Sony's Blockchain Plans New Token and AI Royalties. Will It Recover? - Yahoo Finance
Sony-backed Soneium announced a new AI licensing system and cryptocurrency plans on October 26, as its blockchain applications lost 95% of deposits since May 2025.
Deposits in Soneium's decentralized finance applications have plummeted from $203 million in May 2025 to approximately $9.4 million, according to DefiLlama. Four major applications once held $159 million collectively but now contain just $1.5 million.
Despite processing 163,691 transactions in 24 hours, the network generated only $118 in revenue, revealing weak financial activity. Sony's blockchain venture has developed a system to register creative works on blockchain, allowing AI programs to check licensing conditions and arrange payments automatically.
AI Royalty System
Soneium plans to support ERC-8432, an Ethereum standard designed for machine-readable licensing. The company also aims to allow fans to invest in the Moriusa character franchise through tokens and has partnered with K-pop company DayOneDream for concert royalty investments.
We will help them fund their next work at a new scale.
Legal Battle
Sony Music is actively fighting AI companies over unpaid content, filing a lawsuit against AI music generator Udio in July. The lawsuit alleges infringement involving over 30,000 recordings, with potential damages exceeding $4.5 billion. Universal and Warner have already reached licensing agreements with Udio without blockchain technology.
Soneium has yet to name any AI company committed to its proposed licensing system, and its planned $SONEIUM token has no confirmed launch date. The critical question remains whether entertainment companies and AI developers will adopt this technology to reverse Soneium's financial decline.
Related
