Sony’s banking division has applied to obtain a national banking charter that would allow its subsidiary Conesia Trust to engage in “certain specified activities related to virtual currencies,” according to the company’s filing.
According to a filing from Sony Bank, the company plans to issue a USD-pegged stablecoin in the new trust, maintain corresponding reserve assets, and provide custody and digital asset management services.
There is a growing list of crypto companies applying for crypto bank authorization from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, including payment processor Stripe, crypto exchange Coinbase, stablecoin issuer Paxos Trust, and USDC issuer Circle.
So far, only Anchorage Digital Bank has been able to obtain a new, fully approved OCC Charter. However, there were some issues that resulted in the company receiving a cease and desist order from the OCC in 2022. The order was later withdrawn in August of this year as the regulatory environment for crypto assets changed significantly in a direction more favorable to the industry.
Following the passage of the US GENIUS Act, which formally established the regulatory framework for stablecoin issuance and trading, leading companies in the financial and technology industries are rapidly entering the stablecoin race. Stablecoins serve as the equivalent of a digital dollar in markets where dollars are limited or inaccessible, as they allow users to enter and exit digital asset transactions and send money abroad without requiring direct access to dollars.
Stablecoins have become a very lucrative business for large issuers such as Tether and Circle. The total market capitalization of the sector reaches $312 billion, and Myriad users— Prediction Market Developed by decryption‘s parent company Dastan currently believes the market has a 68% chance of growing to $360 billion by February 2026. That way, Sony will enter the market at the right time.
Sony Bank is owned by the multinational conglomerate Sony Group, which also owns Sony Interactive Entertainment, the maker of the PlayStation video game system. However, the two businesses are separate and within a portfolio of hundreds of companies and subsidiaries.
The company did not immediately respond to requests for comment forms. decryption.
“Trust Bank intends, in the early stages of its operations, to engage in certain digital asset activities that the OCC has previously determined are permissible under existing national bank legal authorities,” the company wrote in its filing. “This includes issuing dollar-pegged stablecoins and maintaining corresponding reserve assets, providing non-fiduciary digital asset custody services, and providing asset management services in a fiduciary capacity to certain affiliates.”
This is not the first time a Sony company has shown interest in cryptocurrencies and blockchain networks. Last year, Sony Group partnered with cryptography company Startale Group to launch Soneiun, an Ethereum layer 2 network, in January. The project has been in the works for a long time since it was first teased in 2023.
