The European Commission Announces the Launch of the European Blockchain Regulatory Sandbox

On February 15, the European Commission made the announcement that it will be launching the European Blockchain Regulatory Sandbox. The regulatory sandbox will serve as a forum for discussion around 20 new projects each year until the year 2026.

The sandbox was first announced in the year 2020, and it is now being managed by a number of private companies who were successful in winning bids in the year 2022. The Digital Europe Program will be responsible for providing the funding. Use cases from the public and commercial sectors that include “Blockchain and other Distributed Ledger Technologies” will be considered for the selection of projects, which will be done on a competitive basis by an impartial panel of academic experts.

Applicants from the public sector that have initiatives relating to the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI) will be taken into consideration. The European Blockchain Standard Initiative (EBSI) is a pan-European blockchain that is managed by a coalition of EU nations, together with Norway and Lichtenstein.

Participants in the yearly sandbox cohort will be paired with national and European Union regulators in order to get private legal counsel and regulatory assistance. At the same time, regulators will have the chance to become familiar with cutting-edge blockchain technology.

The deadline for applications to participate in the first round of projects is April 14. The projects need to have a proof of concept that has been verified according to the standards, and they need to have a dimension that crosses borders.

The projects that have already been selected for deployment by public authorities will be given precedence. The European Economic Area is where a company’s headquarters should be located (EEA). As long as the EEA-based firm is the one to ultimately benefit from the initiative, these companies are allowed to work in partnership with enterprises headquartered outside of the EEA. Participants should not expect to have any of their costs repaid.

The chosen projects will each be provided with a written legal evaluation, which will be followed by two virtual meetings with the involved regulators. Additionally, applications are being accepted for the EBSI Early Adopters incubator program, which is now in its third cohort.

In the Financial Services Innovation bill that was being introduced in the United States House of Representatives by Patrick McHenry, a comparable sandbox program was suggested. In the next iteration of the United Kingdom’s changes to its financial services industry, a sandbox program of a similar kind may also be included.

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HK’s PANGU Plays a Magician in Metaverse, Expanding P2E Model for Business Growth

Hong Kong-based start-up PANGU, a metaverse agency appointed by Sandbox, is helping clients to enter into the metaverse by providing asset creation and branding consultation services. The company said it is building various business models, including the play-to-earn (P2E) model for clients to support its growth.

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Kenny Ng, the founder of PANGU by Kenal (left) believes the Metaverse would be the tendency of the future; 
and Zero Chung (right) thinks that providing customied solutions to clients is key advantages of the company.

Interior designer in the Metaverse

Stepping into the office located at Kowloon Bay, Eastern Kowloon in Hong Kong, a mini botanical garden has been set up at the base’s main entrance. Agave americana, more commonly known as Century Plant, and other various potted plants are growing under the care of the owner. The vibe of the working environment and its inspirations also come from the green belief.

PANGU, the visual design production company established as its affiliate of the Kenal Group, has hired over 20 staff and still rapidly expanding. Kenny Ng, Founder of PANGU by Kenal, established his team around eight months ago. Ng shared his experience with Blockchain.News, “just like other start-up companies, we are gradually expanding our scale, starting from building up our products with designers, then developing business and marketing teams at the following stage.”

Furthermore, the company plans to establish community management in the long term, PANGU’s Ng shared his ongoing business plans to Blockchain.News.

This company has connected with the Sandbox since last November in 2021 and was just appointed as the official TSB Metaverse agency in April, which is rare for HK-based startups in the global market. According to PANGU, the agency raised its capital independently followed by grants from Sandbox’s “game maker fund”, which aims at connecting with the next generation and the tendency of web 3.

These services support its business growth by providing a one-stop solution, including land purchase with development, offering marketing strategy, digital assets creation and branding collaboration for clients from online to offline.

Kenny Ng, Founder of PANGU said:

“As an agency of (the Sandbox), we wish we are able to provide complete solid service with own our resources, instead of outsourcing works to other parties, which is not practical. So, that would be our direction in practice.”

