This Week in Web3: Blockchain Looks to Create, Not Just Store, Real-World Value

Blockchain, at this point a significant industry, perpetually appears to be on the verge of mainstream acceptance.

Its promise of delivering benefits such as easier access to financial products and services, improved resilience and security, and more competition and innovation remains an attractive one. And the cryptocurrency industry, the historical flag-bearer for blockchain technology, is working on putting its prior scandals and unsavory reputation behind it.

But there is still much work to be done, from advancements in technology to clearer regulatory frameworks, to broader marketplace education and a more stable market environment.

That’s why each week PYMNTS rounds up the most pressing crypto and Web3 news, updates and announcements for our readers, tracking the key data points along the sector’s journey toward making meaningful and sustainable headway across global payments and commerce.

Capturing On-Chain Utility Across Use Cases

While blockchain has remained a constant presence, its Web3 peer — the metaverse — may no longer be living up to the lofty promises that captured the attention of enthusiasts. Envisioned as an interconnected system of digital worlds built on blockchain technology and digital tokens, key measures of the metaverse’s value, such as the prices of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other tokens associated with platforms, have been on the decline, as reported last Wednesday (Aug. 7).

But blockchain doesn’t appear to be suffering the metaverse’s fate.

Instead, as a new PYMNTS Intelligence report, “Blockchain’s Benefits for Regulated Industries” highlighted, public blockchains, known for their decentralized nature, are gaining traction in addressing business needs.

On Tuesday (Aug. 13), DBS and Ant International launched a pilot of a blockchain-powered treasury and liquidity management solution designed to enable Ant International to reduce the settlement of intragroup transactions from days to seconds.

The solution, DBS Treasury Tokens, will enable Ant International, a provider of digital payment and financial services solutions, to use the digital form factor to achieve instant, multicurrency treasury and liquidity management on the DBS permissioned blockchain for its entities across multiple markets, the companies said.

And on Wednesday (Aug. 14), Mastercard launched a crypto-to-fiat card with Web3/blockchain platform MetaMask and cryptocurrency payments firm Baanx.

The MetaMask Card lets MetaMask wallet customers use crypto for everyday purchases in fiat currency wherever Mastercard is accepted. The card is being piloted on a limited basis — a few thousand digital-only cards — for European Union and U.K. users.

Elsewhere, aelf and ChainGPT have partnered to add chatbots, non-fungible token (NFT) and smart contract generators, and other artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to aelf’s blockchain network.

The first phase of the partnership will focus on the integration of ChainGPT’s AI chatbots across aelf’s website, Telegram and Discord platforms, according to a press release. These chatbots will be trained on aelf’s developer documentation and strategic initiatives, will serve both technical and retail users, and will manage everything from simple user inquiries to complex development questions.

Crypto Seeks Regulatory Clarity

It was a big week on the regulation and enforcement front, as last Wednesday (Aug. 7) one of the longest running legal cases impacting crypto’s regulatory future got a partial resolution.

The case,  between cryptocurrency company Ripple Labs and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), saw the scales of justice fall partly in favor of Ripple with the company ordered by a federal judge to pay a civil penalty of $125 million, along with an injunction against future securities law violations. The SEC was seeking fines and penalties totaling $2 billion.

Still, the SEC wasn’t without its own victories this week.

The agency on Monday (Aug. 12) charged NovaTech Ltd, its operators, Cynthia and Eddy Petion, and the company’s top promoters with running a fraudulent scheme centered on crypto assets.

The SEC’s complaint said that the Petions told investors that NovaTech would invest their funds on crypto asset and foreign exchange markets but instead used most of those funds to make payments to other investors, to pay commission to promoters or to be taken by the Petions, with only a fraction of the funds used for trading.  The complaint also alleged that when NovaTech collapsed, most investors suffered substantial losses because they were unable to withdraw their funds, per the release.

The company raised over $650 million in crypto assets from more than 200,000 investors around the world.

Read more: California Puts Car Titles On-Chain in Push for Blockchain Usability

And elsewhere, one of the highest profile crypto scams neared its own resolution with the announcement last Wednesday that FTX and sister company Alameda Research have agreed to pay their creditors $12.7 billion as part of a settlement between the fallen cryptocurrency platform and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Under the agreement, FTX and Alameda will pay back $8.7 billion to investors defrauded by Sam Bankman-Fried, the now-jailed founder of FTX. The companies must also pay a $4 billion “disgorgement” for “gains received in connection with the violations” mentioned in the CFTC’s complaint against the defendants.

And despite the decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, Web3 businesses need banking partners. But on Thursday (Aug. 8), news broke that Pennsylvania-based Customers Bank, one of the only crypto-friendly banks in the U.S., was served with a 13-page regulatory enforcement action by the Federal Reserve related to its digital asset and dollar token activities, highlighting the need for financial institutions (FIs) to balance both innovation and compliance.