Blockchain, metaverse and NFT technology are set to make a splash at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) event in Las Vegas this week. The CES is an annual event that features exhibitions of the latest tech advancements and keynote speeches from giants such as LG, Samsung, Amazon, Nvidia and Sony. Innovation of mobility. Sony's Vision-S #CES2022 pic.twitter.com/lLykDAUapB — Sony (@Sony) January 5, 2022 This year’s event runs between Jan. 5 and Jan. 7 and will host more than 2200 exhibitors, with crypto and NFT companies a notable addition to the perennial gadget makers and TV manufacturers. In terms of the …

Digital asset curator Metaversal announced Tuesday that it has completed a $50 million funding round to further expand its investment capabilities in the nonfungible token (NFT) and metaverse sectors. The Series A funding round was co-led by investment firms CoinFund and Foxhaven, with additional participation from Collab+Currency, Dapper Labs, Digital Currency Group, Franklin Templeton, Rarible, Theta Blockchain Ventures, Galaxy Vision Hill and others. Metaversal said it will use the funding to expand its NFT-focused business, including acquiring high-profile digital collectibles and supporting projects that are being bootstrapped by its venture studio. The funding also enabled Metaversal to secure partnerships with …

Yat Siu of Animoca Brands Yat is the executive chairman and co-founder of Animoca Brands, which delivers digital property rights to the world’s gamers and internet users, thereby creating a new asset class, play-to-earn economies and a more equitable digital framework contributing to the building of the open Metaverse. “During the course of 2022, growth in decentralized gaming will drive blockchain and crypto adoption into the hundreds of millions of users.” These quotes have been edited and condensed. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions …

Wider adoption of nonfungible tokens (NFT) and play-to-earn games may be on the way, as one of the world's largest gaming companies sees them as the future of the industry. Yosuke Matsuda, CEO of Square Enix, revealed the company's intentions for blockchain and NFT spheres in his new year's message on Saturday. In his letter, Matsuda begins with a discussion of the metaverse before noting that Facebook's renaming to Meta is proof that the concept isn't a passing fad. He expects 2022 to be a year of hype for the metaverse as society begins to slowly embrace virtual worlds and …

Nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, have become one of the most discussed markets in the crypto space this year. A recent report from Cointelegraph Research found that NFT sales are aiming for a $17.7 billion record by the end of 2021. This may very well be the case, as a number of mainstream brands have begun launching NFTs. According to recent research from Bain & Company and the online luxury fashion platform Farfetch, digital interactions with consumers are becoming increasingly important for brands. The report specifically states that “digital interaction with peers is on the rise when choosing to purchase a …

Simon Peters of eToro Simon is a crypto analyst at eToro, the world’s leading social trading platform, which offers both investing in stocks and cryptocurrencies. “While we could potentially see a bear market in 2022, with more countries considering making Bitcoin legal tender, the emergence of CBDCs, and the wider use of stablecoins by households and businesses, the crypto landscape has much more to offer. As the next iteration of the internet comes into effect (Web3 and the Metaverse), we will naturally see greater capital and user inflows to this space. With NFTs specifically, we could see the tokenization of …

Sandra Ro of Global Blockchain Business Council Sandra is CEO of the Global Blockchain Business Council, an industry association for the blockchain technology ecosystem. “ In 2022, it will be ‘corporate career risk’ to not have a baseline understanding of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. From bankers to corporate executives to politicians, it is imperative that they get on board and seriously consider the implications of blockchain. Further, 2022 winners will ‘expect the unexpected,’ and adapt to investing, servicing clients and participating in new trends. In 2021, few expected NFTs to become the killer app, driving mainstream interest and adoption. Web3, …

The growth of NFTs has shot to the next level in terms of popularity and finding acceptance from the crypto community and the mainstream alike. Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) that were initially thought to be a bubble are now expanding their coverage across the cryptoverse. According to a report by DappRadar, the NFT market has had its best year, generating over $23 billion with the floor market capitalization of the top 100 NFT collections standing at $16.7 billion, as of Dec. 17, even before the year closed out. The biggest move for NFTs and the metaverse space has been Facebook’s announcement …

Following the announcement that Facebook’s parent company would be rebranding in a shift towards the Metaverse, many projects have started similar initiatives entering the virtual space, from buying property to testing the limits of what this universe has to offer. Virtual ball drop on NYE The Ethereum-based virtual reality world Decentraland announced on Wednesday that a New Year’s Eve celebration would be taking place in the Metaverse. Grayscale owner Digital Currency Group has partnered with real estate firm Jamestown to create a virtual One Times Square — the iconic New York City location where a giant ball descends on a …

Shanghai, China's most crowded city, is looking for ways to use metaverse in public services over the next five years. Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology's five-year development plan for the electronic information industry listed four frontiers for exploration, and one of them is metaverse. According to a CNBC report, the paper called for promoting the metaverse's use in public services, business offices, social leisure, industrial manufacturing, production safety, and electronic games. The commission plans to encourage further study and development of underlying technologies, such as sensors, real-time interactions and blockchain technology. China's interest in new technology has …

Times Square NYE party in Decentraland Decentralized Metaverse project Decentraland will unveil the virtual reality version of the iconic Times Square via a New Years Eve party that coincides with the timing of the real life celebration in New York city. The event is called the “MetaFest 2022 NYE Party” and will run until 8:00 am UTC on Jan. 1 in Decentraland’s Estate 4 district. It will feature live music, rooftop VIP lounges, a new tokenized collectibles and wearables drop, live feeds of real world NYE events across the globe, CryptoArt galleries and games. The virtual reality equivalent of the …

As the traditional gaming industry has grown and people have begun to spend more time online, the digital world and reality are slowly becoming indistinguishable from each other. Unfortunately, while many gamers were already used to participating in multiple virtual worlds, traditional games have left significant gaps in their ability to connect them to their ecosystem in a more cohesive experience. This difference quickly opened the world to the metaverse concept. Being more than a game, players are encouraged to do more than participate in exciting gameplay. In fact, with the introduction of the blockchain, the metaverse has grown to …