Sony has added a $13 million investment to its partnership with Startale, signaling a longer-term infrastructure strategy, a year after Soneium’s mainnet debut. Sony Group Corp. made a follow-on investment in Startale Group, deepening its involvement in the Soneium blockchain about a year after the network’s mainnet launch. In a Thursday announcement sent to Cointelegraph, Startale disclosed an additional investment of $13 million from the Sony Innovation Fund. The funding round came after Soneium moved from testnet experimentation into live operation, allowing Sony to observe how the network performed under real-world conditions. Data from Soneium’s public block explorer shows the network has processed about 524 million transactions since its mainnet launch in January 2025. Over the same period, Nansen data shows Avalanche and Algorand recorded 442 million and 383 million transactions, respectively. Transaction counts alone do not indicate user adoption or economic activity. Read more
Strive has now become one of the top 10 largest corporate Bitcoin holders, with a treasury of 13,132 BTC, worth $1.17 billion. Bitcoin treasury company Strive said it has retired 92% of the debt it inherited after acquiring Semler Scientific earlier this month, and bought another 334 Bitcoin, following the closure of a preferred stock offering. Strive said on Wednesday that it saw $600 million in demand for its Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock, trading under “SATA,” and had upsized its target raise from $150 million to $225 million in response. The stock offering is a form of long-duration equity financing designed to fund Bitcoin (BTC) accumulation without increasing leverage. Read more
US President Donald Trump's administration is seeking to break a deadlock over crypto market structure legislation as lawmakers remain divided on stablecoin yield. Officials in the administration of US President Donald Trump are reportedly set to sit down with executives from the banking and cryptocurrency industries on Monday as lawmakers attempt to revive the stalled CLARITY Act. People familiar with the matter told Reuters the meeting will be hosted by the White House’s crypto council and will bring together industry trade groups to discuss how the bill treats interest and other rewards offered on dollar-pegged stablecoins. The legislation has been held up in the Senate for months, with a scheduled Banking Committee vote postponed earlier this month amid concerns from lawmakers and industry groups over the stablecoin interest provision. Read more