“Our partnership (between Sandbox and clients) is more like property developers, and we play our role as the builder and property management unit as a contractor, offering consultations for clients on how to develop their own lands and promote their branding through online and offline activities,” Chung added.

Projects such as Metagreen or clients from Standard Character are part of their key clients, these corporate firms have entered into the Metaverse through the Sandbox. In the project of Metagreen, PANGU said they are mainly responsible for purchasing land and its development, non-fungible token (NFT) creation, but also partnerships from online to offline, including partnerships with NFT gallery, NGOs and running other community channel management, such as Discord.

The founder told Blockchain.News that “in this early stage of the Metaverse, most clients are still discovering and exploring what they can do after investing in these virtual lands. Some clients prefer to shape a revolutionized image and identity in the virtual space, while some clients prefer to promote their branding traditionally,” adding that “we are working together with clients to find out a potential and possible (virtual) identity by helping them to build its ecosystem in this space.”

The Chief strategist suggests customized design and creative solutions for various clients would be one of the advantages for the company to remain competitive in the industry, as the company is not just serving local customers but serving globally.

P2E Development

Meanwhile, inspired by environmentally sustainable beliefs, the company also transformed itself into a game developer, trying to bring different scenarios to this virtual space.

Earlier this month, the game developer virtually launched an NFT drop project, connecting with a gamification-based metaverse space. Featuring ecology conservation and environmental sustainability, the company is introducing a gamification-based platform for players to explore another virtual world– Ecoland.

The Ecoland is a diversified ecosystem, featuring environmental and educational theme interaction for players, according to PANGU. The company said its assets creation is fully designed from scratch by itself. Their voxel characters are unique with high quality.

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Operating through the Play-to-Earn (P2E) model, the platform has associated with the Sandbox, players can earn SAND tokens or win some exclusive NFTs after completing several missions in the game in exchange for upgrading their equipment and tradings.

In addition, the gaming platform also wishes to escalate its landscape in the Metaverse, bringing more interactive ways in different scenarios, such as “Play to learn”, to deliver educational messages to players by completing some mini-games in the space. “We are also cooperating with several environmental NGOs, so we will donate serval amount to NGOs we cooperate with when customers buy specific NFTs from them. These objectives would help us fulfil social responsibility obligations,” Chung added.

Regarding crypto adoptions, PANGU said currently it would only use tokens for necessary transactions or trading among campaigns during the execution stage, such as paying gas fees during the minting of NFTs. “The company might use tokens in the future as the incentive for staff, encouraging them to stay tuned in the crypto space,” Ng added.

Previously, the company participated in the event the Artaverse, to increase its exposure to the industry.

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PANGU discloses the company is expanding regional and overseas markets during Q3 and Q4 this year. 

Promising Potential Value in the Metaverse

According to the latest research from McKinsey & Company, the study suggests the preliminary value of the Metaverse it creates in the space could grow up to $5 trillion by 2030.

E-commerce would be the largest driving force, which takes up to $2.6 trillion, followed by virtual learning ($270 billion), advertising ($206 billion) and gaming ($125 billion) sector.

Meanwhile, the blockchain-related application and scenarios on the Metaverse are still expanding.

Author of “Snow Crash”, Neal Stephenson, who created the term “the Metaverse” nearly 30 years ago, has recently announced a new project named LAMINA1, according to online media outlet Decrypt.

The project was described as a “free metaverse”, a blockchain-based network for building the open Metaverse. “We’re going to have all the facilities of a full layer one (blockchain) to help support and encourage the creators who want to build with us. That is my and Neal’s strategy—align everything around getting the best thing built and getting everybody all the tools they need to build what they want,” Vessenes explained.

Imagination of Virtual Land

The land issue in Hong Kong remains one of the most challenging issues in the city. With limited space and high demand, physical land has become one of the rarest resources for housing, real estate and other property developments.

