Last week the US Treasury Department?sanctioned Tornado Cash for allegedly supporting money laundering worth $7 billion and we saw Bitcoin's price drop briefly below $23,000. The reason the Tornado Cash sanctions matter is because it means that thousands of ETH wallets that ever received funds from an account associated with Tornado Cash could be blacklisted.
One of the developers was arrested, dApps blocked the smart contract, infrastructure providers blocked RPC calls and stablecoin issuers blacklisted funds. Unprecedented action with this being the first time that we've properly had sanctions placed on a piece of open-source software. In a space that praises itself for decentralisation, this sort of centralised regulation goes against this.
We're seeing more and more Web3 companies future-proof their businesses by implementing regulatory arms such as decentralised Ethereum scaling platform, Polygon. It's hired blockchain lawyer Marc Boiron as its Chief Legal Officer to help build a legal and regulatory structure for Polygon.
With the scams and hacks in this early landscape, perhaps some element of regulation is need to instil confidence in the masses or maybe not.?How far can authorities go to curb Web3 activities?
- Michael Jackson Estate signs agreement with NFT Naruto Museum - After impacting the real physical world in a massive way, Michael Jackson is set to rock the virtual world. The Jackson Family Foundation Japan and the NFT Naruto Art Museum—a Japanese museum and an NFT project—are joining forces to create Michael Jackson Wonder World Toys (MJWWT). The King of Pop will be making his entry into the metaverse soon. Michael Jackson Wonder World Toys is said to be a fictional world that Michael Jackson himself hand drew over a 10-day period in 1992. It's “an amusement facility to liberate the world’s poor children”. This project will make metaverse recreations of this idea to give the world a look at the visions that Jackson had prior to his death. Currently, there is no official release date but those who are members of the museum will have the Michael Jackson Wonder World Toys whitelisted for their asset wallets. The NFTs can then be used to access the upcoming MJWWT?metaverse—alongside other related events and exhibitions. I recently did a breakdown on how MJ could leverage NFTs and so it's super cool it actually happening!
- Web3 investment firm CoinFund launches $300 million Web3 fund - Crypto venture firm CoinFund has announced the launch of a new $300 million investment fund called ‘CoinFund Ventures I’. The new fund will be focused on Web3 and other early stage crypto-focused startups. The new fund is supported by institutional investors, family offices, and cryptocurrency innovators - and a few of its partners are The Teacher Retirement System of Texas, Adams Street Partners, StepStone Group, Accolade Partners, and Theta Capital Management are a few of its limited partners.
- MatchboxDAO secures $7.5 million for StarkNet-based on-chain gaming ecosystem - The on-chain game developer community known as MatchboxDAO announced a $7.5 million seed fundraising round in order to continue developing StarkNet-based crypto games. Investors in the round include Formless Gamma, Bonfire Union, ReadyPlayerDAO, Neon DAO, Delphi Ventures, Lemniscap, Fabric Ventures, Road Capital, StarkWare, Geometry Research, and ReadyPlayerDAO. Investment will be used to develop MatchboxDAO's two main products, Matchbox Spark and Matchbox Studios. While Matchbox Studios is a set of tools to speed up game development on Starknet, Matchbox Spark incubates gaming products on StarkNet.
- Brazil’s largest brokerage, XP, launches Bitcoin, Ether trading - Brazil’s largest brokerage XP has officially launched its crypto trading platform ‘XTAGE’. It was developed in partnership with American stock exchange Nasdaq and crypto custody firm BitGo. XTAGE is fully integrated into the XP ecosystem, allowing XP users to make crypto trades using the same mobile app they already use. At the moment, only BTC and ETH trading is supported on the platform but there are plans to offer exposure to 10 digital currencies by the end of the year.
- Safe partners with NFTfi to develop NFT rights management wallet - Safe has collaborated with NFT platform NFTfi to develop an NFT rights management wallet. The new product is created with the intention of maximising the value of digital assets to NFT owners. Safe, previously known as Gnosis Safe, recently raised $100 million to focus on building out its digital asset ownership ecosystem.
- Boss Beauties signs with talent agency WME for representation - Boss Beauties, an NFT company and women-empowerment brand launched last year - with its first NFT collection - consisting of 10,000 unique digital portraits of independent diverse women - selling out in 90 minutes. They have signed with WME who will exclusively represent Boss Beauties in all areas and assist in adapting its intellectual property across Web3, film, TV, digital and gaming platforms, as well as live events and brand partnerships. Each portrait of women in the brand’s signature NFT collections represents qualities aligned with the company’s mission of supporting young women in designing the life and career of their dreams. The NFTs showcase women in roles such as astronauts, presidents, caregivers. Boss Beauties was co-founded by Lisa Mayer and Anthony Furlong
- Gordon Ramsay’s Hells Kitchen joins The Sandbox metaverse - Gordon Ramsey has dipped his toes into the metaverse space with The Sandbox. The celebrity chef is bringing Hell’s Kitchen to the immersive 3D space. The Hell’s Kitchen game will feature the first cooking-themed experiences in The Sandbox allowing users to compete to become head chefs by creating new dishes, collecting recipes and more.?It will be hosted on ITV’s LAND and will also include Hell’s Kitchen-themed digital assets such as limited edition Gordon Ramsay avatars.
- Unstoppable Domains launches iPhone app to bring Web3 identities to mobile phones - Unstoppable Domains has launched a Web3 identity app for the iPhone. The company is seeking to boost Web3 accessibility and interoperability in a bid to onboard communities to the blockchain space. The app will allow users to securely manage their digital identities by using an NFT domain.
- Soccer giants FC Barcelona and Real Madrid team up on a metaverse trademark - Sports teams are now considering Web3 with Spanish clubs Real Madrid and FC Barcelona applying to receive trademarks for some elements in the metaverse. The clubs have introduced an application that encompasses different activities and services that they can conduct in the metaverse, including a cryptocurrency wallet, virtual reality gaming, virtual clothing, footwear, headgear and more!
Thanks for reading, and have a great rest of the week. Until next time in Crypto Land.
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2 年Awesome detail Whitters ?? Keep on sharing ?? ??