Sony-backed Ethereum Layer 2 network Soneium announced on October 26, 2026, that it will issue a native $SONEIUM token and pivot from general-purpose infrastructure to an entertainment intellectual property (IP) tokenization platform. The network, which hosts 250+ applications and has processed o...
"We want to connect entertainment creators, IP holders, builders, fans, and investors through an on-chain economy." — Sota Watanabe, CEO, Startale Group / Soneium
Sony-backed Ethereum Layer 2 network Soneium announced on October 26, 2026, that it will issue a native $SONEIUM token and pivot from general-purpose infrastructure to an entertainment intellectual property (IP) tokenization platform. The network, which hosts 250+ applications and has processed over 500 million transactions since its January 2025 mainnet launch, holds $7.72 million in DeFi total value locked (TVL) — a fraction of the $31.7 billion global recorded music industry it aims to serve.
Soneium's announcement arrives at a moment when earlier entertainment tokenization models have largely failed. Royal.io (raised $71 million) shut down in late 2024. Opulous trades at $0.000197 with a $98,570 market cap. Story Protocol, which raised $134 million to build an IP tokenization Layer 1, rebranded as DATA Foundation and pivoted to AI training data. Of the first-generation music NFT and royalty tokenization platforms that launched between 2021 and 2023, none operates at meaningful scale in 2026. The question is whether Sony's corporate backing and an Asian entertainment IP pipeline change the calculus — or repeat it.
Global recorded music revenues reached $31.7 billion in 2025, growing 6.4% year-over-year, according to the IFPI Global Music Report 2026. Streaming accounted for $22 billion (69.6% of total revenue), with 837 million paid subscription accounts globally. Spotify alone paid $11 billion to rights holders in 2025.
Against this backdrop, the blockchain-native entertainment IP tokenization sector remains negligible. Soneium's TVL stands at $7.72 million, according to DefiLlama. The broader blockchain-enabled media royalty market totaled approximately $598 million in 2025, per Growth Market Reports, representing less than 2% of the music industry alone. The music NFT market, after peaking in speculative interest during 2021-2022, contracted to approximately $4.8 billion in notional value — though actual liquidity and trading volumes are substantially lower.
The Eurozone reported €14.2 billion in tokenized IP assets as of 2026, a 310% increase from 2024, though this figure encompasses patents, trademarks, and industrial IP far beyond entertainment content.
Soneium's IP tokenization framework employs three functional layers:
IP Registry: Provides timestamped records of ownership. Each IP asset registered on-chain receives an immutable provenance record linking the original creator, current rights holder, and any licensing terms.
IP Graph: Maps relationships between original works, derivatives, and collaborations. In entertainment, where a single piece of content may generate dozens of derivative works (remixes, covers, samples, adaptations), this layer tracks the relational structure.
IP Execution Layer: Uses smart contracts, built around the ERC-8432 standard, to route royalty and licensing payments according to rights holder rules.
These layers support three tokenized product types:
Soneium Portal will serve as the primary interface for IP discovery, issuance, and investment.
Entertainment IP tokenization has been attempted through four distinct models since 2021. Their outcomes diverge sharply.
| Model | Representative Platform(s) | Regulatory Status | Funding Raised | Current Status (Oct 2026) | |---|---|---|---|---| | DeFi-Native Royalty Tokens | Royal.io, Opulous | Unregistered; SEC scrutiny | $126M combined | Royal.io shut down (2024); Opulous market cap $98K | | IP Layer 1 Chain | Story Protocol | Token-based governance | $134M (a16z led) | Rebranded to DATA Foundation; pivoted to AI; retired own chain | | Corporate-Backed L2 | Soneium (Sony) | TBD; no token issued yet | Sony Group-backed | $7.72M TVL; 250+ apps; $SONEIUM token announced | | Regulated Securities | SongVest, AnotherBlock | SEC Reg A+ / EU MiFID | Undisclosed | Active; small scale; from $99-$100 minimum |
The DeFi-native approach moved fastest but collided with securities regulation. The IP-specific Layer 1 attracted the most venture capital but lacked product-market fit. The corporate-backed approach moves slowest but carries distribution advantages. The regulated securities approach survives but has not scaled.
The 2021-2023 cycle of entertainment tokenization platforms produced high valuations and minimal durable infrastructure.
Royal.io (founded by DJ 3LAU and JD Ross) raised $55 million in Series A funding and built retail-facing music royalty token infrastructure. Artists including Nas, Diplo, and The Chainsmokers listed fractional royalty tokens. The SEC's escalating scrutiny of fractional-rights NFT products in 2022-2023 forced Royal.io to scale back primary offerings in 2024; the platform shut down in late 2024. Its existing smart contracts continue distributing USDC royalties to token holders independent of platform operations.
Opulous (OPUL), a music NFT platform built on Algorand, offered DeFi loans against future royalties. As of August 2026, OPUL trades at $0.000197 with a market cap of $98,570 and zero 24-hour trading volume, according to CoinMarketCap. The platform operates on multiple chains (Ethereum, BNB, Algorand, Arbitrum) but generates negligible activity.
Story Protocol, backed by $134 million from Andreessen Horowitz, launched as a programmable IP Layer 1 in 2025. Its $IP token peaked at $14.78 in September 2025. By 2026, the project held just $25 million TVL with approximately $17 in daily fee revenue. Co-founder Jason Zhao departed. The project rebranded as DATA Foundation, migrated $IP to $DATA 1:1, pivoted to AI training data infrastructure, received a $30 million investment, and retired its own chain in favor of migrating to Sui.
