Japan’s DMM Crypto shuts down Seamoon Protocol amid challenges

Japan’s DMM Crypto is discontinuing its Seamoon Protocol. No new services will be added to the ecosystem, and the fate of existing services on the platform is under discussion, the company announced.

Seamoon Protocol suffers a reversal of fortunes

The Seamoon Protocol was powered by the SMP token in the DM2 Verse on the Oasys layer-2 blockchain. The Seamoon Portal was a Web3 gaming and content site that features games and anime produced by Japanese e-commerce and internet group DMM.com.

In August DMM Crypto was working with stablecoin platform Progmat to issue its own stablecoin for use alongside fiat and credit cards to enhance the financial prospects of the ecosystem. However, according to a translation of a DMM Crypto statement published by Japan finance blogger Norbert Gehrke:

“Due to recent rapid changes in the business environment that have created challenges for the project’s sustainability, DMM Crypto decided to terminate the project early.”

The company did not specify what the challenges to its sustainability were.

The Kanpani Girl Re:Bloom game, which debuted in October as the first of five games planned to operate on the protocol, will be wound down by Jan. 31, 2025, in relation to the cutback.

Related: Japan’s major banks back new stablecoin project for global trade

DMM.com has several fingers in the crypto pie

DMM Crypto is a cryptocurrency exchange associated with DMM.com. It was launched in January 2023 and the Seamoon Protocol was launched in June 2023.

It opened DMM Bitcoin —also a cryptocurrency exchange — in September 2017. That exchange was hacked for $302 million in mid-2024. Users who lost money were compensated by DMM.com. That hack was attributed to North Korea’s Lazarus Group.

DMM.com was in the crypto mining business from January 2018 to January 2019.

Progmat, Seamoon Protocol’s erstwhile partner, entered into a partnership in September with Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Mizuho Bank — the three largest banks in  Japan — and blockchain startup Datachain on a new stablecoin platform in an effort they called Project PAX.

Magazine: Why Animism Gives Japanese Characters a NiFTy Head Start on the Blockchain