Summary
LlamaRisk supports Aave V3’s deployment on Soneium, although, at this very early stage, the network has a TVL of around $50 million and limited activity in segments beyond its initial DEX usage. Soneium is built on the OP Stack, which provides full EVM compatibility, rapid 2-second block times, and shared security across interoperable OP chains. The absence of timelock delays on OP Stack contract upgrades means that protocol changes can occur instantly without prior notice. Additionally, Soneium can censor contracts at the RPC level and relies on a centralized sequencer, which raises questions regarding network decentralization. Moreover, the ecosystem currently depends solely on bridge variants for token issuance—particularly for stablecoins like USDC and USDT—introducing third-party risks in the absence of native token issuance on the chain.
We will continue monitoring Soneium activity and provide revised asset recommendations as we move toward potential deployment.
1. Network Fundamental Characteristics
1.1 Network Overview
Soneium is an Ethereum layer 2 developed by Sony Block Solutions Labs. Built on the OP Stack, Soneium is part of a network of OP chains within Optimism’s Superchain ecosystem. These chains benefit from cross-chain interoperability, shared security, and an enhanced communication layer that improves scalability.
Source: OP chain architecture, L2BEAT
Soneium’s block time is set to 2 seconds. This EVM-compatible chain deploys its own set of L1 contracts, which enables smart contract deployment on Soneium without modification when migrating from L1 to L2.
The Optimism Collective (Optimism governance) is solely responsible for upgrading or modifying the core OP Stack smart contracts. The Optimism Security Council manages the implementation, and upgrades are executed without a timelock. Additionally, the OP Stack security model employs fault proofs through a permissionless proposal and challenge process that uses the DisputeGameFactory and FaultDisputeGame contracts.
The OP Stack software dependencies include Git, Go, Node, pnpm, Foundry, Make, and jq. Specific version details are available here. To date, 11 audits have been conducted on the OP Stack contracts, and the reports are available here.
An Optimism bug bounty program worth $2m provides security incentives for the general codebase. No specific bug bounties have been identified for Soneium.
Risk considerations:
- There is no delay on upgrades (regular and emergency); while this may help in the event of necessary speed, it gives users no time to opt-out.
1.2 Decentralization and Legal Evaluation
The Optimism Collective consists of two branches: the Token House and the Citizens’ House. The Token House comprises OP token holders responsible for submitting, discussing, and voting on governance proposals. The Citizens’ House works alongside the Token House and comprises elected individuals representing Optimism stakeholders. It is responsible for allocating Retro Funding and can veto protocol upgrade proposals from the Token House.
Given this governance composition and the structure of the Superchain, the Optimism Collective is diverse and comprises communities from multiple OP chains.
Optimism Councils consist of elected representatives who manage the Collective’s resources and make decisions for stakeholders and citizens. The Security Council is entrusted with controlling the keys required to:
- Upgrade the L1 protocol contracts for all OP chains participating in the Superchain.
- Modify designations for certain critical roles in the system, such as sequencers, proposers, challengers, and membership on the Security Council multisig.
Upgrades to OP chain contracts are performed through a ProxyAdmin contract. A 2/2 nested multisig serves as the contract owner and is jointly governed by a 10/13 multisig, managed by the Optimism Security Council, and a 5/7 multisig, managed by the Optimism Foundation.
A key contract for OP Stack networks is the SystemConfig contract. This contract manages chain configurations stored on L1 and relayed to L2 as part of the chain derivation process. For example, the contract contains the Sequencer address as well as references to other contract addresses for the chain.
Soneium operates a sequencer node that collects, validates, records, and aggregates transactions for submission on Ethereum, generating network revenue from sequencer fees. The sequencer is managed through Sony’s infrastructure through Sony Security Compliance. Soneium has indicated that the OP Security Council holds access keys for parameter modifications, with any changes requiring council approval. Additionally, OP chain sequencers are restricted regarding the duration for which transactions can be withheld.
OP chains operate under a standardized revenue-sharing model, where a portion of sequencer revenues is returned to the Optimism Collective. The fee split is calculated as the greater of either 2.5% of chain revenue or 15% of on-chain profit (defined as fee revenue minus L1 gas fees).
Blacklisting Incident
Following the mainnet launch, Soneium blacklisted several meme coins that violated its content guidelines for copyright and intellectual property. Although user funds were not frozen, the blacklisting limited the ability to trade or access these tokens on the network.
