Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the international body governing international competitions of soccer, will launch its own nonfungible tokens (NFT) collection ahead of the 2023 Club World Cup in Saudi Arabia.

According to the December 11 announcement, and in collaboration with blockchain firm Modex, an inaugural 100 NFT collection will premiere on December 15, featuring the chance to secure FIFA World Cup 2026 final tickets. In addition, a total of 900 other digital collectibles will be issued on the Polygon network (MATIC) and OpenSea this month, comprising memorable moments from the ongoing tournament and digital versions of memorabilia. 

“Scheduled to kick…

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Cryptocurrencies pulled back Monday, erasing some of the gains posted last week. Despite this, bitcoin and ethereum managed to stay above key levels. 

Bitcoin lost around 6.5% over the past 24 hours at time of publication, posting an 8% decline from its highs last week that saw the token soar past $44,000 for the first time since April 2022. The largest cryptocurrency was still trading above $40,000 on Monday. 

Ether similarly declined, losing more than 7% over the past 24 hours Monday afternoon in New York, but managing to hover around $2,200. 

“It looks like this is a leverage adjustment, which can be painful but is usually good news,” Noelle Acheson, author of the “Crypto is…

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South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) proposed new rules on Monday to protect crypto users.

The proposed rules would fall under its Protection of Virtual Asset Users Act, which is set to take place on July 19, 2024.

The Act will cover “electronic tokens with economic value which can be traded or transferred electronically,” but put “electronic bonds, mobile gift certificates, deposit tokens linked to CBDC and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to the list of excluded tokens,” the FSC said.

NFTs have an exception, however, with the FSC clarifying that large scale issuances, as well as tokens used as a payment method for a good or service, could see “digital tokens”…

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The global blockchain gaming market will grow to an estimated $614 billion over the next seven years, according to an analysis from Fortune Business Insights released on December 11. The market currently accounts for an estimated $154 billion in spending.

The report analyzed global sales data for blockchain game products from 2017-2021. It found that sales were increasing by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.8%, implying that by 2030 the market will have reached $600 billion. This implies an absolute growth rate over the six year period of nearly 299%.

Fortune’s researchers divided the world into five regions: North America, South America, MiddleEast/Africa, Europe, and Asia…

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The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) closed its deal on Monday to acquire Securrency as traditional finance-crypto integrations continue to emerge. 

The purchase was first announced in October. It is part of a bid to help accelerate the expected greater institutional use of on-chain assets amid an industry-wide tokenization push.

DTCC CEO Frank La Salla said in a Monday statement that the firm seeks to build “a robust digital infrastructure that protects the safety and soundness of financial markets and delivers on the enormous promise and potential of institutional DeFi in the coming years.”

Read more: DTCC tees up institutional DeFi push with Securrency buy

The…

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A Bitcoin (BTC) block that took over an hour to mine made headlines earlier in November. This is despite Bitcoin’s core protocol being written to aim to mine a block every 10 minutes.

Block 815,690 is the latest outlier to generate press speculation. This block took one hour and nine minutes to mine on Nov. 7. Public interest in an hour-plus confirmation time is not a singular event. Roughly once or twice a year, a media outlet picks up on a long block validation event and decides to run with the story.

On Oct. 17, 2022, a prominent crypto news site reported on a block that took one hour and 25 minutes to mine, which spurred a flurry of similar reports. As the story spread widely on…

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The $4.3 billion settlement from Binance and plea deals from both the crypto exchange and its former CEO Changpeng Zhao alleges that the two “deliberately” tried to “subvert US law,” but were caught, according to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The SEC, in a new filing in its case against the world’s largest crypto exchange, argued that the plea deals announced by the Department of Justice in late November “undermine Zhao’s and Binance’s arguments that the SEC’s claims relating to the Binance.com Platform involve non-actionable extraterritorial conduct.”

Binance did not immediately return a request for comment. 

Back in September, Binance filed a motion…

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