Sony Bank plans to issue a stablecoin in the U.S. as early as fiscal year 2026, with the aim of facilitating low-fee payments for Sony games and anime.
Sony Bank to issue stablecoin as new payment method for games and anime
As reported by Nikkei Asia, Sony Bank may issue a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar as early as fiscal year 2026. Sony Bank is a subsidiary of Sony Financial Holdings and is one of Japan’s largest online banks. The company applied for a banking license in the United States in October.
The bank’s parent company went public in September and became independent from the Sony Group. However, the company continues to support the group’s business development. The stablecoin project is one such vehicle, with Sony Group envisioning customers using USD-pegged tokens to pay for content such as games and anime within its ecosystem.
The Sony Group is a well-known name around the world, controlling several major media businesses, including Sony Interactive Entertainment, the creator of the PlayStation, and Sony Pictures Entertainment, the movie maker.
For the year ended March 2025, US customers accounted for 30% of the Group’s total sales to external customers. Multinational conglomerate Sony Bank now hopes that Sony Bank’s stablecoin will allow these users to initiate payments within the ecosystem using digital assets, reducing transaction fees paid to credit card companies.
The bank has partnered with Bastion, a US stablecoin infrastructure solutions provider, to support the project. “The bank plans to establish a subsidiary to handle stablecoin business,” the Nikkei newspaper noted.
Sony’s move comes months after President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act, which establishes a regulatory framework for stablecoins in the United States. These cryptocurrencies have recently gained momentum in other parts of the world as well. Hong Kong will implement stablecoin laws in August and is expected to grant issuer licenses next year. Japan issued its first yen coin in October.
Major European banks have come together to form a consortium to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin, aiming to go public in the second half of 2026 to take on the currently USD-dominated market. Cryptocurrencies tied to fiat currencies have experienced rapid growth over the past year, but suffered a slowdown last month as part of the overall downturn in the digital asset sector.
Below is a chart from DeFiLlama showing how the market capitalization of stablecoins has changed over the past few years.
Looks like the metric has dropped into sideways movement in recent weeks | Source: DeFiLlama
Stablecoin market capitalization set a new record of $309 billion in late October. Since then, this metric has decreased slightly to $306 billion. The two largest tokens in this space, USDT and USDC, alone account for about $261 billion of this figure.
bitcoin price
At the time of this writing, Bitcoin is trading around $86,700, down nearly 6% in the past 24 hours.
The price of the coin seems to have plunged | Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView
Featured image of Nikita Kostrikin on Unsplash.com, DeFiLlama.com, Charts on TradingView.com
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