Banco Santander announces awards ceremony in the Decentraland metaverse

Source: Observatorioblockchain

Banco Santander will hold an award ceremony in the Decentraland metaverse, a platform built on blockchain technology and governed by a DAO. The Spanish bank announces in a statement that next Thursday, July 14, it will announce the names of the winners of the Santander X Global Challenge Blockchain and Beyond at Decentraland. The entity explains that it is carrying out this action to experience the possibilities offered by technology and virtual reality.

Indirectly, the entity chaired by Ana Botín had already debuted last February in the Decentraland metaverse, through the company Metrovacesa, of which it owns 49.4% of the shares. 20.9% are owned by BBVA. In its day, Metrovacesa and Datacasas Proptech, a Spanish startup specializing in the online sale of properties, reported that they would market homes in the metaverse.

Banco Santander and the Decentraland metaverse

JP Morgan opens branch in the Decentraland metaverse with a portrait of its CEO Jamie Dimon

That same month, JP Morgan opened a branch in Decentraland, with the portrait of Jamie Dimon, president and CEO of the entity, presiding over the office. The financial services firm was the first on Wall Street to establish an office in the metaverse for businesses, individuals and investors. JP Morgan opened the office on the busy streets of the Harajuku-inspired shopping district. A lively neighborhood in Tokyo, famous for its street art and the trendy shops that line its streets. This is the district developed by Republic Realm.

Santander and BBVA debut in the metaverse Decentraland through Metrovacesa

Binance obtains Bank of Spain registration

MakerDAO Approves US Bank Proposal to Issue Dai Loans Secured by Real-World Assets. The proposal submitted by Huntingdon Valley Bank, over 150 years old, was approved by the MakerDAO governance. The US bank presented the possibility of creating a 100 million DAI vault to issue loans collateralized with the stablecoin, backed by real-world assets. The initiative seeks to increase the usefulness of the protocol. MakerDAO approved the proposal with more than 87% votes in favor.

Binance obtains registration as a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) from the Bank of Spain . The registration, reports the platform, will allow the exchange to offer exchange and custody services for crypto assets in Spain. As long as it complies with the requirements of the regulations against money laundering and financing of terrorism (AML/CTF). Moon Tech Spain obtained registration from the Bank of Spain on July 7. The registration request was made on January 28.

Elon Musk announces that he wants to withdraw his offer to buy from Twitter. Plans to turn Twitter into a major cryptocurrency payment platform are beginning to fade after Musk withdraws his offer to buy the social network. After acquiring a majority stake in the social network, Musk bid $44 billion to buy the social media company. The tycoon said that he would integrate cryptocurrencies into Twitter to make it easier to send money to all parts of the world. However, apparently, the lack of information about fake accounts and bots on the social network has led him to make this decision. Musk has just integrated payments with dogecoin in his company The Boring Company, dedicated to the construction sector. The price of dogecoin skyrocketed after the news broke.

The Spanish platform 2gether announces its closure and leaves more than 100,000 users affected, according to the Association of Financial Users (Asufin) . The company has posted the «maintenance» sign on its  website and has closed its Twitter account. Asufin indicates that it will undertake collective legal actions to represent the affected consumers and that it will appear in the bankruptcy proceedings. The association explains that the corralito has left those affected without the possibility of redeeming the money they had deposited on the platform.

Russia, Ukraine and Venezuela are the countries with the highest adoption of cryptocurrencies, according to a UN report . According to the aforementioned report, the adoption of cryptocurrencies grew by 2,300% between September 2019 and June 2021. The report attributes the spectacular growth to the pandemic.

The American Bankers Association asks the FED not to issue a digital dollar. The organization, made up of commercial banks, has spoken out against the Fed’s plans to issue a CBDC for the dollar. In the opinion of the Association, the issuance of a digital dollar would be very expensive and the benefits are «uncertain»

Circle debunks USDC crisis rumors. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said that both the company and the stablecoin are stronger than ever. According to Allaire, the use of USDC on high-risk platforms is not enough to affect the stability of the coin.

Bitcoin Black arrives , Visa’s VIP card for the rich crypto to spend without mercy. Bitcoin Black announced the launch of a Visa credit card with no spending limit. It is an exclusive club of 10,000 people worldwide. The company explained  that the premium card allows bitcoins and other major cryptocurrencies to be converted into spendable cash. Its users will be able to use the card at any establishment in the world that accepts Visa and will be able to receive rewards of up to 10% in SPND tokens.

UK launches consultation on friction between taxation and DeFi innovation. The British government has launched a consultation on the taxation of decentralized finance (DeFi). The objective is to establish the taxation of loans and financial products based on crypto assets, without undermining innovation.

Document model 721 or model to arm cryptocurrencies in Spain

The United States Federal Reserve calls for urgent regulation of cryptocurrencies. According to the vice president of the US Federal Reserve, Lael Brainard, cryptocurrencies must be urgently regulated. Brainard says that the cryptocurrency industry has not yet connected deeply with the financial system. So regulation «while they are contained» will help ensure stability by minimizing possible risks to the industry.

