In a move that sent ripples through the NFT and blockchain gaming communities, Sorare CEO Nicolas Julia announced on November 18, 2025, that the fantasy sports platform is migrating its core operations from Ethereum to Solana—a transition he emphatically describes as an “upgrade” rather than an abandonment of the network that nurtured the company for six years.
TL;DR
- Sorare transitions from Ethereum to Solana, calling the move an “upgrade” for scalability
- CEO Nicolas Julia maintains bullish outlook on Ethereum despite the migration
- Ethereum users will continue to be supported through Base network integration
- Over ten Sorare games expected to migrate as part of the multi-phase transition
- The move reflects a broader industry trend of platforms seeking chain-agnostic strategies
A Six-Year Journey Reaches a Turning Point
Sorare launched on Ethereum in 2019, building a fantasy sports empire on the back of blockchain-verified digital trading cards featuring real-world athletes from football, basketball, and baseball. The platform grew into one of the most successful NFT applications in the sports sector, attracting millions of users and significant venture capital backing. But as the platform scaled, Ethereum’s well-documented limitations—high gas fees during peak periods, slower transaction throughput, and rising operational costs—became increasingly difficult to ignore.
Julia’s announcement positions the Solana migration as the natural next step in Sorare’s evolution. “We are upgrading,” he stated plainly, framing the transition not as a rebuke of Ethereum but as a strategic decision to deliver a better user experience. Solana’s architecture, which prioritizes high-speed transactions and significantly lower fees, aligns more closely with the real-time, high-volume trading activity that defines Sorare’s fantasy sports marketplace.
Why Solana Won the Bidding
According to Julia, the decision to select Solana came after extensive evaluation of multiple blockchain networks. Solana currently leads in several key performance metrics that matter for Sorare’s business model: it generates more revenue per application than most competitors, boasts a growing base of daily active users, and supports a rapidly expanding developer community. The network’s ability to handle thousands of transactions per second at fractions of a cent makes it particularly well-suited for Sorare’s trading card ecosystem, where users frequently buy, sell, and transfer digital assets.
The migration encompasses more than ten individual Sorare games, representing the platform’s entire portfolio of fantasy sports offerings. This is not a partial relocation or a test deployment—it is a comprehensive transition that signals Sorare’s conviction in Solana’s long-term viability as a foundation for consumer-facing blockchain applications.
Ethereum Is Not Being Left Behind
Crucially, Julia went out of his way to emphasize that Sorare remains committed to the Ethereum ecosystem. Rather than severing ties entirely, the company is adopting a multichain approach that maintains Ethereum connectivity through the Base network—a Layer-2 scaling solution built on top of Ethereum. This strategy allows existing Ethereum-based Sorare users to continue interacting with the platform without being forced to adopt Solana wallets or infrastructure immediately.
The multichain vision extends beyond just Ethereum and Solana. Julia indicated that Sorare is actively monitoring emerging high-performance blockchains like Sui and Aptos, suggesting the platform’s long-term architecture will be chain-agnostic. This approach reflects a growing recognition in the broader crypto industry that the future likely involves multiple specialized blockchains rather than a single dominant network.
A Mirror of Broader Industry Trends
Sorare’s migration is far from an isolated incident. Throughout 2025, several prominent crypto protocols have made similar calculations, weighing the trade-offs between network loyalty and operational efficiency. Companies like 1inch and The Graph have also explored multi-chain deployments, seeking the optimal balance between decentralization, speed, and cost. The pattern suggests that the era of single-chain maximalism is giving way to a more pragmatic, utility-driven approach to blockchain infrastructure.
For the NFT sector specifically, the timing of Sorare’s announcement is significant. November 2025 has been a brutal month for NFT trading, with global sales volumes plunging to approximately $320 million—a 50% drop from October’s $629 million and the lowest monthly total of the year. The NFT market cap has shrunk by 66% from its January 2025 peak of $9.2 billion, settling at roughly $3.1 billion. Active weekly traders have dwindled to approximately 19,600, a 96% decline from the 2022 peak of 529,000.
In this environment of contraction and retrenchment, platforms like Sorare are making strategic bets on infrastructure that can weather the downturn and position them for the next growth cycle. Solana’s lower costs and higher throughput could help Sorare maintain user engagement even as the broader NFT market struggles with reduced liquidity and diminished speculative interest.
Why This Matters
Sorare’s Solana migration represents one of the most significant blockchain infrastructure decisions in the NFT space in 2025. It demonstrates that even well-established Ethereum projects are willing to make bold infrastructure changes when the business case is compelling. The multichain strategy Julia outlined—maintaining Ethereum support via Base while building on Solana—could become a template for other platforms navigating the complex trade-offs between network effects, performance, and user experience. For the NFT industry, which is desperately searching for sustainable business models amid a deep market slump, Sorare’s willingness to evolve its technical foundation may be exactly the kind of pragmatism the sector needs to survive and eventually thrive again.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. NFT investments carry significant risk, including the potential for total loss. Always conduct your own research before making any investment decisions in the cryptocurrency or digital asset markets.
been playing sorare since 2020 and the gas fees were brutal during peak nfl season. glad they finally made the move, solana just makes more sense for this kind of app
calling it an upgrade while leaving the chain that built your company is quite the PR spin. the base integration is a nice consolation prize though
^ tbh six years of loyalty to eth is more than most projects manage. the base bridge keeps eth users in the game
ten games migrating over. that is a massive engineering effort. wonder if they will stagger them or do a big bang switch
julia had to do this. competitors on solana were eating their lunch on speed and cost. survival move