According to a Soneium blog post, these actions are executed at the RPC level for specific contracts, implemented temporarily, and are fully reversible. The restrictions are lifted once compliance is met, based on an assessment by a Soneium committee composed of core team members.
Risk Considerations
- Soneium’s capacity to restrict contracts based on copyright and intellectual property violations aligns with its content guidelines but illustrates that censorship controls remain centralized.
Legal Overview
Soneium Sequencer Terms of Service outline the legal agreement between users and Sony Block Solutions Labs Pte. Ltd. (SBS Labs), the company providing the Soneium Sequencer service. The Terms explicitly state that SBS Labs does not control Soneium, the Optimism Collective, or the Optimism Security Council. They also do not manage or hold custody over users’ digital assets on Soneium.
The service SBS Labs provides involves collecting, validating, recording, and aggregating transactions on Soneium for submission to Ethereum. They generate blocks on Soneium, offering immediate confirmations to users before transactions are finalized on Ethereum. While they reserve the right to charge fees for this service, they are non-refundable and collected once a transaction is successfully processed on Soneium.
SBS Labs emphasizes that they are not responsible for Bridging Contracts, which are developed and managed by external parties, and SBS Labs neither controls nor has access to the assets locked within them. Similarly, any tokens issued on Soneium are deployed by third parties and are not associated with SBS Labs.
SBS Labs is a Singapore-based company established in October 2023. It operates as an Exempt Private Company Limited by Shares under Unique Entity Number (UEN) 202342003W, issued by the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) of Singapore. Its principal activity is information technology consultancy, excluding cybersecurity. The company is a joint venture between Sony Group Corporation, holding a 90% stake, and Startale Labs Pte. Ltd., holding the remaining 10%.
Startale Labs specializes in developing Web3 infrastructure and has a track record of collaboration with the Astar Foundation on multi-chain applications and infrastructure. Investors in Startale Labs include Sony Network, Samsung NEXT, Signum Capital, and UOB Venture Management.
IP Protection
Soneium’s IP and Contracts Protection policy addresses unauthorized use of intellectual property and potentially harmful contract addresses on the Soneium network. Tools like Blockaid are employed to identify malicious contract addresses that could jeopardize user safety or compromise network integrity.
When a potential violation is detected—such as the unauthorized use of a name or image owned by a third party—the corresponding contract address is added to the Suspected of IP Infringement list. No technical restrictions are imposed during the warning period, which typically lasts around 12 hours. This grace period allows the project team and users to respond to and address the concerns raised.
If the issue remains unresolved after the warning period, the contract address is escalated to the Restricted due to IP Infringement list. Contracts on this list face restrictions on the Soneium network, including RPC-level blocks, limited visibility on the Block Explorer, and exclusion from wallets. However, Soneium remains open to resolving these issues; if improvements are made to a restricted contract, its status can be reassessed, and labels may be updated or removed following a thorough review.
1.3 Activity Benchmarks
Source: Soneium Total Value Secured (TVS), L2BEAT, February 28, 2025.
The total Value Secured on Soneium as of February 28, 2025, amounted to $67.37 M. The majority of assets were externally bridged ($45.93M in ASTR, SolvBTC, YAYSTONE, YAYAGETH, wstETH, WBTC, and USDC) and the remainder were bridged canonically ($21.44M in USDT and WETH). Since the mainnet launch on January 14, TVS has steadily grown. Soneium does not have a native token at the time of writing.
Source: Soneium UOPS, L2BEAT, February 27, 2025.
User activity, measured by User Operations Per Second (UOPS) — which represents the number of actions bundled in a single transaction — has grown, indicating a steady increase in user engagement with the L2.
Source: Soneium TVL, DeFiLlama, February 28, 2025.
Total Value Locked (TVL) in Soneium protocols stands at $46.14M, with stablecoins accounting for $13.43M (29% of TVL). Protocol-locked assets represent a utilization rate of 68% of the L2’s assets.
2. Network Market Outlook
2.1 Market Infrastructure
According to DeFiLlama, 19 protocols have been deployed on Soneium. However, only 16 protocols currently have a recorded TVL:
- Cross Chain Bridge: Stargate ($9.63m)
- DEX: Kyo Finance ($11.43m), Velodrome ($4.22m), Sonex ($3.39m), SoneFi ($801,848), DyorSwap ($30,441), Sonus Exchange ($982,612), PassDEX ($13,020), Quickswap V3 ($200,974)
- Lending: SakeFinance ($8.14m), UntitledBank ($2.85m), ZenoLend ($2,502)
- SoFi: Yay! ($1.09m)
- Derivatives: waveX ($622,206)
- Yield Farming: SynStation ($2.73m)
Decentralized Exchanges and Lending are the most active DeFi categories based on the number of protocols and the recorded TVL. Given its recent launch (January 14, 2025), the number of reputed DeFi protocols is low—for example, Curve is not yet deployed. Notably, Uniswap V4 has recently been deployed on Soneium; however, no TVL was recorded at the time of writing.
