Epic Games raises $2B for Metaverse, Mastercard scales NFT plans and Ripple scores

Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.

Top Stories This Week

Mastercard files 15 metaverse and NFT related trademarks

Multinational payments giant Mastercard filed 15 applications for NFT and metaverse trademarks, joining the ranks of competitors Visa and American Express who have taken similar action recently as well.

Notable applications include those for an online marketplace for digital goods, virtual reality events and communities, and Mastercard payment processing in the Metaverse. Furthermore, the firm is aiming to virtually trademark its “Priceless” slogan via tokenized text, audio and video.

Another filing outlines an intention to get Mastercard’s branding and name on sponsorship deals for metaverse-based sporting events, concerts and festivals.

Fortnite creators Epic Games raise $2B from Sony and LEGO to fund metaverse plans

Epic Games, the creators of the wildly popular Fortnite game, raised $2 billion in funding at a valuation of $31.5 billion. The round was led by Sony and The Lego Group’s holding company, Kirkbi.

The funds will go towards scaling Epic Games’ Metaverse plans, with chief executive officer and founder Tim Sweeney stating that the capital will help create “spaces where players can have fun with friends, brands can build creative and immersive experiences and creators can build a community and thrive.”

While there may not be a crypto or NFT link there specifically, Epic Games is also the developer of Unreal Engine, one of the most prominent game engines. The latest iteration, Unreal Engine 5, is able to facilitate the creation of NFT-based play-to-earn (P2E) games, offering a strong signal that the firm is eyeing the sector.

Ripple claims ‘a very big win’ in SEC case

Ripple Labs scored a “very big win” in its long-running dispute with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this week, according to Ripple community lawyer James K. Filan. While both parties have traded many blows during the legal battle, Ripple appears to be growing confident that its arguments against XRP being a security will hold up in court.

Presiding Judge Sarah Netburn denied the SEC’s request to reconsider shielding important documents under privilege relating to a June 2018 speech made by the SEC’s former Director of the Division of Corporate Finance William Hinman, who stated that Bitcoin and Ether were not securities.

“The SEC seeks to have it both ways, but the Speech was either intended to reflect agency policy or it was not. Having insisted that it reflected Hinman’s personal views, the SEC cannot now reject its own position,” said Judge Netburn.

Brazilian Senate announces incoming approval of the ‘Bitcoin law’

The Federal Senate of Brazil has announced the drafting of a bill that will enable the regulation of the local cryptocurrency market. The long-debated issue is set to come to an end soon, with the bill due to be sent off for a full senate vote soon.

Two legislators, Senator Irajá Abreu and Federal Deputy Áureo Ribeiro, both rapporteurs of the aforementioned proposals in their respective legislative chambers, are drafting the bill.

“By joining the projects together, we accelerated the approval of this cryptocurrency milestone,” said Senator Abreu. “There is a market demand for a safer business environment and the need for criminal classification to avoid fraud, in addition to adjusting Brazil to international agreements.”

Coinbase suspends crypto payment services days after India launch

Coinbase reportedly suspended crypto payment services via its Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for Indian users earlier this week. It wasn’t an ideal move for the cryptocurrency exchange, given that it had just launched its services in the…