Since the arrival of Metaverse and virtual lands in recent years, the bond and chemistry between these two topics have the caught attention of investors who wish to join the virtual space instead of trading physical land. More local entities or corporate firms in Hong Kong, as a result, foresee the potential benefit and investment opportunities in the Metaverse. However, these firms still need a builder’s help to construct the Metaverse infrastructure.

Apart from projects coordinated by PANGU, more local firms, such as Telcom operator PCCW and local railway operator MTR, also shared optimistic views by joining the Metaverse space, aiming at raising their awareness and exposure in the virtual space. Meanwhile, Yahoo and Meta, formerly named Facebook, have also announced to launch of a metaverse connection in the city in the hope that to reserve the old style and image of the city.

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BTC, ETH Gain Ground & The Top 5 Metaverse Movers to Watch

After the short bearish trend amid the Russia-Ukraine tensions, the crypto market has started to gain ground again. Bitcoin and Ethereum rose by about 1% and 5% respectively during the last week. Many other cryptocurrencies have followed. The popularity and market capitalization of the Metaverse tokens also continues to grow.

 

Many analysts link the fall and rise of the crypto market to the recent political events and fluctuations of the Russian ruble. When the currency suddenly started to pull back, so did most of the digital assets. Now that the rouble is slowly recovering, cryptocurrencies are shooting up in value again. Last week, Russia claimed that it would only accept rubles and maybe crypto for oil and gas. This statement may have led to the growth of the ruble and the surge in the crypto market. 

For the first time in three months, Bitcoin surpassed the $47,000 mark on March 28. The number one crypto might not yet be close to its new ATH, but it might very well hit the new highest price of the year soon. In two days the BTC value jumped by more than $1,000, then retreated, and now continues to grow again. The move may have to do with Russia’s consideration of accepting BTC for its natural resources mentioned above. 

 

 

Source: Messari.io 

 

BTC is currently trading at $45,502,80. It grew by 1.23%% during the past week and dropped by 3.16% in the last 24 hours.

 

Ethereum has been growing steadily for the last 10 days and just like Bitcoin saw a big jump on March 28. The price of ETH is still lower than it was in the beginning of the year, but it might reach that point again soon as it seems to be following the bullish trend. 

 

 

Source: Messari.io 

 

The currency gained 5.35%% during the past week and fell by 3.89% in the last 24 hours. At the moment of writing, ETH costs $3,296.23.

Decentraland (MANA)

Decentraland’s MANA token is the top metaverse crypto by market capitalization. Created in 2017 and open to the public in 2020, the virtual reality platform quickly gained popularity. Users have many possibilities in the virtual world, from creating and exploring to buying and monetizing plots of land. Its native currency MANA is powered by the Ethereum blockchain. 

 

 

Source: Messari.io 

 

Even though the token was growing earlier this week it went down by 1.72%  in the last 24 hours and by 2.88% in the last 7 days. The total market cap of MANA is $4,775,414,595. At the moment of writing, it’s trading at the price of $2.59.

Axie Infinity (AXS)

Axie Infinity is a blockchain-based play-to-earn video game launched by Sky Mavis in 2018. Users get to breed and raise the creatures called Axies and receive rewards for them. Each Axie is a platform’s native NFT. 

 

Source: Messari.io 

 

The currency has seen a huge jump during the last 10 days going up by about $20 in 24 hours. However, it retreated significantly after. The AXS’s value has dropped by 10.91% over the past week and grew by 1.38% over the last 24 hours. At this point, the price of the token is $63.66 and the market cap is $3,885,108,076. 

The Sandbox (SAND)

The Sandbox is a NFT-based virtual world where users can create, buy, and sell plots of land in the form of a game. Players can use the virtual land to host events, concerts, or games and monetize their creations. The internal currency SAND is becoming very popular.

 

 

Source: Messari.io 

 

This week SAND was growing steadily and saw a couple of big jumps until it suddenly went down yesterday. It dropped by 1.59% in the last seven days and by 1.91% in the last 24 hours. Despite its climbs the coin is still pretty far from its ATH of $8.40 it saw last November. SAND is now trading at $3.40. Its total market cap is $3,939,930,950. 