Source: Soneium DEXs, Coingecko, February 28, 2025.
Tooling
- Bridging/Interoperability Protocols: 16 bridging/interoperability protocols support Soneium (e.g., Orbiter Finance, Commet Protocol, Across, and Layerswap).
- Wallets: 7 are listed as Soneium ecosystem members (e.g., Bitget, OKX Wallet, and TokenPocket). Soneium can be added as a custom network to any EVM-compatible wallet, such as MetaMask. Superchain Safe—a Safe fork—provides multisig support for all OP chains.
- Payment Solutions: In addition to wallet integrations like MetaMask with fiat payment partners, 2 payment solution providers (Alchemy Pay and Transak) offer users the ability to onramp and offramp from Soneium.
- RPC Node Services: RPC node services on Soneium include Alchemy, Dwellr, and The Graph (with Ava Protocol also providing RPC services).
- Oracles/Data Services: Oracles and data services include Chainlink, API3, Band Protocol, Chainsight, eOracle, Pyth, Stork Network, and Terminal3.
The full list of Soneium ecosystem members and categories can be found here.
2.2 Liquidity Landscape
Astar, a Polkadot and Ethereum L2 that plans on merging with Soneium and is a Special Partner, announced an Astar Contribution Score (ACS) campaign with their ASTR token on Soneium.
The ACS aims to incentivize adoption and establish a sustainable economic flywheel for ASTR on Soneium (e.g., by providing liquidity). From February 20 to May 1, 2025, 100 million ASTR will be available for distribution.
Stablecoins
The stablecoin distribution on Soneium is as follows (as of February 17, 2025):
As mentioned in section 1.3, both tokens are bridged variants, and no native minting has occurred to date. USDC.e, which follows the Bridged USDC Standard, is a specification for deploying a bridged form of USDC on EVM blockchains, with the option for Circle to upgrade to native issuance in the future.
DEXs
Top 10 LPs by TVL on Soneium (as of February 28, 2025):
| DEX |
Pool |
TVL |
24h Volume |
| Velodrome Finance |
yaySTONE/WETH |
$2.54M |
$9.93K |
| Kyo Finance V3 |
USDC.e/WETH |
$2.06M |
$664.03K |
| Kyo Finance V3 |
vASTR/ASTR |
$2M |
$8.13K |
| Kyo Finance V3 |
ASTR/WETH |
$1.1M |
$1.13M |
| Velodrome Finance |
USDC.e/WETH |
$760.15K |
$539.4K |
| Kyo Finance V3 |
USDC.e/USDT |
$659.04K |
$236.11K |
| Velodrome Finance |
ASTR/WETH |
$652.47K |
$1.06M |
| Velodrome Finance |
USDT/USDC.e |
$641.77K |
$333.87K |
| Velodrome Finance |
ASTR/nsASTR |
$645.75K |
$21.09K |
| Kyo Finance V3 |
SONE/USDC.e |
$617.03K |
$47.62K |
Source: Soneium Pools, Gecko Terminal
DEX liquidity for USDC, USDT, and WETH is approximately 1.1M, 1.2M, and 2,737 respectively.
Source: USDC.e & USDT swap against WETH with <5% slippage, Wowmax, March 1st, 2025.
The DEX liquidity for USDC.e on Soneium, within 5% slippage, is 390,000, while for USDT it is 322,000.
Overall liquidity is currently low, given the recent mainnet launch. Most liquidity and 24-hour volume are concentrated in Kyo Finance and Velodrome Finance. WETH is the only other significant “major” token, with $20M bridged (WBTC has also been bridged but in low quantity).
