Mastercard Wallet Integration, IRS Mulls NFT Tax, Bitget-Bitkeep Deal

Top Stories

• Bitget/BitKeep: Bitget has invested $30 million in BitKeep at a $300 million valuation. The crypto exchange is now the controlling stakeholder of the wallet provider (B).

• MetaMask: Metamask Institutional wallet has started a new marketplace where companies and investment firms can choose among different staking services. The new marketplace will feature the company’s own technology, ConsenSys Staking, alongside offerings from Allnodes, Blockdaemon and Kiln (CD).

• Mastercard: Credit card company Mastercard has entered a collaboration that would allow retail customers in the Asia Pacific region to spend their stablecoins anywhere Mastercard is accepted. The Mastercard-enabled wallet integration will become available for users in the Q2 of 2023 (CT).

Web3 Games

• Aavegotchi: NFT-based gaming project Aavegotchi is launching its own blockchain called Gotchichain. The network will leverage Supernets, a Polygon platform that allows projects to create their own application-specific chains (B).

• Nexon: Korean game publisher Nexon is teaming up with Polygn to create a new NFT game dubbed MapleStory Universe. Players and creators in the Maplestory Universe will be able to develop and manage NFTs in the virtual world (NG).

• Spider Tanks: eSport MOBA game Spider Tanks has shipped a new update on their players with a number of bugfixes, as well as the reveal of the first of the Gen2 tanks, the Shaman (M).

NFT News

• Magic Eden: NFT marketplace Magic Eden has expanded to Bitcoin amid growing Ordinals inscriptions. The Solana-based NFT marketplace is adding bitcoin to its multichain support system after expanding to Ethereum and Polygon blockchains last year (NG).

• IRS/NFT Tax: The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is considering taxing NFTs as collectibles. The guidance could classify NFTs as collectibles, similar to art and gems, and impact IRAs and capital gains taxes (DC).

Into the Metaverse

• Music Licensing: Licensing music in the metaverse has massive potential but also many challenges according to CoinTelegraph. With the rising popularity of Web3 and the metaverse, songwriters and musicians are wondering what music licensing will look like in this new space (CT).

• Horizon Worlds: Stand up comics have built their own communities and spaces in Meta’s Horizon Worlds. But they feel the company isn’t supporting them as well as it could (TV).