Soneium has chosen OP Enterprise’s fully managed service to run its tokenized intellectual property initiatives, with OP Labs handling the underlying chain operations under a contractual 99.9% monthly uptime target. OP Labs will manage the sequencer, node infrastructure, monitoring, software upgrades and incident response, while Soneium retains full ownership of the chain and control over its roadmap, technology choices and product direction. The arrangement was announced on Sept. 30 during an event tied to Korea Blockchain Week in Seoul. In a statement, Soneium said it had entered the fully managed tier of OP Enterprise but that its own engineers would continue to work on the network alongside the service provider. The service-level agreement specifies the uptime target and provides for 24/7 on-call incident response, though the figure is presented as a contractual benchmark rather than a historical performance metric. Yuji Kumagai, head of Soneium Protocol, said the company continues to shape its technology independently, and that OP Enterprise’s support enables faster progress on Onchain Entertainment, beginning with tokenized IP. OP Labs CEO Jing Wang described the partnership as support for a team already building on the OP Stack, adding that the service would keep operations running smoothly so developers could focus on product delivery. The OP Enterprise offering, which includes deployment, operations and dedicated support for organizations using the OP Stack, is built on the same framework that powers Soneium. Tokenized IP marks the latest step in Soneium’s entertainment-focused blockchain work, which has previously included licensed anime collectibles. In March 2025, crypto.news reported that YOAKE and OpenSea launched licensed anime NFTs on the network based on “The Seven Deadly Sins,” drawing from the film “The Seven Deadly Sins: Cursed by Light.” The collection, priced at 0.002 ETH per NFT with unlimited minting for 72 hours, featured a scene of characters Meliodas and Zeldris exchanging vows with chalices. Startale supported YOAKE’s acquisition of the intellectual property used for that release, and at the time, YOAKE executive Sota Moriyama indicated plans for further anime-themed collectibles to boost fan engagement with blockchain applications. The earlier release involved digital collectibles tied to an existing entertainment property; the September announcement frames tokenized IP as the starting point for Soneium’s current development focus. Sony’s involvement includes a $13 million investment in Startale Group through the Sony Innovation Fund, disclosed on Jan. 29, 2026, bringing total disclosed funding to $20 million at that point. Startale, originally part of the Astar Foundation, serves as technical infrastructure provider for Soneium, and Sony Block Solutions Labs and Startale co-developed the Ethereum layer-2 network using Optimism’s OP Stack. Since the mainnet launch in January 2025, Soneium has processed over 500 million transactions and supported more than 250 live decentralized applications, figures cited in the funding announcement. On April 28, Startale announced plans to integrate optional privacy features into its consumer app via Privacy Boost, developed by Sunnyside Labs. The integration would allow users to shield assets, make private transfers and use privacy-preserving payment functions while retaining control of their wallet keys, combining zero-knowledge proofs with trusted execution environments and supporting selective auditing for compliance. The companies also outlined payment functions intended to support future crypto card use. Separately, Sony Bank is exploring a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin for use in gaming and anime operations, with issuance potentially beginning in fiscal 2026. A Dec. 1, 2025 report indicated the proposal, which would allow payments and settlements without relying on traditional card networks, could reduce transaction fees. The bank had applied in October 2025 for a national crypto bank charter through Connectia Trust, a move that has drawn opposition from the Independent Community Bankers of America, which warned that the structure could weaken the separation between banking and commerce and disadvantage community banks.