Sony Unveils Soneium Mainnet, Faces Criticism from Crypto Community on Launch Day

Sony Block Solutions Labs, a collaboration between Sony Group and Web3 infrastructure provider Startale, has officially launched the blockchain platform Soneium. However, asset-freezing concerns and rug-pull allegations from the crypto community raise questions about the platform’s centralization.

Soneium Blockchain Goes Mainnet After Successful Testnet Phase

Soneium’s development follows a period of successful testing, during which the platform saw 15 million active wallets and over 47 million transactions.

“Today, we launch Soneium Mainnet to open the next chapter of our roadmap. Our ultimate goal is to realize the open internet that transcends boundaries by connecting cultural differences and onboarding people onchain,” Sony said.

Soneium aims to provide practical applications across entertainment, gaming, and finance.

“Our vision with Soneium is simple but ambitious: to build an open internet where creativity flows freely and fairly, and to empower the next wave of users to embrace web3,” Sony Block Solutions Labs Director Sota Watanabe said.

According to Blockscout data, the Soneium blockchain now has 6.8 million total blocks and an average block time of 2 seconds. The platform’s total contracts hit 7.3 million.

Soneium Testnet Statistics. Source: BlockScout

Sony first announced the development of its public blockchain, “Soneium,” in August 2024. The team launched the testnet “Soneium Minato” after the announcement.

Developers have already built a wide range of applications on Soneium Minato, including 32 projects selected from more than 1,700 submissions to the “Soneium Spark” incubation program. Independent creators have also contributed numerous other apps, with a mix of entertainment, gaming, NFT, social, and financial apps available.

Despite being just day one of the launch, Soneium has already garnered some harsh comments from the crypto community. Several X users have pointed out that Soneium can “freeze” any assets they want, citing their terms of service.

“Soneium is literally a fed chain. They can freeze ANY assets they want. I know that other centralized L2s vaguely state in their terms of service that they can block EOA’s at the sequencer level… But Sony’s ToS imply that they can just nuke a smart contract off the fucking network lmao,” crypto expert Pop Punk wrote on X.

Another X user echoed similar sentiments.

“You know what is not funny. Soneium can freeze ANY assets they want,” the user said.

There were also reports of Soneium rugging users.

“Soneium rugged users >$100k in ETH on launch day. I’ve never seen anything like it. Want to be a permissioned chain? fine. Instead of whitelisting developers, they chose to instead freeze contracts (effectively rugging users) Amazing launch,” said crypto expert Kawz.

It appears Soneium has some challenges to sort out for the blockchain to be widely accepted.

Soneium also introduced the Fan Marketing Platform today. It is a service developed by SNFT Inc. as a “one-stop support” for companies implementing NFT initiatives, from execution to analysis.

In addition, the S.BLOX crypto exchange services will support creators and brands in unlocking new opportunities. Sony’s foray into Web3 came after the 2023 acquisition of Japanese crypto exchange WhaleFin, which was then renamed to S.BLOX.

Moreover, Soneium recently partnered with Chainlink. As part of this collaboration, Soneium will implement Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol as its primary cross-chain infrastructure.