logo
DeFi Leader Aave Debuts on Sony-Backed Soneium Blockchain

DeFi Leader Aave Debuts on Sony-Backed Soneium Blockchain

Yahoo11-06-2025
Decentralized finance (DeFi) firm Aave is arriving on Soneium, the Ethereum L2 blockchain linked to Japanese electronics giant Sony, the companies said on Tuesday.
Decentralized finance, which shot to prominence during the so-called 'DeFi summer' of 2020, is resurgent, amid a huge growth in stablecoins and crypto-backed lending. The integration of GHO, Aave's decentralized overcollateralized stablecoin, into Sonieum is being explored for real-world use cases in payments, savings, and digital commerce, according to a press release.
Soneium's 7-million user ecosystem already includes Uniswap v4, Velodrome, Stargate, Lido, and native protocols like Kyo Finance and SuperVol.
'Aave wants to be where consumers are, in trusted, accessible environments,' said Aave Labs Founder Stani Kulechov in a statement. 'Sony's global reputation and Soneium's focus on consumer-facing applications make this a unique opportunity for Aave to reach new mainstream users.'
The partnering will include Aave's participation in upcoming liquidity incentive campaigns, including with the Astar, a blockchain prominent in the Japanese Web3 ecosystem, and a 100 million ASTR allocation (currently valued at $4M) to bootstrap adoption, according to a press release.
Soneium, which this week announced a new gaming incubator to help drive more traffic to the blockchain, is developed by Sony Block Solutions Labs, a joint venture between Sony Group and Startale Group.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Japan Election Throws a Wrench in Trade Talks
Japan Election Throws a Wrench in Trade Talks

Wall Street Journal

timean hour ago

  • Wall Street Journal

Japan Election Throws a Wrench in Trade Talks

TOKYO—Japan's ruling coalition suffered a significant loss in a parliamentary election Sunday, a setback that risks derailing delicate trade negotiations with the U.S. just weeks before punishing tariffs are set to take effect. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba had gambled that his tough stance on trade with President Trump would help cement his shaky grip on power after less than a year in the job and an electoral snub last fall.

Japan PM laments ‘harsh' election result as upper house control slips
Japan PM laments ‘harsh' election result as upper house control slips

CNN

time4 hours ago

  • CNN

Japan PM laments ‘harsh' election result as upper house control slips

Japan's shaky ruling coalition is likely to lose its majority in the upper house, exit polls showed after Sunday's election, potentially heralding political turmoil as a tariff deadline with the United States looms. While the ballot does not directly determine whether Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's minority government falls, it heaps pressure on the embattled leader who also lost control of the more powerful lower house in October. Ishiba's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and coalition partner Komeito needed 50 seats to retain control of the 248-seat upper chamber in an election where half the seats were up for grabs. They are forecast to secure 32 to 51 seats, the exit poll by public broadcaster NHK showed. Other broadcasters forecast the ruling coalition would hold 41-43 seats. If the coalition holds less than 46 seats, it would mark its worst result since the coalition was formed in 1999. That comes on top of its worst showing in 15 years in October's lower house election, a vote which has left Ishiba's administration vulnerable to no-confidence motions and calls from within his own party for leadership change. Speaking two hours after polls closed to public broadcaster NHK, Ishiba said he 'solemnly' accepted the 'harsh result.' Asked whether he intended to stay on as prime minister and party leader, he said 'that's right.' 'We are engaged in extremely critical tariff negotiations with the United States…we must never ruin these negotiations. It is only natural to devote our complete dedication and energy to realizing our national interests,' he later told TV Tokyo. Japan, the world's fourth largest economy, faces a deadline of August 1 to strike a trade deal with the United States or face punishing tariffs in its largest export market. The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party is projected to win 18 to 30 seats, from 22 held previously, NHK's exit poll showed. The far-right Sanseito party, birthed on YouTube a few years ago, has been the surprise package with its 'Japanese First' campaign and warnings about a 'silent invasion' of foreigners. It is forecast to win 10-15 seats in the chamber, up from one held previously, yet it holds only three seats in the lower house. Opposition parties advocating for tax cuts and tougher immigration policies look set to make gains, the exit polls showed, with rising consumer prices – particularly a jump in the cost of the staple rice – a key issue for voters. 'The LDP was largely playing defense in this election, being on the wrong side of a key voter issue,' said David Boling, a director at consulting firm Eurasia Group. 'Polls show that most households want a cut to the consumption tax to address inflation, something that the LDP opposes. Opposition parties seized on it and hammered that message home.' The LDP have been urging for fiscal restraint, with one eye on a very jittery government bond market, as investors worry about Japan's ability to refinance the world's largest debt pile. Sanseito, which first emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, has dragged once-fringe political rhetoric into the mainstream and gained wider support among frustrated voters. It remains to be seen whether the party can follow the path of other far-right parties with which it has drawn comparisons, such as Germany's AFD and Reform UK. 'I am attending graduate school but there are no Japanese around me. All of them are foreigners,' said Yu Nagai, a 25-year-old student who voted for Sanseito earlier on Sunday. 'When I look at the way compensation and money are spent on foreigners, I think that Japanese people are a bit disrespected,' Nagai said after casting his ballot at a polling station in Tokyo's Shinjuku ward. Japan, the world's oldest society, saw foreign-born residents hit a record of about 3.8 million last year. That is still just 3% of the total population, a much smaller fraction than in the United States and Europe, but comes amid a tourism boom that has made foreigners far more visible across the country.

