Sony Wants to Launch a Stablecoin and So Does Everyone Else

The financial arm of Japanese tech giant Sony is reportedly preparing to issue its own U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin targeted squarely at American gamers and entertainment consumers. The token will serve as a payment option for PlayStation games, anime streams, in-game purchases, and subscriptions across Sony’s digital platforms.

By partnering with U.S.-based digital asset firm Bastion for issuance, custody, and reserve management, Sony aims to sidestep the high fees and delays tied to traditional credit card processing. The stablecoin could debut as early as fiscal 2026, pending regulatory approvals, according to Nikkei. 

Synergies between crypto and the gaming industry have been explored in the past, as both Steam and Microsoft previously accepted bitcoin, and Microsoft eventually brought back crypto payments more generally, including stablecoins. Additionally, bitcoin has long had a role in the market for a variety of in-game items, from World of Warcraft gold to Counter-Strike skins.

This latest move fits into Sony’s growing blockchain footprint, including potential integrations with its Ethereum layer-2 network, Soneium, a separate venture to handle high-volume transactions for gaming and media, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

However, this stablecoin push underscores a broader pattern in crypto: established players building their own walled gardens rather than linking into open networks.

Everybody Wants to Rule the World

Bitcoin emerged in 2009 as an open, permissionless system monetary layer where anyone could join the network and build their own wallets, applications, and other integrations. Developers, merchants, and users were meant to converge on this new, decentralized financial protocol with no gatekeepers or trusted third parties. Instead, the rush is on for proprietary stablecoins, with incumbents chasing the dominance of Tether and Circle’s USDT and USDC, which together hold over $250 billion in circulation.

The move from Sony aligns with recent U.S. legislative pushes like the GENIUS Act, which sets clearer rules for stablecoin providers and has encouraged more institutional entries. The growing roster of corporations that are diving in, often prioritizing control over collaboration, includes:

• JPMorgan Chase and Citi issuing various forms of tokenized deposits
• Stripe building out their own controversial stablecoin-focused blockchain, known as Tempo
• Trump-affiliated World Liberty Financial issuing their USD1 stablecoin, which is at the heart of corruption allegations associated with the pardon of a former crypto exchange CEO
• PayPal rolling out their PYUSD stablecoin and aunching their own blockchain-esque network called PayPal World
• Visa and Mastercard experimenting with stablecoin settlement on their traditional rails
• Cloudflare launching their stablecoin for AI agents
• Google Cloud building a payment infrastructure for AI agents via existing stablecoins
• Klarna announcing itself as the first company to issue a stablecoin on Tempo

This list barely scratches the surface, but the trend is clear. Banks, fintechs, and tech firms alike see stablecoins and related technologies as a way to increase control and profits rather than usher in a new age of decentralized finance (DeFi).

Of course, Facebook’s (now Meta) previous attempt fits the mold too. In 2019, it unveiled Libra (later called Diem), a basket-backed stablecoin meant to span borders and billions of users. Regulators pounced, citing risks to U.S. dollar hegemony and money laundering.

David Marcus, who helmed Libra/Diem, stands out as a contrarian in the current environment. After leaving Meta, he co-founded Lightspark, a Bitcoin-focused startup emphasizing the Lightning Network (and more recently Spark) for scalable, decentralized payments. Marcus argues that only Bitcoin’s neutral, open design can deliver crypto’s full promise, as without it, we’re just swapping one set of middlemen for another.

And Marcus has a point. If every entity spins up its own token silo, the financial landscape fragments further, entrenching traditional institutions instead of dissolving them. Bitcoin offers a shared foundation for value transfer, but adoption stalls when the allure of proprietary coins, whether stablecoins or free-floating cryptocurrencies, proves too tempting. Until that shifts, decentralization remains more of a marketing term than what’s developing in reality.