Sony doubles down on Soneium after first year of mainnet activity

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Sony Group Corp. made a follow-on concern successful Startale Group, deepening its engagement successful the Soneium blockchain astir a twelvemonth aft the network’s mainnet launch.

In a Thursday announcement sent to Cointelegraph, Startale disclosed an further concern of $13 cardinal from the Sony Innovation Fund. The backing circular came aft Soneium moved from testnet experimentation into unrecorded operation, allowing Sony to observe however the web performed nether real-world conditions.

Data from Soneium’s nationalist artifact explorer shows the web has processed astir 524 cardinal transactions since its mainnet motorboat successful January 2025. Over the aforesaid period, Nansen information shows Avalanche and Algorand recorded 442 cardinal and 383 cardinal transactions, respectively. Transaction counts unsocial bash not bespeak idiosyncratic adoption oregon economical activity.

The caller concern increases Sony’s vulnerability aft observing post-launch web activity, portion maintaining a semipermanent attack to its blockchain strategy.

Investment determination influenced by post-launch performance

A Startale spokesperson told Cointelegraph that Sony’s determination was informed by Soneium’s post-launch performance. This includes the transaction milestone and the fig of wallets reaching 5.4 million.

“This ecosystem growth, combined with the spot of the ongoing collaboration done Sony Block Solutions Labs, reflects the advancement that underpins Sony’s continued investment,” the spokesperson told Cointelegraph.

The spokesperson said the concern does not alteration Sony’s operational oregon governance relation and that the concern operation remains unchanged.

Startale besides said its Startale USD (USDSC) stablecoin is unrecorded connected Soneium’s mainnet. The token is built connected M0’s level and is designed to relation arsenic a autochthonal colony furniture crossed applications and payments connected the network.

Startale declined to disclose valuation details for the follow-on round, describing the concern arsenic the archetypal adjacent of its Series A.

From testnet experimentation to unrecorded infrastructure

Sony and Startale archetypal announced Soneium successful August 2024 arsenic an Ethereum furniture 2 designed to pull developers crossed entertainment, gaming and user applications. On Aug. 23, 2024, the task was positioned arsenic Sony’s astir nonstop determination into blockchain infrastructure

The effort expanded days aboriginal with the launch of the Minato nationalist testnet and the Soneium Spark developer incubator. On Aug. 28, 2024, the incubator offered backing and enactment from Sony subsidiaries and Web3 partners, signaling a hands-on attack alternatively than a passive investment.

Soneium’s mainnet went unrecorded successful January 2025, integrating non-fungible token (NFT)-based instrumentality engagement tools tied to Sony’s amusement businesses. On Jan. 14, 2025, the motorboat drew mixed reactions aft the web restricted definite contracts implicit alleged intelligence spot (IP) violations.

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