Fogo Launches Public Testnet: Fastest Layer 1 Blockchain Sets New Bar for Onchain Trading
CAYMAN ISLANDS, July 22, 2025 (Bitwire) -- Today, Fogo, an L1 blockchain enabling the greatest onchain trading experience with unprecedented speed, near-instant finality, and scalability, officially announced the launch of its public Testnet, introducing the fastest Layer 1 chain to date. Created for traders by a team of veteran traders from Citadel, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and Jump, Fogo is the first Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) chain to feature native multi-local consensus and enshrined dApps built directly into the protocol, and will become the first live implementation of the Firedancer validator client in its purest form.
'With the launch of this Testnet, we're officially rewriting the standard for what DeFi has to offer,' said Douglas Colkitt, Initial Fogo Contributor and formerly at Citadel. 'We've rebuilt the trading stack from the ground up to build upon what Hyperliquid has made possible and bring it to the SVM ecosystem. With vertical integration, real-time latency, and fee-free execution, Fogo gives top traders and builders a new performance frontier that's fully onchain and fully prepared to deliver the next generation of performance-first blockchains.'
Unlike most blockchain projects chasing speed with compromise, Fogo was engineered from the ground up to deliver institutional-grade execution without sacrificing decentralization or composability. This, combined with native infrastructure and vertical integration, positions Fogo as the first true performance-focused alternative to Hyperliquid.
Key features and differentiators of Fogo include:
'Fogo represents a new wave of performance-maximized infrastructure,' said Kain Warwick, founder of Infinex and Fogo partner. 'For traders who care about execution, latency, and fairness, this is a major milestone and the evolution that DeFi desperately needs.'
Fogo's public Testnet launch comes on the heels of a community-first funding round via Echo in January 2025, where the protocol raised $8M in just under two hours. Crypto investor Cobie called it 'a first' for Echo deals, praising Fogo's token distribution that favors the community over insiders. A private Testnet launched on March 31, 2025, following a Devnet rollout in January.
The Fogo Testnet is an open invitation for developers, traders, and protocol builders to start experimenting with its vertically integrated architecture. The network is built to handle institutional-scale throughput with unmatched responsiveness, merging the speed and determinism of TradFi with the open, decentralized ethos of crypto.
The Fogo Testnet is now live. Learn more about Fogo, access Testnet, and get signed up for future updates at https://www.fogo.io/.
About Fogo
Fogo is the fastest L1 blockchain designed to deliver the greatest onchain trading experience. With its unique architecture and Firedancer implementation, the chain offers low latency, near-instant finality, and unparalleled scalability. As a purpose-built blockchain, Fogo incorporates a carefully constructed, vertically integrated tech stack. This includes a curated validator set, native price feeds, an enshrined DEX, and multi-local consensus validators to create a truly differentiated trading environment. Backed by a team of trading and engineering experts and driven by a vision to redefine what's possible, Fogo is setting the standard for high-performance blockchain infrastructure, perfectly balancing the decentralization vs performance tradeoff whilst maximizing performance and maintaining global censorship resistance.
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