Crypto anti-money laundering rules passed by MEPs

Members of the European Parliament's economic affairs and home affairs committees have voted in favor of the anti-money laundering regulation, with 99 for, eight against and six abstentions. After weeks of back-and-forth negotiations between policymakers and stakeholders, the committees’ members agreed on their version of the text. The vote allows the files to enter the next stage of negotiations where the Parliament. For crypto, there are multiple implications. For one, decentralized autonomous organizations, NFT platforms and DeFi platforms will be subject to the AML rules. They will be obliged to comply as long as they are “controlled directly or indirectly, including through smart contracts or voting protocols, by identifiable natural and legal persons,” according to a draft obtained by The Block. Unlike the EU’s soon-to-be-enforced Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, the anti-money laundering bill does include decentralized platforms as obliged entities. The aim of the AML file is to close the regulatory gap.

Lido Issuing NFT Attached To User’s ETH Withdrawal Request

Lido, a staking liquidity protocol, has announced its NFT issuance plan, and each NFT represents a user’s ETH withdrawal request. The most significant decentralized finance (DeFi) platform by total value locked revealed intentions to create a non-fungible token (NFT) to reflect a user’s withdrawal ETH request amount as part of the process of unstaking their ether during its Node Operator Community Call. Lido was the first to provide liquidity access to ETH holders looking to stake their tokens by issuing a derivative token, stETH. Mariya Muzyko, product manager of Lido, said that users could quit staking stETH on this protocol and receive ETH at a 1:1 ratio. After a user requests a withdrawal, they will receive an NFT issued by Lido representing their withdrawal request. Users can then use NFT to receive their ETH rewards. After the user redeems their ETH, the NFT will be destroyed. Each NFT is transferable, meaning a user can transfer the NFT to another address, making the new address the corresponding ETH reward.Lido says that if users decide to sell their NFTs on the secondary market, they will not collect royalties.

🪙 ITV Studios takes Thunderbirds into The Sandbox metaverse

ITV Studios and Reality+ have joined together to launch the Tracy Island Sandbox Metaverse Experience. The time-limited Tracy Island event in The Sandbox Metaverse will run for two weeks from today to give fans the opportunity to join forces with their favourite Thunderbirds characters to take on quests in and around the famous top secret International Rescue HQ. The Tracy Island Sandbox Experience consists of 15 quests and mini-games with a plethora of Easter eggs and information about the original TV series. Leveraging the benefits of Web3, fans can also browse the various digital collectibles, including a gallery takeover in the Thunderbird 2 hangar, and a special voxel exhibition curated by Lady Penelope. Reality+ co-founder Tony Pearce said: “It’s a tremendous honour to be working with ITV Studios, not only to help them push the boundaries of what’s possible in the world of Web3 entertainment.

📣 FalconViz launches metaverse lab offering BIM solutions

Saudi asset digitization company FalconViz has announced the launch of its first metaverse lab in Saudi Arabia, offering tools that can be applied to any building information modeling project, handle giga-projects and deliver mixed-reality experiences. The company sees the launch as just the beginning of its journey of contributing to achieving the Kingdom’s Vision 2030. The announcement of “FalconViz Metaverse” was made at the BIM and Digital Twins Exhibition 2023 in Riyadh, heralding the company into the new age of digitization. The metaverse is largely considered the next era of the internet. Whilst it is difficult to single out one standard definition for the metaverse, it is considered an immersive, interoperable and synchronous virtual world. This new age of the internet will most certainly disrupt and transform the current social and economic structures and bring about a whole new wave of opportunity across many different sectors.

⚡️ Lego enters metaverse with Epic Games partnership

Lego has teamed up with Fortnite creator Epic Games to enter the metaverse market. The Danish toy company has set out plans to develop a virtual world with the help of Epic Games so that its products can be accessed in digital form within the metaverse. Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, said: “We’re thrilled to be partnering with Lego to bring the joy of building and creativity to a wider audience. The Lego metaverse will be built using Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, which powers some of the world’s most popular video games. Lego invested $2bn (£1.7bn) in Epic Games in April 2021, with the objective of developing a metaverse platform that would provide secure and safe digital spaces for children to interact with the brand. The company, which is famous for its plastic brick-based toys, has not neglected the digital sector, with a successful range of Lego computer games for PC and consoles. In 2022, Lego saw a surge in sales as consumers purchased larger and more intricate sets, posting a revenue of £7.7bn in 2022, an increase of 17% compared to the previous year.

🟠 Changpeng Zhao: Banks Represent A Risk To Fiat-backed Stablecoins -Link

news.coincu.com/173135-changpeng-zhao-risk-fiat-backed-stablecoins/

Changpeng Zhao: Banks Represent A Risk To Fiat-backed Stablecoins](https://news.coincu.com/173135-changpeng-zhao-risk-fiat-backed-stablecoins/)) Key Points: Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, a major cryptocurrency exchange, has raised reservations about fiat-backed stablecoins. Zhao believes that

🪙 USDC Backed To $0.99 As Traders Gain Profits Amid Silicon Valley Bank Concerns -Link

news.coincu.com/173143-usdc-backed-to-0-99-as-traders-gain-profits/

USDC Backed To $0.99 As Traders Gain Profits Amid Silicon Valley Bank Concerns](https://news.coincu.com/173143-usdc-backed-to-0-99-as-traders-gain-profits/)) Key Points: Experts suggest that the proportion of USDC reserves affected by the bank's collapse is no more than 10%,

🪙 MakerDAO Proposes Changes To Protect Users From Centralized Stablecoin Crisis -Link

news.coincu.com/173088-makerdao-proposes-changes-to-protect-users/

MakerDAO Proposes Changes To Protect Users From Centralized Stablecoin Crisis](https://news.coincu.com/173088-makerdao-proposes-changes-to-protect-users/)) Key Points: MakerDAO proposes changes to limit exposure to potentially impaired stablecoins and risky collaterals while maintaining liquidity for DAI