On January 13, 2025, the official launch of the Soneium mainnet took place, a cryptocurrency network created by the technology giant Sony. It functions as a second layer (L2) chain of Ethereum (ETH).

According to the statement from the Soneium account on X, this Sony cryptocurrency network would be focused on Web3 development, with more than 50 entertainment, gaming, non-fungible token (NFT) and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. 

The launch of Soneium occurs after almost six months of the deployment of its testnet in which they registered more than 14 million active addresses and more than 47 million transactions, according to the announcement. 

What's happening inside the Soneium network? 

Using the Soneium block explorer, it can be observed that a block is processed every 1 to 3 seconds, including a maximum of 7 transactions.

On the other hand, as of January 13, 2025, Soneium has 1,373 accounts created, of which 517 are active. An active account refers to a wallet or address on the Soneium network that has made a transaction or interaction within the ecosystem. 

It is prudent to mention that on-chain activity on this cryptocurrency network began in the first days of December, prior to the launch on January 13, which could mean that many of these active addresses were created by the team behind Soneium and other developers to test the correct operability of the network.  At the time of writing, the total number of accumulated transactions is almost 2 million. 

Soneium joins the Superchain 

The development team of this chain highlighted that Soneium takes advantage of “ OP Stack ” and that it is included in the “Superchain”, both tools developed by the Optimism Foundation.  

The “OP Stack” is a set of open-source tools and software for building Layer 2 solutions on Ethereum, while “ Superchain ” refers to an ecosystem of interconnected networks that share these technologies to improve scalability and interoperability. These networks include Optimism Mainnet, Base (one of the largest L2s on Ethereum), Unichain (the network of the Uniswap DEX), and others. 

This means that Soneium applications within this set of networks can interact with other OP chains, facilitating the creation of multi-chain applications and interoperability with other communities in the Optimism ecosystem. 

The arrival of Soneium was controversial 

The controversy revolves around Sony's alleged decision to implement restrictions on certain memecoins on its network and include them in a memecoin blacklist. 

According to user posts on social media network X, Soneium has faced criticism and backlash over the alleged blacklisting of memecoins, claiming that it affects decentralization and control over transactions on the network. 

Users have expressed their discontent particularly because this action was taken on the same day as Soneium's launch, which has caused a reaction of surprise and frustration among the community. Soneium has not yet communicated anything about the matter.