The United States asks Japan to stop cryptocurrency mining in the Irkutsk area of ​​Siberia. According to the US government, Russia is taking advantage of affiliate networks of Japan to keep mining in Siberia. It is one of the most favorable areas for mining bitcoins, due to the low temperatures. The United States’ request to Japan to cut any ties with Russia comes after the Russian Ministry of Finance expressed its intention to create a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies.

SDG 13: How blockchain technology can help curb global warming

The Treasury presents a global framework to regulate cryptocurrencies. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has unveiled a global framework to regulate the cryptocurrency industry. The design, developed together with other government agencies, comes as a response to the order of President Joe Biden, in March. Biden ordered the creation of a clear regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies, to protect investors and ensure responsible technological development.

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) will brief G20 finance ministers and central bank governors on regulatory approaches for crypto assets in October. The FSB says that crypto assets and markets should be subject to regulation and supervision commensurate with the risks they pose.

Justin Sun, founder of Tron, joins Changpeng Zhao and Sam Bankman-Fried, as a rescuer of crypto companies in crisis. Sun has said that he could invest up to $5 billion in crypto companies hurt by the crypto winter. The Tron founder, like his colleagues from Binance and FTX, is willing to join the bailouts.

Tether settles to Celsius with no losses. A loan taken by Celsius has been paid off by Tether without incurring any losses. Tether Limited returned the remaining portion to Celsius after paying off the loan, the company’s CTO Paolo Ardoino reported on Twitter. Ardoino noted that Celsius’s debt was settled in a way that minimized any impact on the markets as much as possible.

UK Government launches consultation on friction between taxation and DeFi innovation

The crypto lender Celsius Network, which made a playpen last month, pays off acquired debts and recovers money. So far, he has recovered $440 million after paying off a loan on Maker DAO. These days the payment of 20 million in USDC to Aave has also been known.

Polygon brings Web3 to smartphones

Nothing Technology and Polygon launch Web3 smartphone with NFT collection. Both companies announced the Phone (1), a phone that will integrate blockchain natively to bring consumers to the Web3. According to Polygon, the massive adoption of new technologies will come through smartphones. The new phone, to be announced next week, will be designed to unlock access to Web3 and allow the Nothing community to interact with the many existing decentralized applications within the Polygon Network.

Human subsidizes Ramblist, a news site that uses AI for verification. The crowdsourcing protocol has subsidized the news site Ramblist to support news crowdsourcing and support the site’s contributors.

Decentral Bank, the DAO that develops the USN stablecoin, fixes a vulnerability that allowed trillions of the stablecoin to be minted . The vulnerability was reportedly due to a bug in their smart contract code. One user managed to mint $1 billion in USN for every $1. USN developers reported that all tokens created because of this vulnerability have already been burned.

Bit2Me expands to Latin America

The Spanish company Bit2Me expands to Latin America and increases its workforce. In an interview with CoinDesk, Leif Ferreira, CEO of Bit2Me, reported that the company will expand its services to Latin America and that it will hire about 250 people this year. The company opened headquarters in Brazil recently

The capitalization of cryptocurrencies exceeded $960 million. Bitcoin and Ethereum, the two main cryptocurrencies in the market, show a recovery of 12.9% and 17.1% in the last week. This has increased the cryptocurrency market capitalization slightly. Other cryptocurrencies, such as Lido, Convex Finance and Curve Finance have recovered up to 76% of their value.

The endless opportunities that the metaverse and NFTs bring to museums

Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital, foresees further declines for the price of bitcoin. Despite the slight recovery in the price of BTC, which is over $21,700, Novogratz believes that BTC could go as high as $13,000, if companies stop leveraging the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin miners at a loss

Bitcoin mining companies report large decreases in their income. The crypto winter has affected the price of cryptocurrencies and, with it, the profitability of mining. Iris Energy reported a 27% drop in its crypto mining revenue last month. Others, such as Core Scientific and Argo Blockchain, have been selling much of the bitcoins accumulated from mining to cover their expenses and debts. Last month, Compass Mining lost one of its US facilities after being unable to cover a $1.2 million loan due to low income.

News about NFT and Metaverse

Startup DeepNFTValue, which estimates the value of CryptopPunks using machine learning, raises $4 million in a funding round . DeepNFTValue shared their plans to expand their technology to other NFT collections, such as the Bored Ape and Mutant Ape.

Magnati-MetaV, the metaverse to transform e-commerce with fiat money and cryptocurrencies

Staxe, a company specializing in creative productions on Web3, and  Diversity València Festival have come together to launch their first collection of NFTs . The Festival will be held from July 21 to 23 at the Ciutat de las Arts i les Ciències and will host more than 30 international artists on three large stages. Among them, Iggy Pop, Måneskin, Zaz, Ezra Furman or Christina Aguilera.

Magnati-MetaV, the metaverse that wants to transform e-commerce. ,Magnati, a company based in Abu Dhabi, is preparing to launch a metaverse that will revolutionize e-commerce. Magnati-MetaV will allow payment experiences to be perceived as a bridge between 2D and 3D worlds. In addition, it will allow payment with cryptocurrencies and tokens.

Boredjobs is born , the marketplace for brands to hire NFTs. The Boredjobs marketplace platform, created by Mouse Belt Labs, allows brands and businesses to hire NFT avatars for campaigns and other business purposes.

At press time, the cryptocurrency market capitalization is   $908,198,888,981.202 ($908.1 billion).