SBI Holdings and Startale Group have launched Strium Network, a regulated Layer 1 blockchain built for tokenized securities and real-world asset trading across Asia, targeting the $18.9 trillion tokenized asset market.
SBI Holdings and Startale Group are moving ahead with JPYSC, a regulated yen-backed stablecoin scheduled for Q2 2026. Shinsei Trust & Banking will handle issuance and redemption for institutional and high-value payment use cases.
Metaplanet sets up a ¥400 million venture capital arm and a Miami-based asset management unit. First investment goes to JPYC stablecoin. The firm holds 35,102 BTC and targets 210,000 BTC by end-2027.
Sony Innovation Fund makes a $13M follow-on investment in Startale Group at Series A first close, deepening partnership to scale Soneium L2, apps, and settlement layers for entertainment.
TEAMZ Web3/AI Summit 2026, April 7-8 at Tokyo's Happo-en, expects over 10,000 attendees. Focus on RWA, stablecoins, AI. Sponsors include XRP Tokyo, Cardano, SBI VC Trade, Binance Japan, Aptos.
A July 2026 market report from ChainCatcher says stock perpetual contracts have become one of the fastest-growing segments on crypto exchanges this year, as venues look for new trading activity while crypto-native assets lose momentum. The report says average monthly volume at 11 leading centralized perpetual exchanges fell to $4.7 trillion in 2026 from $7.1 trillion in 2025, pushing platforms to add stocks, ETFs, commodities, forex products and even pre-IPO valuations as new perpetual markets settled in stablecoins. According to the report, nearly 30 crypto trading platforms had launched stock perpetual markets as of July 21. RootData ranked Binance, MEXC and Bybit in the top three overall, while Binance, Hyperliquid and OKX led by daily volume, each posting more than $3 billion. CoinGecko data cited in the report shows TradFi perpetual volume reached $104.21 billion in 2025, then surged past $1.32 trillion in the first five months of 2026. The report also says the market is expanding beyond U.S. equities into Asia, with exchanges listing contracts tied to companies in South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong. At the same time, pricing gaps, shallow liquidity on smaller venues and uncertain regulation remain key constraints for the sector.
AI music platform Suno is facing a fresh wave of scrutiny after a newly indexed data breach revealed more than 55.3 million unique email addresses and tens of thousands of Stripe payment records. The breach, which Suno said stemmed from a November 2025 security incident, was added to Have I Been Pwned on July 20, according to founder Troy Hunt. If users signed up with phone numbers, those were included as well, and Hunt said 24% of the leaked emails had already appeared in the service’s existing breach database. The bigger problem for Suno may be the source code leaked alongside the user data. Code dated from 2023 to 2024 reportedly listed training data sources and volumes tied to YouTube Music, Deezer, Genius, Pond5, Jamendo, Freesound, IMSLP and podcasts collected via RSS. 404 Media said the materials add up to more than 380,000 hours of audio and lyrics, including over 2 million YouTube Music clips. Those details track closely with the claims made in copyright lawsuits brought by Sony Music, UMG and Warner in 2024, though Warner later settled and entered a licensing partnership with Suno. Sony and UMG are still pressing their case.
Noetra, a Japan government-backed developer of physical AI and robotics foundation models, said it sees itself as the country’s “last chance” to strengthen domestic supply capacity in critical technologies. In an interview, CEO Hironobu Tamba said the company received more than 380 billion yen, or about $2.33 billion, in government funding in its first year and has support from 44 companies, including SoftBank, Honda, and Sony. The company plans to buy 27,500 Nvidia Rubin chips, begin building AI infrastructure in April 2027, and put that infrastructure into operation in June 2028. Tamba said Noetra aims to provide Japanese companies with reliable and secure foundation models so they can manage their own data independently. The effort lines up with a broader Japanese government goal to deploy 10 million AI robots across manufacturing, shipbuilding, nursing care, and other sectors by 2040, while also advancing key technology projects such as chip foundry company Rapidus to raise self-sufficiency and technical capability in AI competition with China and the United States.
