Cryptocurrency

The Law Commission of England and Wales has launched a government-commissioned review that aims to provide clarity on how private international law rules can apply to emerging technology, such as digital assets and electronic trade documents.

The Commission’s new law reform project – Digital Assets: Which Law, Which Court? – will consider the private international law challenges in international tech-related disputes, such as those involving crypto-assets such as cryptocurrencies and NFTs, and electronic trade documents.

The rapid rise of new digital technologies, which often rely on distributed ledger technology – such as blockchain technology – has generated a number of conflict of laws issues, leading to legal uncertainty for users, organisations and governments.

In many cases involving emerging technology, it is unclear which courts have the power or jurisdiction to hear the dispute, and which law should be applied. The problem is partly driven by digital location – because digital assets are intangible and often distributed, their geographical location can be hard to pinpoint, creating an array of legal issues.

Growing conflict of laws issues have been identified in previous Law Commission work over the last two years, on digital assets and electronic trade documents. The Commission’s new project, sponsored by the Ministry of Justice, will build on this work, seeking to provide clarity in these areas of legal uncertainty.

The Law Commission will develop reform proposals in a public consultation paper, due to be published in the second half of 2023.

By providing further clarity and proposing reforms to the private international law rules affecting new digital technologies, the review seeks to provide greater certainty to both the domestic and international commercial community.

The Commission’s review also aims to support the growth of new, innovative digital technologies in the UK – helping to meet the government’s stated goal of the UK becoming a global hub for digital assets, along with its wider ambitions for economic growth.

“With digital assets and other emerging technologies developing rapidly in recent years, the laws that support and govern them have struggled to keep pace. This has led to inconsistencies across jurisdictions, with uncertainty over which laws should be applied and which courts should rule on them,” Professor Sarah Green, the Law Commissioner for Commercial and Common Law, said.

“Our review will help to support the continued growth of digital technologies. By clarifying the law, the UK can lead the way in providing solutions to the legal issues increasingly seen at an international level, creating a commercial environment that allows these technologies to thrive.”

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Ripple signs second wave of NFT creators to XRP Ledger

Ripple has unveiled the second wave of creators to receive funding for their Web3 NFT projects through its Creator Fund. 

It says the projects will bring to life use-cases for tokenisation in the media sector by leveraging XRP Ledger’s instant settlement and built-in royalty structures.

Launched a year ago, Ripple’s Creator Fund is a $250 million commitment to help creators with the financial, creative, and technical support needed to explore and craft NFTs and other tokenisation projects on the XRP Ledger.

9LEVEL9

A metaverse experience that provides a unique “front row seat” to live and virtual concerts, productions, conferences, and award shows through NFT tickets

Anifie

An NFT marketplace that helps content creators and artists in Japan capitalise on their fan base and community to launch NFTs that enables fan engagement and provides a digital experience to NFT holders

Capital Block

A leading Web3 platform for sports clubs around the world, partnering with football clubs in Europe to launch an NFT membership for their fans to access exclusive content, in real life game experiences, and Web3 benefits and rewards

Cross-Metaverse Avatars

An avatar tool that allows creators to design and mint one-of-a-kind NFT avatars with multiple traits and colours. Holders can then use their unique avatars in video games and metaverse projects

NFT Master

An NFT XRP marketplace that will add a video streaming platform for creators to upload videos and get paid instantly using XRP Ledger’s payment channels or their issued NFTs as a streaming pass. The NFT will offer holders accessibility to watch exclusive videos and vote on upcoming content ideas without ads or paying for a subscription

SYFR Projects

An intellectual property production company that provides production, publishing, and management services to artists. The company will digitise 100+ innovative music and video agreements as NFT agreements

ThinkingCrypto

An NFT project that will allow holders to access exclusive interviews with top crypto leaders in the space. Along with exclusive access, NFT holders will be invited to private digital meetings with the host of ThinkingCrypto, Tony Edward, where he will share candid thoughts and opinions on the future of crypto

Cryptocurrency shorts

Non-profit society Sacem, which provides management of author’s rights, is launching Musicstart, a service that allows all authors or composers, including beginners, to create proof of anteriority for their creations on the blockchain.

German crypto bank Nuri, set to liquidate amid the bear market, has told its 500,000 users to withdraw the funds from their accounts.

Decentralised publishing platform t2.world  has raised $3.4m in a seed funding round led by Inflection and Archetype, with participation from Metaweb, SevenX Ventures, Seed Club Ventures, Block0, GCR, Generalist Capital, and Marc Weinstein.  t2’s mission is to encourage deep reading, create a social experience around reading, and bring a promising solution to the global reduced attention span. 

Web3 gaming creator platform Stardust has raised $30m Series A funding led by crypto-focused venture firm Framework Ventures which also featured Acrew Capital, Blockchain Capital and Distributed Global.

Crypto security startup Web3 Builders has raised $7m in a seed round to build a scam prevention tool for those transacting in NFTs, smart contracts and crypto. Road Capital, OpenSea Ventures, Sparkle Ventures, Picus Capital, ACME, TTV, G20, Global Founders Capital and Haven Ventures participated.

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Crypto prices

The overall market cap of the 21,400 coins is at $924 billion at the time of writing (7am UK),  a 1.4% decrease in the last 24 hours.

For round-ups of recent cryptocurrency news developments, click here.

For valuations of the top 100 coins by market cap in US dollars, plus 24-hour price change, see below.