Lending Markets
Market participants in the lending market are limited to 3 protocols: SakeFinance, UntitledBank, and ZenoLend. SakeFinance is the clear market leader in lending, and USDC.e is the most borrowed asset.
| Protocol |
Total Supplied |
Total Borrowed |
Utilization |
Supported Assets |
| SakeFinance |
$16,524,027 |
$7,826,192 |
47.36% |
5 |
| UntitledBank |
$2,077,769 |
$1,313,711 |
63.23% |
4 |
| ZenoLend |
$2,860.56 |
$446.47 |
15.61% |
4 |
(as of February 28th, 2025)
2.3 Ecosystem Resilience
Users can withdraw from Soneium to Ethereum mainnet by submitting withdrawal proofs. Permissionless fraud proofs can be submitted to challenge proposals about the state of the chain in case of a fraudulent proposal.
All proposals are subject to a 1-week window, during which anyone with the op-challenger tool can participate. In addition, the Optimism Security Council holds the Guardian role as a final backstop in case of a failure of the fault-proof game (bonded).
Source: Fault Proof Game, Optimism Stack
Grant Programs
Soneium’s Spark grant/incubation program for projects building on Soneium accepted its first cohort in October 2024. The program includes mentorship, access to infrastructure, strategic partnerships, and a cash investment of up to $100,000.
Security Partners
Two security solution providers are used for monitoring and risk resolution. Tenderly and Sentio offer comprehensive monitoring and security solutions, including on-chain event alerts and response mechanisms.
2.4 Ecosystem Growth Potential
Developed by Sony Block Solutions Labs, Soneium is positioned as a general-purpose blockchain. Given Sony Group’s market position as a leading technology, entertainment, and digital services company, Soneium presents significant opportunities for integrating blockchain applications into existing Sony Group businesses (e.g., Gaming).
The “Go Mainstream with Soneium” launch slogan reflects Soneium’s focus on driving broader blockchain adoption that connects with business interests and existing IPs.
Additionally, the integration of the Astar Network enables Soneium to leverage Astar’s existing ecosystem and community for growth. ASTR is a key asset to incentivize ecosystem growth in DeFi, as facilitated by the ACS incentive campaigns (see section 2.2).
The Soneium team has communicated an overview of their current three-stage development roadmap (time agnostic):
- Staying up-to-date with the latest tech stack and upgrades: Pectra upgrade, Isthmus release, interop developments, etc.
- Supporting OP Labs with their roadmap: For instance, providing support for PeerDAS-related work.
- Developing Soneium-specific products: These products will support the development of an entertainment layer of the internet.
2.5 Major and Native Asset Outlook
Bridged versions of USDT and USDC are currently the only available stablecoins on the chain. As mentioned in section 1.3, Soneium does not have a native token and uses ETH as its gas token. A complete list of tokens issued or bridged on the chain can be found here.
Major assets present on Soneium (according to L2Beat, February 28th, 2025):
3. Onchain Discoverability
Sources of Soneium information include (but are not limited to):
Though still relatively new, Soneium has several trusted providers offering sources of visibility.
4. Impact of AAVE Deployment
Lending is the second-largest DeFi market on Soneium despite a relatively small TVL. Market competition is limited to SakeFinance UntitledBank (which solely operates on Soneium) and ZenoLend (which operates on multiple chains but has very low liquidity on Soneium). This allows AAVE to offer deeper liquidity as a market leader, attracting more interest from other users, projects, and assets, ultimately benefiting the chain’s overall growth.
The unique involvement of Sony signals a differentiated chain poised for greater mainstream adoption relative to other chains.
5. Asset suggestions
Our asset onboarding methodology is guided by three key criteria: prior successful integration and risk assessment within the Aave ecosystem, the asset’s TVL on the network, and its available liquidity relative to total TVL. Based on these factors, we recommend onboarding the following assets:
| Asset |
Onchain Supply |
Liquidity |
Supply Cap |
| WETH |
9,204 |
161 |
tbd |
| USDC.e |
15.81M |
0.39M |
tbd |
| USDT |
2.14M |
0.322M |
tbd |
Due to these tokens being the most readily available and utilized on the chain, they have been selected as the initial proposed assets. Given the low liquidity and early stage of Sonenium. While ASTR is widely used within Soneium, it has not been considered because it has not been previously onboarded and requires a separate risk assessment. It should be noted that the assets recommended are bridged variants and, therefore, carry additional risks tied to third-party bridges.
Our asset, parameters, and caps recommendation will be revised as we get closer to a launch date.
Disclaimer
This review was independently prepared by LlamaRisk, a community-led non-profit decentralized organization funded in part by the Aave DAO. LlamaRisk is not directly affiliated with the protocol(s) reviewed in this assessment and did not receive any compensation from the protocol(s) or their affiliated entities for this work.
The information provided should not be construed as legal, financial, tax, or professional advice.
