78-year-old Japanese electronics giant Sony, the maker of PlayStation, is the latest legacy megacorp to explore stablecoin issuance. Sony plans to issue a stablecoin in the United States as early as the fiscal year 2026.
Sources familiar with the matter told Nikkei that Sony Bank, the online banking subsidiary of the Sony Financial Group, is planning to create a U.S.-based unit to operate the stablecoin business. It applied for a national trust bank charter with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in October and has teamed up with U.S.-headquartered stablecoin startup Bastion. Bastion will provide the necessary infrastructure for the stablecoin project.
Sony expects the stablecoin to be used by U.S. customers to pay for PlayStation games, subscriptions, anime, and other content within its ecosystem. Targeting US clients, who account for around 30% of Sony Group’s external sales, the new offering is intended to supplement existing payment methods, such as credit cards, helping slash transaction fees paid to card networks, the report stated.
Following President Donald Trump’s signing into law of the landmark stablecoin-regulating legislation known as the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act in July, a rush of power players in the finance and tech industries have forayed into the stablecoin sector.
Stablecoins have become a very profitable business for the leading issuers, such as Tether and Circle. The sector’s total market capitalization stands at $310 billion, according to CoinGecko data.
Notably, this is not the first time Sony has made a push into crypto and blockchain. In January, Sony Block Solutions Labs partnered with crypto tech company Startale Group to debut its general-purpose Ethereum L2 platform dubbed Soneium on the mainnet. This blockchain ecosystem aimed to cater to content creators, fans, and communities, further integrating crypto into Sony’s ecosystem.
Source: https://zycrypto.com/playstation-goes-crypto-sony-reportedly-set-to-launch-u-s-dollar-pegged-stablecoin-next-year/
