Weekly crypto roundup: FC Barcelona to Gets Into Metaverse and NFTs

In today’s edition of Bitmama’s weekly crypto news roundup, we cover interesting developments in the cryptocurrency industry. Top picks – FC Barcelona revealed its plans to take advantage of the rise of the metaverse and NFTs in the cryptocurrency market, Switzerland plans to freeze crypto assets owned by Russian citizens and businesses held within Switzerland’s borders, Russia proceeds with efforts to legalize crypto amid sanctions over Ukraine, NFT sales tumble 29% as searches for Metaverse-Related terms plunge.

Let’s get started.

FC Barcelona revealed its plans to take advantage of the rise of the metaverse and NFTs in the cryptocurrency market

The  Football club (FC) Barcelona, one of the most influential soccer clubs in Spain and Europe, has announced its intention of expanding to new business areas that include metaverse and NFTs. The expansion’s objective is increasing the engagement of the club through the use of these new technologies. Joan Laporta, president of the club, talked about the upcoming moves the club will be making, stating:

‘’In recent times there has been a lot of attention to blockchain products and services such as NFTs and metaverse. We should be able to offer digital products to our members and fans that will align with the value of the club and generate a very interesting emotional experience’’.

The  club is already contemplating the introduction of these new technologies to generate revenue and engagement from fans all over the world. Laporta also hinted at the possibility of the launch of a cryptocurrency issued by the club itself, instead of the fan token that is already available, issued in partnership with Socios.

The club is already building infrastructure to support this new path with the launch of Barca Studios, to centralize the production of all of the audiovisual offers of the team, and also the Barca Innovation Hub, to introduce new technologies into the workflow of the team.

Laporta stated the team was definitely focused on expanding to offer new products and services linked to new technologies in order to stay relevant.

Switzerland plans to freeze crypto assets owned by Russian citizens and businesses held within Switzerland’s borders

According to a report  from the Financial Times, the Swiss federal government plans to freeze crypto assets owned by Russian citizens and businesses held within Switzerland’s borders.

The freeze would coincide with sanctions already imposed by the European Union in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

As the Financial Times reports, Swiss Finance Minister Guy Parmelin says 223 Russians, including close associates of President Vladimir Putin, have had their bank accounts and physical assets frozen by Switzerland in the past week. The cryptocurrency prohibitions are an additional penalty beyond EU sanctions.

A senior official with the finance ministry tells the Financial Times freezing crypto assets was necessary because Switzerland wants to protect the integrity of its blockchain industry. According to a report by CV VC, a Swiss venture capitalist firm, as of December 2021, around 1,128 blockchain companies called Switzerland or neighboring principality Liechtenstein home.

Russia proceeds with efforts to legalize crypto amid sanctions over Ukraine

Authorities in Russia are continuing their work to establish a comprehensive legal framework for crypto transactions. The efforts, which started before the military invasion of Ukraine, go on amid warnings that Moscow may use cryptocurrencies to evade expanding financial sanctions.

Expert council meets in Russia to discuss law ‘On Digital Currency’ The bill was submitted by the Ministry of Finance and reflects its concept on the matter. Unlike the Central Bank of Russia, the treasury department favors legalizing the industry under strict rules. Its approach has been backed by the federal government and other institutions.

Bitnalog, a portal advising Russians on how to pay their taxes on crypto incomes and profits, has published an announcement by the Duma on Telegram about the upcoming meeting. It was originally supposed to take place on Friday, but the outlet later updated subscribers to its channel that it has been rescheduled for Saturday, March 5.

NFT sales tumble 29% as searches for Metaverse-Related terms plunge

According to Google Trends (GT) data, interest in NFTs has dive-bombed, as the search query for the term “NFT” slid from a score of 100 on GT during the first month of 2022, to this week’s score of 42.

Statistics for the search query term “metaverse” show interest there has also slid significantly, sliding from January’s high score of 88 to today’s GT score of 32. While NFT interest is sliding, sales volume has dipped a great deal as well.

Over the last seven days, NFT sales have dropped 29.46% lower than last week’s sales volume. Metrics from cryptoslam.io’s seven-day records show that the largest blockchain in terms of NFT sales, Ethereum, is down 32.13%.

Wax blockchain sales have dropped by 38.52% this past week, but Palm and Theta NFT sales lost the most. Palm-based NFT sales are down 73.36% since last week and Theta’s NFT sales are down 78.87%.

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