The trouble began early Tuesday when Sony froze two popular memecoins, Aibo and Toro. This move cost investors thousands of dollars.
At around 4 a.m. London time, users in Soneium’s Discord began reporting that they could no longer trade the tokens.
On Blockscout’s Soneium explorer , a tool for tracking blockchain activity, both coins were labeled “Forbidden,” with their transaction data completely wiped. The reason? Sony claims the coins violated its intellectual property (IP) rights. Aibo, named after Sony’s robotic dogs, had reached a market value of $2.7 million, while Toro, referencing Sony’s cat mascot Toro Inoue, had traded as high as $1.1 million.
“Measures were put in place to safeguard the rights of IP holders,” a spokesperson for Sony Block Solutions Labs (BSL), the firm behind Soneium, told DL News . “In cases where Sony’s IP was used without authorization, swift action was necessary to uphold our mission of protecting creators’ rights.”
The web 2 vs. web 3 culture clash playing out in @soneium ‘s Discord is striking… and maybe a sign of things to come.
The golden rule of building brand trust is to ‘fail in favour of your customers/users’ and that’s not happening here.
Soneium froze two memecoins for… pic.twitter.com/t8AixAnNuG
— Operator (@operator_xyz) January 14, 2025
A Unique Approach to Memecoins
Most blockchains, like Solana , embrace memecoins. Even if they parody copyrighted material because the viral buzz can bring more users to the network. But Sony is marching to the beat of its drum, prioritizing IP protection over potential memecoin mania.
This approach highlights Soneium’s centralized nature, allowing Sony to freeze any token at will—a stark contrast to decentralized blockchains, where shutting down a coin is nearly impossible due to anonymity and the lack of central authority.
Sony’s L2 just showed us something wild about OP Stack censorship resistance:
Their attempt to block “unapproved” tokens spectacularly backfired in less than 24 hours after launch.
Here’s exactly what went down 🧵 pic.twitter.com/Pl3ipcAtvD
— f(gautham)💤 (@gauthamzzz) January 14, 2025
Critics in the Soneium Discord accused Sony of “rugging” investors—a term that refers to a crypto project pulling the plug on its token. Often crashing its value to zero. While Sony didn’t profit from the freeze, the effect was the same: investors lost out big time.
A Crackdown with a Grace Period
Soneium’s crackdown caught users off guard, leaving many scratching their heads. In response, Sony BSL announced plans to implement a grace period for future blacklisting decisions. Developers will be warned. Also, given clear reasons and offered a chance to make adjustments before any tokens are frozen.
While Soneium aims to protect creators’ rights and foster fair profit-sharing, its centralized control is leaving some DeFi diehards feeling like fish out of water.
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