Sony Bank has received preliminary approval in the United States to pursue a dollar-based stablecoin issuance and custody business. The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency gave preliminary conditional approval for the establishment of Connectia Trust, a wholly owned trust bank. The plan focuses on issuing a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin, managing reserves, providing digital asset custody and enabling transfers within a limited network for approved Sony assets and defined customers. Documents do not mention PlayStation payments.

Privacy-focused AI startup VeniceAI has raised $65 million in a Series A round. The Block reported that Dragonfly led the round, with North Island Ventures, Coinbase Ventures and F-Prime participating. Venice, launched two years ago, positions itself as an alternative to OpenAI\'s ChatGPT and says it does not store user prompts, encrypting them before sending them through an external proxy. It offers access to more than 200 AI models.