ApeCoin (APE)

ApeCoin is a native cryptocurrency behind the NFT-famous Bored Ape Yacht Club project. Launched less than 2 weeks ago by ApeCoin DAO, the coin immediately gathered a lot of hype around it. ApeCoin is mainly used for purchases within the APE ecosystem.

 

 

Source: Messari.io 

 

The total market capitalization of APE is currently $3,581,479,601. It lost 0.58% in value during the week but grew by 2.14% in the last 24 hours. Its current price is $12.77.

Theta Network (THETA)

Theta is a blockchain-based network focused on video streaming. Users of the decentralized platform share bandwidth and computing resources on a P2P basis. The project is advised by Steve Chen, co-founder of YouTube, and Justin Kan, co-founder of Twitch.

 

 

Source: Messari.io 

 

THETA has seen strong growth and shooted up in value by 25.04% during the week. In the last 24 hours it rose by 1.72% and is now trading at $4.09. The total market cap of the currency is now $4,034,400,099.

 

All in all, even though there have been some drops in the last two days, we can see that most coins and tokens are on the rise and it seems that spring has finally come to the crypto market. There’s a big chance that cryptos will surge even more in the next weeks and months, especially if the political situation stabilizes and countries go ahead with the crypto adoption.  

P.S. This article has originally been published on Benzinga.

Image source: pexels.com

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The Sandbox (SAND) metaverse token gains 40% after Snoop Dogg, Warner Music partnership

Sandbox (SAND) refused to go down despite broader negative market sentiment in the past 24 hours. Instead, the altcoin logged a breakaway recovery as traders assessed its recent high-profile partnerships as a sign that the project has strong fundamentals.

SAND rose 10.23% to $3.38 at the UTC close on Jan.27, followed by another 5.42% spike to $3.57 on Friday. In contrast, Bitcoin (BTC), dropped 1.41% within the same timeframe.

SAND/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView

SAND adoption booms

Traders decided to increase their exposure to SAND after the Sandbox announced partnerships with American rapper Snoop Dogg and Warner Music, a major record label.

On Jan. 27 Snoop Dogg tweeted a teaser of what appeared to be his upcoming nonfungible token (NFT) collection, dubbed “the Snoop Avatars.” The rapper further hinted that his avatars would come as a part of the Sandbox metaverse.

Later, that day, the Sandbox announced that it would create a music theme park and concert venue within its metaverse with the help of Warner Music. In doing so, the gaming project noted that the Warner Music artists would virtually engage with their fans and generate real revenues streams.

“We’re shaping The Sandbox as a fun entertainment destination where creators, fans, and players can enjoy first-of-a-kind immersive experiences and be more closely connected to their favorite musical artists through NFTs,” Sebastien Borget, chief operations officer and co-founder of The Sandbox, told Cointelegraph.

Naturally, the high-profile partnerships boosted the prospects for SAND to find more takers in the future. That is primarily because of the token’s role as a primary asset inside the Sandbox metaverse — a medium of exchange, governance and staking. As a result, it fared better than most of its top-ranking crypto rivals on Thursday.

What’s next for SAND?

The latest bout of buying appeared in line with a choppy recovery in the broader cryptocurrency sector that started on Jan. 24.

Between its nadir of Jan. 22 and Friday’s top, the crypto market added over $150 billion to its net valuation. SAND, which recovered alongside other assets, bottomed out at $2.56 then went on to rally over 40% in just four days.

SAND/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView

Following the bounce, SAND price confirmed its 200-day exponential moving average (200-day EMA; the blue wave in the chart above) as its interim support. If the euphoria surrounding the Snoop Dogg and Warner Music partnerships sustain, Sand will likely extend its upside momentum toward the 50-day EMA (the red wave) near $4.50.

Meanwhile, independent market analyst Cantering Clark doubted the upside setup, reminding that SAND’s pump could have posed a “helpful exit for holders” before a potential bearish continuation ahead.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.