According to Chartlex campaign data across 2,400+ artist campaigns, zero artists who pursued an NFT-first strategy in 2021-2022 are running revenue-positive Web3 campaigns in 2026.
Two platforms operating under traditional securities frameworks have outlasted their DeFi-native competitors, though neither has achieved significant scale.
SongVest operates under SEC Regulation A+ qualification, issuing fractional music royalty securities called SongShares. Minimum investment is $100. The Reg A+ framework subjects SongVest to SEC oversight but provides legal clarity that Royal.io lacked.
AnotherBlock operates under EU regulatory frameworks and has tokenized royalty streams for tracks by Rihanna and The Weeknd on Ethereum. Minimum investment starts at €99. A September 2024 partnership with Polytrade expanded distribution to institutional and DeFi participants.
Both platforms remain active in 2026 and continue issuing new offerings. Their survival suggests that regulatory compliance, rather than DeFi composability, determines longevity in entertainment IP tokenization. Neither has disclosed TVL or cumulative investment volume publicly.
Soneium's most concrete IP tokenization activity involves its partnership with DayOneDream, announced during Korea Blockchain Week 2026 in Seoul.
DayOneDream manages K-pop acts BTOB, Lee Chae Yeon, MEMI, and 2F. Its WAVIST platform, which previously operated on Story Protocol's chain, will migrate to Soneium to put concert and content IP on-chain as tokenized assets.
In May 2026, WAVIST completed what the companies describe as "the full lifecycle of a tokenized IP bond issued to finance K-pop IP, from issuance through final redemption and burning." This represents one of the few documented end-to-end tokenized entertainment bond cycles in the industry.
The first IP Token on Soneium is based on the character IP Moriusa from Tokyo Super State Holdings. Additional IP tokens will target K-pop concert royalties.
WAVIST's migration from Story Protocol to Soneium itself underscores the instability of entertainment tokenization infrastructure: as Story pivoted to AI, its entertainment clients had to relocate.
Multiple research firms provide divergent estimates for the blockchain-in-entertainment market, reflecting methodological differences:
| Source | 2026 Estimate | Projected 2035 | |---|---|---| | Credence Research | $868.5M | $3.33B | | Mordor Intelligence | $4.46B | Not specified | | Growth Market Reports (royalties only) | $598M (2025) | $5.21B (2034) |
The blockchain-enabled media royalty market specifically — the segment most relevant to Soneium's IP Vaults and IP Token Bonds — sits at roughly $600 million, growing at a 27.2% CAGR according to Growth Market Reports.
The asset tokenization market overall is estimated at $2.1 trillion in 2026, according to Grand View Research, with intellectual property cited as the fastest-growing segment. However, the vast majority of this figure comprises financial instruments, real estate, and commodities — not entertainment royalties.
Soneium's corporate-backed model addresses some first-generation failures but faces structural challenges that the announcement does not resolve:
Securities classification. The $SONEIUM token has no disclosed TGE date, total supply, or tokenomics. IP Vaults and IP Token Bonds that provide "exposure to royalty revenue assets" and are "backed by entertainment company revenues" closely resemble investment contracts. Soneium has not disclosed its regulatory strategy for jurisdictions where these products may constitute securities.
TVL-to-ambition ratio. At $7.72 million TVL against a stated mission to tokenize entertainment IP from a parent company (Sony Group) with $85 billion in revenue, the current on-chain footprint is negligible. The 500 million transaction count, while substantial, reflects general-purpose L2 activity, not IP-specific usage.
Revenue leakage problem. In the traditional music industry, streaming platforms pay labels, labels pay publishers, publishers pay songwriters — a chain that blockchain proponents argue takes 6-18 months and captures 40-60% of gross revenue in intermediary costs. Blockchain-based distribution can reduce settlement to 24 hours and cut intermediary costs by up to 85%, per industry estimates. However, these efficiency gains require major rights holders (labels, publishers, collecting societies) to adopt new infrastructure — a step none have taken at scale.
First-mover failure pattern. Every entertainment tokenization platform that launched between 2021 and 2023 with over $50 million in funding has either shut down, pivoted, or contracted to negligible activity. Soneium's $9.38 million TVL (at its peak) is modest even by L2 standards.
Soneium's entry into entertainment IP tokenization is the most resource-backed attempt since Story Protocol's $134 million raise — and it arrives after Story's pivot demonstrated that venture funding and technical infrastructure do not guarantee product-market fit in this sector. Sony Group's distribution network (PlayStation, Sony Music, Sony Pictures) provides a theoretical content pipeline that pure-crypto projects lacked. But theoretical content pipelines are what every failed entertainment tokenization project promised.
The data points in opposing directions. The blockchain-enabled media royalty market is growing at 27.2% annually. Tokenized IP in the Eurozone grew 310% in two years. WAVIST has completed at least one full bond lifecycle. Against this: $7.72 million TVL, no disclosed tokenomics, an unresolved securities classification question, and a graveyard of predecessors that collectively raised over $300 million and delivered near-zero durable value to users.
The gap between the $31.7 billion music industry and the sub-$10 million on-chain entertainment sector is not a market opportunity waiting to be captured. It is a measure of how far the infrastructure, regulation, and rights-holder adoption must advance before tokenized entertainment IP moves beyond pilot projects. Soneium has Sony's name. Whether it has Sony's commitment — and a regulatory path — remains to be demonstrated.