Crypto Trends Weekly – Sept. 24 – 30

Breaking crypto news from the last week (Sept. 24 – 30, 2022):

Sept. 24: The Walt Disney Company is looking to hire a transaction lawyer working at an “accelerated and aggressive timeline” to explore new technology opportunities, like the metaverse, DeFi, and NFTs. The media conglomerate looks to expand into Web3 territory focusing on “next generation storytelling.”

Sept. 25: Apple is adding standardizing acceptance of NFT-based apps to be available on the Apple App Store. However, the company is including their standard 30% transaction fees for all transactions, a mechanism that many NFT firms argue is unreasonable and simply not feasible for their existence in the store.

Sept. 26: Payment giant Mastercard partnered with crypto financial app Hi to launch the world’s first NFT card, an official announcement said. This new card will allow people to customize their NFT avatars with an item from a collection comprised of these digital assets.

Sept. 27: Crypto exchange FTX US has won the bid for the assets of embattled crypto brokerage firm Voyager Digital, which is to be approved by the UA Bankruptcy Court, with a bid valued at approximately $1.4 billion. Voyager hinted that its customers would eventually transition to the FTX platform after it finishes its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

Sept. 28: Interbank messaging service SWIFT has partnered with Chainlink Labs (LINK) for a cross-chain interoperability proof-of-concept project. The project would connect SWIFT’s network to every blockchain to allow traditional finance players access to digital and traditional assets within the single network.

Sept. 29: BlackRock launched the iShares Blockchain Technology UCITS ETF, as the world’s largest asset manager has been increasingly engaging in the crypto sector. The world’s largest asset manager BlackRock just made another step into the crypto sector, this time launching an ETF with exposure to blockchain and crypto companies for its European customers.

Gigantic record label conglomerate Warner Music Group announced that it would partner with NFT marketplace OpenSea to accelerate its artists’ expansion into Web3. The first joint project will be an IP-generative ‘NFT Label Pass’ developed by Web3 startup Probably Nothing.

Sept. 30: The European Union (EU) might tighten restrictions on Russians’ crypto investments in the EU as a response to “sham” independence votes being held in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine, CoinDesk reported. Russian citizens could be restricted from making any payments to EU crypto wallets following the limits imposed in April.