Sony Adds $13M to Soneium Bet After Mainnet Reality Check

Ben Graham · 4 horas atrás

Rollups, privacy-focused or not, are a cornerstone of Ethereum. Without platforms like Arbitrum, Base, or Optimism, the Ethereum mainnet would still be struggling with high fees. This all changed when developers made it their primary objective to scale Ethereum by all means necessary.

Given the complexities of scaling the primary chain first, roll-ups were seen as a feasible option. As of late January 2026, Ethereum Layer 2s (L2s) managed over $41Bn worth of assets. In this fast-growing scene, Sony’s Soneium is a major player.

(Source: L2Beat)

Although it doesn’t have a native token, much like Base, Soneium is actively used by developers. It currently manages over $42 million worth of assets, of which nearly $4M have been minted natively.

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Sony Pours $13M to Soneium

Sony wants to see Soneium grow and possibly break into the top 10 largest layer-2s by total value locked (TVL). On January 29, 2026, the Sony Innovation Fund announced an additional $13M investment into Startale Group, the primary developer behind the layer-2. This funding comes roughly one year after the network went live.

The move follows Sony’s observation of how the chain handled real traffic, not just test runs. As history shows, big companies like Sony rarely double down unless the infrastructure holds. And numbers don’t lie. The fresh capital wasn’t just a blind bet. Instead, it was backed by some surprisingly strong growth metrics posted over the last year.

During this time, Soneium processed over 524M transactions. Behind this wave was real adoption. The number of active wallets crossed the 5.4M mark. At its peak, Soneium had over 250 live dapps.

Sony said the additional $13M is meant to scale “on-chain entertainment infrastructure.” Notably, Startale also launched its USDSC stablecoin on Soneium. If Sony ever rolls blockchain payments into entertainment or gaming, stablecoins will do the heavy lifting behind the scenes.

Plans are already in motion to use the stablecoin to settle payments directly. By moving PlayStation Network (PSN) and Sony Pictures transactions onto Soneium, they can bypass traditional banking fees and keep more revenue in-house.

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Why Now? What’s The Drive?

The investment by Sony is a solid signal that the big boys are confident that blockchain as a tech will be revolutionary. As such, Sony, like other major brands, is putting money on the line to protect its bottom line now. The move is also strategic: instead of separate payment systems for Sony Music, Sony Pictures, and PlayStation, Soneium acts as a single “clearing house” for all Sony properties globally.

Zoom out, and the timing fits a wider trend. Traditional companies now build crypto infrastructure quietly, then scale once the tech proves it works. Sony built Soneium with Startale to support entertainment, gaming, and digital ownership. That includes things like in‑game items, media rights, and payments.

From an intellectual property (IP)-perspective, this is critical because Sony owns some of the world’s most valuable intellectual property, including God of War and Spiderman. Soneium allows the entertainment giant to control how that IP is used in the digital world.

Interestingly, even with its deal with Startle, Sony did not change governance or control. It simply seeks to increase exposure now that the network has behaved as expected. This shows how institutions use crypto: they do not chase hype; they watch usage, wallet growth, and stability first. The fast growth in active wallets, a measure of real adoption, helps justify the extra funding.

This mirrors what other institutions do with Ethereum tokenization. Build slowly. Scale when risk drops. The bigger picture ties into ongoing work around Ethereum security developments. Large brands only build on networks they expect to last.

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