Community Gaming, a gaming platform, has closed a $16 million Series A funding round led by SoftBank’s Latin America Fund.

Other participants in the funding round included Animoca Brands, Binance Labs, BITKRAFT Ventures, Griffin Gaming Partners and CoinFund, among others.

https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/04/07/community-gaming-raises-16m-in-softbank-led-round-to-expand-crypto-esports/

Sweden’s central bank completes second phase of e-krona testing.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/sweden-s-central-bank-completes-second-phase-of-e-krona-testing

PayMaya, a digital financial services platform based in the Philippines, has launched a cryptocurrency feature on its app, enabling users to buy and earn digital assets.

https://www.techinasia.com/tencent-backed-paymaya-rolls-crypto-feature

UFC starts paying bonuses to fighters in cryptocurrency.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-07/ufc-to-start-paying-bonuses-to-fighters-in-cryptocurrency

CertiK, a blockchain security firm, has raised $88 million in a Series B3 round.

CertiK was valued at $2 Billion.

This B3 round of funding was led by Insight Partners, Tiger Global, and Advent International, with participation from Goldman Sachs and existing investors such as Sequoia and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

https://twitter.com/CertiKTech/status/1512047774413602820

Shiba Inu sets to roll out four major projects in coming days.

https://u.today/shiba-inu-set-to-roll-out-four-major-projects-in-coming-days-heres-whats-new

Improbable, a British company focused on building tools for virtual experiences, has raised $150 million.

Andreessen Horowitz and SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led the funding round, with additional participation from Mirana, Digital Currency Group, CMT, SIG and Ethereal Ventures.

https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/141104/improbable-raises-150-million-to-build-an-interoperable-metaverse-network

U.S. customers of Cash App, a mobile payment service run by Block (formerly Square), will be able to automatically invest a portion (or the entirety) of their direct-deposit paychecks into bitcoin.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ninabambysheva/2022/04/07/cash-app-users-can-now-invest-their-paychecks-into-bitcoin/

CME Group and CF Benchmarks plan to launch 11 New Cryptocurrency Reference Rates and Real-Time Indices on April 25.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cme-group-and-cf-benchmarks-to-launch-11-new-cryptocurrency-reference-rates-and-real-time-indices-on-april-25-301519757.html

Hedera Hashgraph is eyeing the metaverse with its latest venture fund, saying that will put $250 million in HBAR tokens toward its development.

https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/04/07/hbar-foundation-commits-250m-to-drawing-metaverse-apps-to-hedera/

Luna Foundation will acquire Avalanche tokens (AVAX) worth $100 million from the Avalanche Foundation to boost the stablecoin reserve.

https://twitter.com/terra_money/status/1512111686018285582

Near Protocol is set to launch a stablecoin called USN.

https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/141274/near-protocol-is-set-to-launch-a-stablecoin-called-usn-source

Mastercard has filed 15 NFT and Metaverse trademark applications.

It indicates plans for an NFT backed media, payment processing in the Metaverse, marketplaces for digital goods + NFTs, e-commerce transactions in the Metaverse.

https://twitter.com/KondoudisLaw/status/1512397180044296197

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), a U.S. banking regulator, has asked banks to report on their “crypto-related activities”.

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/04/07/fdic-asks-all-banks-to-report-crypto-activities/

Elon Musk suggests Dogecoin (DOGE) payments for Twitter Blue.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1512954808394731521

BreederDAO (BREED) has announced the public sale — Token Launch Auction (TLA) on Copper.

Start date: April 26, 14:00 UTC
End date: April 29, 14:00 UTC
Token Pool Allocation: 75,000,000
Starting rate: $1.5

https://medium.com/@breederDAOcommunity/breed-public-sale-token-launch-auction-tla-on-copper-51483a0197f9

The LEGO Group and Epic Games are entering a long-term partnership to build a place for kids to play in the Metaverse.

https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/news/the-lego-group-and-epic-games-team-up-to-build-a-place-for-kids-to-play-in-the-metaverse

Binance has received its In-Principle Approval (IPA) for a Financial Services Permission (FSP) from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (the FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) to operate as a broker-dealer in virtual assets.

https://www.adgm.com/media/announcements/binance-awarded-in-principle-approval-for-a-financial-services-permission-from-adgm

Binance Labs led the seed round for Sender Wallet, a non-custodial wallet built on NEAR Protocol.

In addition to Binance Labs, Metaweb Ventures also participated in this investment round.

https://www.binance.com/en/blog/ecosystem/binance-labs-leads-the-seed-round-financing-of-sender-wallet-421499824684903678

White Star Capital, a technology investment firm, has raised $120 million for its second crypto fund investing in companies developing the metaverse.

Ubisoft is the anchor investor for the crypto fund.

https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/04/11/white-star-capital-raises-120m-crypto-fund-for-metaverse-investments/

Animoca Brands acquires Eden Games, developer of Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed, F1® Mobile Racing, Gear.Club, and others.

https://www.animocabrands.com/animoca-brands-acquires-eden-games