Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest video gaming organizations — responsible for creating popular franchise games such as Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and For Honor — hosted their Q2 earnings call this week, where blockchain was a key topic of discussion. Alongside reporting a 15% increase of unique active players in the first half of the year compared to 2020, and that Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has become the second most profitable game in the companies history, the French firm’s CEO, Yves Guillemot also expressed intentions for investment and adoption of blockchain-centric gaming companies on the platform. Despite making notable advancements …

Global business provider Zventus announced a new blockchain initiative on Monday called the “Mortgage Blockchain Lab.” The lab is meant to collate the resources of several mortgage experts, technology firms and academic institutions to collaborate on blockchain research and development focused on the mortgage sector. The California-based firm, whose product and service offerings span a broad business spectrum including business consultancy, human resource strategy and tech support, will work with its partners in this blockchain sandbox to develop and test new products and services. Early reports from the firm suggest that the costs of loans for financial organizations will be …

As nonfungible token sales appear reanimated after a nearly two-month dry spell from their apex in May, a particular NFT application is gaining popularity more than ever: metaverses. Metaverses have gained their fair share of media attention lately, with big moves coming from companies like Facebook and Epic games. However, not everyone — even those who have been in crypto for a long time — has caught on to what metaverses are, despite the hype. But as more companies, celebrities and artists venture into the space, it has become another domain that deserves some thorough consideration. The Metaverse is a …

The main challenge companies face when testing and implementing innovative technologies is the need to amend existing legislation. Developing and testing new products based on distributed ledger technology requires special conditions that are often inconsistent with existing regulations. The solution to this problem would be the introduction of a special “regulatory sandbox” regime. It means the creation of an ecosystem within which companies and state-owned enterprises can test their developments without legislative obstacles. Federal law No. 258, “On Experimental Legal Regimes in the Field of Digital Innovation in the Russian Federation,” came into effect on Jan. 28. It allows new …

Crypto-custody provider and securities firm, Propine, has graduated from the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s fintech regulatory sandbox program, emerging with a Capital Markets Services License and the green light to commence full operations. The Singapore-based securities services firm for institutional clients was admitted entry to the MAS regulatory sandbox on Nov. 8, 2019 and participated for just over a year before being granted approval to exit on Jan. 7, according to a recent post on the firm’s website. Singapore financial law states that a company must hold a Capital Markets Services License if it wishes to conduct business activities regulated …

Blockchain-enabled gaming world The Sandbox announced a partnership with Care Bears owner Cloudco Entertainment on Sept. 2 that will bring a virtual representation of Care-a-Lot Kingdom to the platform. Players will be able to explore the Care-a-Lot environment and interact with attractions, games and buildings. There will also be Care Bears-themed NFTs which players can buy and use in their own lands. The Care Bears were launched in 1982, bringing the values of caring and sharing to countless millions of children and adults alike since then. Their message of cooperation and understanding has seen the brand generate more than $5 …

Atari has partnered with WAX blockchain to bring their video games onto the blockchain in the form of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). The brief announcement on Twitter followed news earlier this week that Atari CEO Frederic Chesnais had joined the WAX Advisory Board, joining Google, Microsoft, Marvel Games, Magic Leap, and William Shatner as the other members. “We're excited to finally unveil our latest partnership with @WAX_io! With this collaboration, Atari is bringing its legendary #videogames further into the vastly expanding world of #blockchain and #NFTs.” Atari is really into blockchain Atari is of course most well known as the developer …

Animoca Brands, the firm behind blockchain-powered games The Sandbox, F1 Delta Time, and Crazy Defense Heroes, has reported unaudited revenue for the first four months of 2020 of $7.34 million amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The first quarter was Animoca Brands’ strongest on record with $4.33 million in revenue, followed by a record month with $3 million during April. Animoca Brands held $6.08 million in fiat and crypto assets at the end of April. Roughly $770,000 of the company’s holdings comprised Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), alongside $1.12 million in various altcoins. Animoca attributed the increase in its crypto holdings to …

Crypto venture capital firm and trading desk, Galaxy Digital Holdings, has been granted conditional approval to participate in the Toronto Stock Exchange’s TSX Sandbox. Announced during April last year, TSX’s sandbox offers a testing ground for new policy development, and an initiative intended to facilitate support for listing applications “that may not generally satisfy the requirements and guidelines of TSX.” Galaxy will graduate from the sandbox onto TSX after 12 months of trading without the occurrence of “a significant compliance issue.” Galaxy Digital enters TSX Sandbox Galaxy Digital founder and chief executive, Mike Novogratz, described its entrance into the sandbox …

The United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced it will pilot a digital sandbox intended to foster innovation from firms developing solutions addressing the COVID-19 pandemic on May 4. While applications have not opened yet the FCA welcomes initial expressions of interest from firms. FCA launches digital sandbox amid coronavirus The FCA noted that it has been exploring the concept of a digital sandbox since before the coronavirus outbreak. However, the virus prompted the regulator’s decision to launch an early pilot to trial aspects of its digital sandbox to expedite the development of solutions to COVID-19. The digital sandbox will …

Amid regulatory uncertainty for cryptocurrencies in Russia, a federal ministry introduced legislation that would legalize crypto and blockchain within a special regulatory environment. The Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation has reportedly prepared a draft law that would allow the testing of cryptocurrency and blockchain developments within a special regulatory sandbox. Sandbox to unlock blockchain and crypto testing in eight industries According to a March 24 report by local news agency Izvestia, the draft law was introduced to the State Duma — the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia — on March 17. Izvestia reports that …

The governor’s office of Hawaii revealed its new ‘Digital Currency Innovation Lab’ on March 17 — a blockchain and cryptocurrency incubator developed through collaboration between the state’s Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Division of Financial Institution (DFI), and the Hawaii Technology Development Corporation (HTDC). The initiative will run for two years, and will allow “digital currency issuers to do business in Hawaii without obtaining a state money transmitter license during the effective period of the pilot program.” Through the program, Hawaii aims to “achieve a more in-depth perspective of digital currency” and inform future cryptocurrency regulation in the state. …