Soneium’s IP Vault opened its doors today. I scrolled through X, and the noisiest accounts weren’t the project team—they were a bunch of accounts with 💿 after their names.
Same opening line: “BIG UPDATE / BIG NEWS.” Same “What is ipUSD? What is IP Vault?” explainer template. Views ranged from a few dozen to just over a thousand. Sota Watanabe himself got only around 4,500 views. The marketing showed up before the product—that tells you all you need to know.
Now, the product itself. Swap USDC.e or USDSC for ipUSD, deposit it into the IP Vault, and you get exposure to a $549 million copyright royalty fund from Partners Group. It includes The Weeknd’s music catalog, TV libraries, and over 100,000 royalty income streams. Minimum investment is 100 ipUSD, shares are valued monthly at NAV, and it’s only available to eligible users.
A few things I’m not buying:
The marketing says “+7.1% annualized since June 2025.” They’re touting just over a year of performance, while the long-term target of 8–10% is a target, not a promise.
The underlying assets have monthly NAVs, but the promo accounts are shouting “flexible redemptions, transferable shares.” Being transferable on-chain doesn’t mean the underlying assets can be liquidated anytime. If there’s a run, what you get is a discount on the secondary market.
They can’t even agree on the number of investments: some say 54, others say 53. They can’t even copy the promo text consistently.
Putting copyright royalties on-chain isn’t a bad idea—it’s much better than shitcoins. But a private fund yielding seven percent a year, hyped by a swarm of 💿 accounts shouting “opportunity,” probably means people are really chasing expectations of a SONEIUM token, not that 7%. Putting in $100 for points is fine; don’t go all-in thinking it’s a high-yield investment.
#Soneium #RWA