity surged, gradually making them one of the fastest-growing teams in the Solana ecosystem.
Sonic official website https://www.sonic.game/
Chris believes that the team's diverse background adds significant value to the project, as the team possesses deep Asian resources while also having an international perspective. Whether it’s the market leader with American roots but born in Korea or the CTO who grew up in Uganda, they excel in cross-regional resource integration.
Ultimately, this diverse background, combined with the team members' profound understanding of the blockchain ecosystem and firm belief, has contributed to the current trajectory of the project.
When discussing the core team's division of labor, Chris used this metaphor.
"My role is like a net that can capture various information and connections in the industry. I am responsible for breadth, ensuring we understand every important direction."
He continued, "For example, our product partner Jialin is like a sword. Once I capture enough information, Jialin can help us quickly find breakthroughs and focus on a clear solution. When we collaborate, I first spread out to capture valuable information, then quickly reel it in, and Jialin then breaks through with the 'sword' posture."
Another core team member, Jonathan, is described by Chris as a "guardian."
"He is like a wall, solid and resilient. Jonathan is Ugandan, studied in the US and China, and has not returned home for four to five years during the pandemic, persisting alone in Beijing," Chris described.
Jonathan is responsible for tackling the most challenging technical problems, serving as the pillar of the team and a steadfast force protecting the team as they move forward.
Team member introduction, image from: Rootdata
Chris revealed that they faced a life-and-death test in March this year. Every morning he would ask himself, "Should I give up?"
But the answer was always negative because he did not want to lose yet.
Thus, Chris and the team decided to face the challenges head-on and sought a new round of financing. However, this path was not smooth; they were constantly rejected, and nearly every meeting left them anxious and uneasy.
Later, they met Mr. Cao Darong from Sky9 Capital (former General Manager of Lightspeed Venture Partners), who not only became a major supporter of this round of financing but also brought more quality investors to the team. The injection of this capital relieved the team, recognizing their early efforts and making an important bet on future development.
On June 18, 2024, Sonic announced the completion of a $12 million Series A financing round, led by Bitkraft Ventures, with participation from OKX Ventures, Mirana Ventures, Big Brain Holdings, Sanctor Capital, Sky9 Capital, Matt Sorg, and others, with this round of financing valuing the company at $100 million.
In this round of financing, Galaxy Interactive participated again after their previous investment. As one of the largest compliant service providers in the Solana ecosystem, Galaxy Interactive also acted as an important intermediary for FTX OTC. This support provided the team with stronger market endorsement. Other participants included several important angel investors within the Solana ecosystem, further demonstrating trust and recognition for Sonic.
Image from: Rootdata
The completion of this round of financing marks a new stage in Sonic's growth and gives Chris and his team more confidence in future development.
Chris stated that the team will use this funding to further improve Sonic's technical architecture and accelerate its application expansion in the Web3 and Solana ecosystems. At the same time, Chris emphasized Sonic's goal—to become an important part of promoting the development of SVM Layer 2, achieving blockchain interoperability, and empowering more developers and users.
Chris mentioned that their team is paving new paths, such as using TikTok as a traffic base, guiding more users into the world of cryptocurrency through this innovative approach.
Not for Success, but for "Exploration"
On the entrepreneurial journey, everyone encounters key figures whose influence often invisibly alters the trajectory of our lives. For this young entrepreneur, it was two special individuals who first introduced him to the blockchain industry.
The first was his roommate during his freshman year of college, a very creative friend. This friend made a bold move in mid-2021—purchasing a piece of art by street artist Banksy and personally burning it, subsequently marketing this act as an NFT. This was not only a collision of art and technology but also introduced him to the world of blockchain.
The second influential figure was another close friend, one of the founders of Injective Protocol. The success of Injective Protocol opened his eyes to the immense potential of the blockchain industry and ignited his motivation to explore and participate in this field.
Looking back at his student days, he recalls mining with friends in their dormitory, where the overheated power supply raised the room's temperature significantly. This seemingly casual experience laid the groundwork for his later entrepreneurial path.
Now, as a young entrepreneur, his work pace can be described as "busy."
He reminisced, "In the past two years, I have hardly stayed in one place for more than three or four weeks. Whether domestically or internationally, most of my time has been spent attending conferences, networking, and business trips."
Although this busy lifestyle has allowed him to accumulate a lot in terms of business, it has also made him realize that such hustle is not just a drain on physical and mental energy, but also an invisible challenge to time and quality of life. Therefore, in the next phase, he wants to maintain clarity and focus.
At 26, Riding the Wave of Web3, Staying Clear and Focused
Looking to the future, he is full of confidence in the development of his company and the industry.
"We are currently at a very important turning point. In the next 3 to 5 years, we hope to compete with the world's top projects and achieve truly world-class accomplishments that belong to us."
He has very clear goals for the future, especially in the areas of scalability solutions and Layer 2. He hopes to promote more efficient and innovative technological solutions.
He is not afraid of future competition; on the contrary, he values how to capture market share through product user experience and innovative business models.
"Our current advantage lies in our deep engagement with the Solana ecosystem, and there are no leading projects in the Layer 2 space, which provides us with significant development opportunities."
"My father is not particularly supportive of my entrepreneurial path, especially after I left the finance industry and big companies. His attitude has always put a lot of pressure on me. For him, traditional industries are stable and reliable, while entrepreneurship is full of uncertainties and could even lead to failure."
But amidst this conflicting emotion, Chris gradually understood that his father's concerns were not without reason. After all, his worldview and the innovative spirit he pursues differ. His father represents solid tradition, while he yearns to break through these rigid thoughts to create a whole new world. Although he understands his father, this conflict and struggle have only strengthened his determination to break through his limitations.
Chris knows that in this noisy industry, maintaining clarity and focus is crucial. In the fast-developing cryptocurrency sector, calm judgment and clear strategy are just as key to success as innovation and passion.
"Today’s cryptocurrency industry sees the coexistence of value in assets, payments, and transactions. In the future, we will see that any industry can bring immense value through financialization. This requires us to continuously innovate while also being clear about the problems we aim to solve, rather than merely chasing short-term market trends."
Standing at the forefront of Web3, Chris deeply understands that the path of innovation is not easy, with many difficulties and challenges ahead. However, he firmly believes that only by maintaining clarity, focus, and innovation can one find their own direction amidst the turbulent waves of the industry.
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