Last year Sony made a low key acquisition of Amber Japan (formerly DeCurret), a local cryptocurrency exchange. Several news outlets reported that Sony plans to launch a crypto exchange, but Amber Japan continued to operate after Sony acquired it in August 2023. It was below the radar because the acquisition was via Sony subsidiary Quetta Web, which doesn’t appear to have a website. Today Amber Japan announced it is renaming to S.BLOX and revealed its Sony ownership.
S.BLOX said it upgraded the WhaleFin crypto offering in January and is further improving it. It plans to collaborate with various Sony Group businesses. However, it already offers a promotion deal for the customers of Nuro Mobile, the Sony mobile contract reseller. New signups to WhaleFin receive Yen 3,000 worth of Bitcoin, equivalent to $18.60. Nuro Mobile is part of Sony Network Communications.
Last year the same division invested in Startale Labs, the founder of the Astar Network, a Polkadot parachain. Additionally, it set up a joint venture with Startale to create a Sony blockchain, with plans to leverage the group’s intellectual properties across the metaverse. With its ownership of Sony Pictures, Music and PlayStations, the group has many brands it can deploy.
Meanwhile, Sony Bank is about to launch its Sony Bank Connect app to offer NFT entertainment rewards linked to financial products. It started pre-registering users for the web3 app two weeks ago. The group also provides an NFT marketplace, SNFT, where users can grade their NFTs.
The digital bank has been pretty active in the blockchain space. For example, it’s planning to issue stablecoins on the Polygon blockchain. In March it piloted a $1 million issuance of a green finance security token targeted at retail investors using dollars, having previously launched its own real estate token.
With so much intellectual property within Sony Group, one can envision how blockchain could pull together offerings from diverse parts of the group.
