Sony enters cryptocurrency market with acquisition of Amber Japan

Sony Group is entering the world of cryptocurrencies with the acquisition of Amber Japan, the Japanese subsidiary of Amber Group.

Amber Japan is a rebranding of Japanese cryptocurrency exchange DeCurrent, which Amber Group acquired in 2022.

The move comes as Sony attempts to diversify its portfolio. In March 2023, the $100 billion market cap company filed for a patent to track digital assets in games on a distributed ledger.

Sony’s NFT patent was surprisingly well received at a time when the industry was taking a closer look at NFT tokens.

In a poll conducted by a Twitter user NFT POWER RANKING55.3% of respondents said they were “aggressively optimistic” about Sony’s “NFT Framework for Transferring and Using Digital Assets Between Games Platforms” patent, while another 21.9% chose 21.9% “positively” and 13, 1% chose “moderately optimistic.” Only 9.8% said they were “not optimistic.”

The latest move is part of Sony’s strategy to diversify its portfolio, which already boasts a market value of more than $100 billion. Sony has been exploring the use of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and blockchain in gaming for several years.

Amber Group raised $300 million in a C round in December 2022 following the collapse of FTX. The round was led by Fenbushi Capital and featured participation from high-profile investors such as Temasek, Sequoia China, Pantera, Tiger and Coinbase,

A market maker from Singapore recently invested in:

• Mitosis, the ecosystem-based liquidity (EOL) L1 blockchain
• BedRock, a multi-chain liquidity replenishment protocol
• Help Steps, Web3 app “traffic and earning”
• Anichess, a decentralized chess game from Animoca Brands
• Merlin Chain, Bitmap Tech’s Bitcoin L2 solution
• Monad Labs, EVM-compliant L1 blockchain
• AINN Layer 2, Bitcoin L2 network for Web3+AI