This Week [In] Crypto: Reese Witherspoon Joins WoW, Japan Bolsters Sanctions, Barca’s Own Metaverse

A week is a long time in crypto, especially since President Vladimir Putin started a war in Ukraine and sanctions began to bite. Here’s a round-up of what you may have missed between Feb 28 and March 6.

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World of Women NFTs

Reece Witherspoon has long had the wow factor. But now she’s taking it to the metaverse in partnership with World of Women. The actress’s company, Hello Sunshine, is planning a non-fungible token (NFT) project aimed at cutting male dominance in the space.

“While the crypto and NFT space is largely dominated by men, there are inspiring leaders like World of Women creating incredible communities for women during this massive shift for media and technology,” the 45-year-old actress told Variety.

Witherspoon is an active Web 3.0 promoter, especially on Twitter spaces. She now wants her production company to educate more women on the next generation of the internet.

Witherspoon is an active Web3 promoter, especially on Twitter spaces. She now wants to educate more women for the next generation of the internet through her production firm.

FC Barcelona’s metaverse

Some of the biggest soccer teams have already entered the NFT world, but the 26-time La Liga champions want to go further to create their own metaverse and cryptocurrency.

FC Barcelona has an ambiguous view on crypto, recently rejecting a number of big sponsorship deals from exchanges worth $76m. The club president Juan Laporta said:

“Barca has always been innovative in the use and adaptation of new technologies, and we want it to continue to be so; we know that the blockchain will be important in the coming years, and the club does not want to miss out on that.”

Barca has been struggling financially recently and Laport believes this project could “help the club’s finances.” The club has already released a fan token with the help of Socios and Chiliz (CHZ).

Sanctions begin to bite in Russia

The US, EU, UK, and other major economies have been applying more and more sanctions on Russia since its invasion of Ukraine, causing a huge financial crisis in the country. 

And Japan added its weight by seeking to block the transfer of crypto assets to anyone on the sanctions list.

“We are closely watching the situations of settlements such as crypto assets in order to secure the effectiveness of sanctions against Russia,” said Shunichi Suzuki, the country’s finance minister.

Crucial to this is the ban on Russia’s access to the international settlement system, SWIFT. However, the country claims its own alternative, the Financial Message Transfer System of the Bank of Russia (SPFS), is ready to launch. The question remains, apart from Russia, who would use it?

PayPal, Visa, and Mastercard also suspended services in Russia. The financial payment giants revealed their intentions to comply with international sanctions. 

The US, however, is talking with crypto exchanges to prevent Russia’s use of digital currencies. Although a few exchanges denied freezing the accounts of regular Russians, they say they will still comply prevent further activity.

A recent report from the blockchain analysis firm called Chainalysis shows a major fall in crypto trading volume in Russia, down from a daily high last year of $150m to just $34m on March 3.