EU Council approves MiCA. Warner partners with OpenSea. Near Protocol partners with Google

European Blockchain Convention is BACK! 

After selling out tickets and sponsorships for EBC22, we are excited to announce that EBC23 will be held on February 15-17 2023, once again in beautiful Barcelona!

Expect over 3.000 attendees, 200 speakers, and a 2000 sqm trade fair dedicated to learning and connecting 🌐

Special Opportunity: save 20% on top of the early bird ticket with the code EARLYBIRD23 (only 20 tickets available).

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Recap of the Week

EU Council approves MiCA, moving the proposal to the parliament

Near Protocol partners with Google Cloud to support Web3

Warner Music partners with OpenSea to help artists engage with their audiences

The SEC fined Kim Kardashian for promoting tokens on her Instagram page

Elon Musk looks set to complete his $44bn acquisition of Twitter

SWIFT sets out blueprint for CBDC network

McDonald's will accept Bitcoin and Tether in a Swiss town

Facebook and Instagram users in the US can display NFTs on the platforms

UPS launches store in Decentraland metaverse

Three Arrows Capital's NFT collection to be liquidated after its bankruptcy

Celsius co-founder Daniel Leon resigns

Coinbase is launching a crypto documentary

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Latest Funding Rounds in Crypto

Bit2Me raises betwwen €20 and €30M · Founded in 2014 · Spain

• Bit2Me offers blockchain services to exchange, sell and buy crypto

• Round led by Telefonica, one of the world’s largest telecom companies.

• Telefonica is entering the crypto payments arena by running a pilot to allow its customers to make payments via its online store Tu.com.

• The funds will allow Bit2Me to keep operating during the market downturn.

Horizon Blockchain Games raises $40M in Series A · Founded in 2017 · Canada

• Horizon Blockchain Games is a creator of blockchain-based video games providing an ecosystem where players can win, own, trade, and sell their NFT cards.

• Funds will be used to grow products and scale operations to attract more builders to their platform.

• Round led by Morgan Creek Digital & BH Digital.

Finteum raises £1.3M in Seed Round · Founded in 2018 · UK

• Finteum is creating a global financial market for bank treasurers to lend to each other for hours at a time.

• Finteum’s platform is built on DLT, which helps streamline the execution and settlement of trades.

• The funds will be used to expand functionality and bring many more banking clients to the platform, as well as hire new talents.

• Three large European banks have already signed up to the platform, which goes live for trading in early 2023.

• Round led by SuperSeed Ventures.

METAV.RS raises €3M in Seed Round · Founded in 2021 · France

• METAV.RS is the no-code content platform that gives luxury brands a collection of Web3 apps to handle their own digital worlds or miniverses.

• The funds will be utilized for recruitment and platform improvement, templatization. The startup will be doubling its crew by the tip of 2023.

• Round led by Jsquare.
  

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Acquisitions

Circle acquires Elements
Terms undisclosed

• Circle is a global financial technology firm that enables businesses to harness the power of crypto for payments, commerce and financial applications worldwide.

• Elements is a payments platform for merchants and developers.

• This acquisition will accelerate crypto payments for Elements.

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Meme of the Week