Why Cartken pivoted its focus from last-mile delivery to industrial robots
Why Cartken pivoted its focus from last-mile delivery to industrial robots

Yahoo

time4 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Why Cartken pivoted its focus from last-mile delivery to industrial robots

Autonomous robotics startup Cartken, known for its four-wheeled robots that deliver food on college campuses and through Tokyo's bustling streets, has found a new area of focus: industrials. Cartken co-founder and CEO Christian Bersch told TechCrunch that applying its delivery robots to industrial settings was always in the back of his mind as they built the startup. When companies started reaching out about using their robots in factories and labs, Cartken took a closer look. 'What we found is that actually there's a real big need in industrial and onsite use cases,' said Bersch, who co-founded the startup along with other former Google engineers behind the Bookbot project. 'Sometimes there have even [been] more direct value to companies optimizing their material flows or their production flows.' In 2023, the startup landed its first big industrial customer, German manufacturing company ZF Lifetec. Initially, ZF Lifetec used its existing delivery robots, called the Cartken Courier, which can hold 44 pounds and resembles an Igloo cooler on wheels. 'Our food delivery robot started moving production samples around, and it's quickly turned into our busiest robot of all,' Bersch said. 'That's when we said, hey, there's like real use cases and real market need behind it, and that's when we started targeting that segment more and more.' At the time, Cartken was still pressing ahead on its delivery sidewalk business, including locking in partnerships with Uber Eats and GrubHub for its last-mile delivery operations across U.S. college campuses and in Japan. But that early success with ZF, encouraged the startup founders, which includes Jake Stelman, Jonas Witt and Anjali Naik, to expand its business model. Switching Cartken's robots from food delivery to an industrial setting, wasn't much of a challenge, Bersch said. The AI behind the robots is trained on years of food delivery data and the devices are designed to traverse various terrains and weather conditions. This means the robots can travel between indoor and outdoor settings. And thanks to data collected from delivering food on Tokyo streets, the robots are able to react and maneuver around obstacles. Cartken, which has raised more than $20 million from 468 Capital, Incubate Fund, Vela Partners, and other venture firms, has started to build out its robotic fleet to reflect its pivot to industrials. The company released the Cartken Hauler earlier this year, which is a larger version of the Cartken Courier and can hold up to 660 pounds. The company also released the Cartken Runner, designed for indoor deliveries, and is also working on something similar to a robotic forklift. 'We have a navigation stack that is parameterizable for different robot sizes,' Bersch said. 'All the AI and machine learning and training that went into that is like transferring directly to the other robots.' Cartken recently announced that it was deepening its four-year relationship with Japanese automaker Mitsubishi, which originally helped the company get the needed certifications to operate their delivery robots on the streets of Tokyo. Melco Mobility Solutions, a company under the Mitsubishi umbrella, just announced that it will be buying nearly 100 Cartken Hauler robots for use in Japanese industrial facilities. 'We're definitely seeing a lot of traction across various industrial and corporate sites, from automotive companies to pharmaceutical to chemical,' he said. 'All these companies typically have people moving stuff from one building to another, whether it's being by hand, on a cart ,or a small forklift, and that is really what we're targeting.' Cartken will still continue its food and consumer last-mile delivery business, but it won't be expanding it, Bersch said, adding they still do a lot of testing for new capabilities on these existing last-mile delivery routes. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store