Soneium and DayOneDream partner to tokenize K-pop IP through WAVIST

Sony’s Soneium is turning K-pop into an investable asset class. The Ethereum layer-2 network developed by Sony Group and Startale Group has signed a partnership with DayOneDream, the Korean entertainment company behind artists such as BTOB, LEE CHAE YEON, MEMI and 2F, to bring K-pop intellectual property and its related revenue streams onchain through the WAVIST platform.

The deal was announced on Sept. 29 during Korea Blockchain Week in Seoul, and it arrives with something most tokenization announcements lack: a completed track record. WAVIST says it issued a tokenized K-pop IP bond in May and carried the product through its entire onchain life cycle, from issuance to final redemption to the burning of the redeemed tokens. Issuance put the bond into circulation, redemption completed the repayment process, and burning removed the tokens from supply. The companies cited that full sequence as evidence that WAVIST can manage an entertainment financing product from start to finish.

The May bond, however, was not accompanied by full disclosure. The announcement did not identify the bond’s issuer, its size, its interest terms, or the underlying catalog attached to it. The partners also stopped short of naming a first asset for the Soneium partnership. The May transaction is a completed WAVIST deal; the new work with Soneium concerns future K-content assets and revenue streams.

## What DayOneDream brings to the table

DayOneDream’s role goes well beyond supplying an artist name. According to its company description, the firm works across music production and publishing, video, artist management, concerts, and IP commerce. That breadth matters for structuring, because it gives the company several distinct types of rights and income streams to work with when designing a financial product, even though the partners have not specified which will be used first.

Dylan Cho, DayOneDream’s RWA lead, framed the partnership as a way to connect capital more directly to the intellectual property that actually generates entertainment revenue. K-pop is a market unlike any other, Cho said, yet the way capital reaches it has barely changed. The companies see a path to investing through the IP itself, rather than through indirect corporate exposure.

For rights holders, the appeal is straightforward: tokenization offers another route to raise funds and earn revenue from their work. For eligible users, the proposed assets would offer a way to participate in the financial value tied to entertainment IP. The announcement is explicit that access to any future assets will depend on applicable rules and user eligibility.

## Soneium’s entertainment DNA

Soneium was built for exactly this kind of use case. The network already centers on creators, digital content, and applications, with earlier entertainment projects including digital collectibles and game-related assets. A tokenized bond or revenue-linked product is a step beyond collectibles, raising a different set of questions for any buyer: who owes the payments, which income supports them, and what rights does the token actually carry.

WAVIST describes its platform as a way to structure K-culture revenue into asset-backed instruments, with issuing companies responsible for their own offerings. Its website points to cash flows from activities such as concerts and content as potential sources of collateral. The rights and payment terms for any specific product would depend on that product’s own issuing documents.

Yuji Kumagai, head of Soneium Protocol, said the network could help creators raise money while giving supporters a financial stake in the work they follow. Creators get a new way to raise funds for the work they want to make, and their supporters share in the value it creates, Kumagai said, identifying K-pop as the starting point for Soneium’s work with entertainment IP.

The network’s scale also backs the ambition. In January, Sony Ventures invested 13 million USD into Startale Group, the firm that helps develop Soneium. Figures cited in that investment announcement said Soneium had already processed more than 500 million transactions and supported over 250 live applications.

## A crowded but unproven niche

The Soneium deal joins other attempts to connect music rights with blockchain-based financing. In February 2025, Music Protocol partnered with Plume to bring music intellectual property onto that network, with a similar focus on access to music-related assets for rights holders and investors. The structures can differ significantly even when projects use the same word, tokenization. A token might record a claim under a bond, represent an interest in a revenue stream, or serve another function defined in an offering’s terms.

DayOneDream and Soneium have described their intended category as K-content assets and associated revenue streams, while leaving the terms of future products to later announcements. Investors should also note that a tokenized bond raises securities questions that a blockchain cannot settle. In a January statement, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said securities, including bonds and notes, can be tokenized, and that token designs may give holders different rights.

Market context as of Sept. 29, 19:45 UTC: Bitcoin trades at 83,438 USD, Ethereum at 2,689.13 USD, and Solana at 118.71 USD, per Binance spot data.