James Cirrone

Sorare, a platform that infuses crypto and fantasy sports, is now offering an option for players to make purchases in the app with fiat currencies.&nbsp;



This new functionality follows a partnership with Mangopay, a payments infrastructure provider. With Cash Wallet, Sorare’s <a href="https://sorare.com/press">3 million users</a> will be able to pay not just in Ethereum but in the US dollar, the euro and the British pound, GamesBeat <a href="https://venturebeat.com/games/sorare-teams-with-mangopay-to-launch-cash-wallet-for-real-world-currency-transactions/">reported</a> on Monday.



The French startup’s lineup of games has caught on the most in Europe — <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/web3-watch-gamestop-partners-with-ftx-and-sorare-creates-nba-fantasy-game">mainly for its NFT-based fantasy soccer game</a>. But last year, Sorare partnered with Major League Baseball (MLB) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) in a bid to expand into the US.&nbsp;



Sorare CEO Nicolas Julia stressed that the platform remains a blockchain-based product, but touted fiat integration as enhancing accessibility.



“Sorare is built using blockchain technology because we believe it can deliver unique benefits to sports fans and fantasy gamers in the form of proven authenticity, scarcity, and portability,” Julia said. “The launch of Cash Wallet is key to our goal of making Sorare as simple and user-friendly as possible for all sports fans.”



Sorare was founded in 2018. It started out as a trading and fantasy sports game, where users would buy digital cards of soccer players in the form of NFTs. 



That vision attracted plenty of venture capital in 2021. <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/softbank-leads-680m-series-b-for-nft-soccer-platform-sorare">Sorare raised $50 million in its Series A</a> in February. Seven months later, it got a considerably larger investment — $680 million — with Softbank at the helm. With that latest round, Sorare achieved a $4.3 billion valuation.



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Sorare is no longer an Ethereum-only platform — users can now pay with fiat

Ornella Hernandez

<div id="highlights-block_6319d73558517" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Metaverse trademark registrations through 8 months of 2022 have eclipsed all of 2021</li>
 <li>ENS is the top ETH collection with the most volume on OpenSea within the past seven days</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



This week Blockworks looked at <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/venture-capital-bullish-on-building-gamefi-in-a-bear-market/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the state of the nascent GameFi market</a> and how venture capital is keen on pouring money into it during a bear market.



Additionally, a new Solana NFT collection, y00ts, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/latest-solana-nft-collection-gives-ethereum-nfts-a-run-for-their-money/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">has already generated</a> over $7 million worth of secondary sales since Monday despite minting delays.



Blockworks recaps other notable stories that caught the eyes of the Web3 Watch.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Metaverse trademarks are booming</h3>



4,150 trademarks relating to Web3 and the metaverse have been filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) so far in 2022. This is slightly more than twice as many as the total metaverse trademark registrations in all of last year — 1866.



Three major brands have put in their own filings in the past week alone, including carmaker Ford, <a href="https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&amp;state=4804:24nzyj.5.1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">with 19 trademark applications</a> for virtual cars, trucks, vans and clothing, as well as an NFT marketplace.



Sony Music filed trademarks for its Columbia Records logo to be used in association with NFT-backed media including art &amp; music NFTs, music and podcast production as well as artist management and music distribution services.&nbsp;



Luxury goods retailer Hermes also <a href="https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&amp;state=4804:24nzyj.6.7" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">filed trademarks</a> for its name to be linked to NFTs, an NFT marketplace, virtual clothing and footwear, fashion shows and cryptocurrencies. It also mentions plans to create game software featuring avatars, alongside plans for user authentication services for e-commerce transactions.



Metaverse and NFT-focused applications are growing all over the world. The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) claims to have registered 205 applications using the term “metaverse” in 2022.



The number of NFT-specific applications was 1,277 in 2021, but as of September 2022 there have been 1,157 applications.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">For hoops fans who fancy NFTs</h3>



The National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) <a href="https://www.nba.com/news/nba-nbpa-sorare-fantasy-game-release" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">teamed up</a> with French startup Sorare to launch a free-to-play fantasy basketball game this Fall.



Sorare is mostly popular in Europe for its NFT-based fantasy soccer game. After partnering with the Major League Baseball (MLB) association in July, it has now turned to basketball fans as it expands within the US.



This partnership makes Sorare the official NFT fantasy partner of the NBA and gives it the rights to use official NBA league and team logos across its products.



The fantasy game will be released in time for the 2022-23 season and plans to enable fans to buy and sell digital NFT cards representing their favorite players and teams, while putting together a line-up that can earn them points based on the real-life performance of NBA players.



The NBA is no stranger to NFTs and already counts on the Dapper Labs-run NBA Top Shot&nbsp; NFT marketplace where sports fans can buy, sell and trade video clips from basketball games.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">GameStop links up with FTX</h3>



GameStop partnered with FTX, making the video game retailer FTX’s preferred retail partner in the US.



The partnership intends to “introduce more GameStop customers to the crypto exchange’s community and its marketplaces for digital assets,” a press release stated.&nbsp;



While additional details including the financial terms have not been disclosed, one known perk is that GameStop stores will begin selling FTX gift cards.



GameStop recently launched its own NFT marketplace and its own crypto wallet. When the company submitted its Q2 2022 earnings report on Wednesday, however, it noted that any recent financial success may not stem from these new products.



“Revenues earned from our digital asset wallet and NFT marketplace were not material to the condensed consolidated financial statements for the three and six months ended July 30, 2022,” its quarterly SEC filing <a href="https://gamestop.gcs-web.com/static-files/3a9d968d-b9f5-415a-877f-895d5ac83ed3">stated</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Additionally, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/ftx-bringing-crypto-swaps-to-reddit/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">FTX also recently partnered with Reddit and Arbitrum</a> to allow users to pay gas fees on Reddit’s “Community Points” tokens using fiat currency.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">New blockchain game alert&nbsp;</h3>



The top Solana marketplace Magic Eden <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/solana-marketplace-magic-eden-to-offer-ethereum-nfts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">recently expanded to the Ethereum blockchain</a>. One of its first ETH NFT mints on the Magic Eden Launchpad includes a collaboration with Web3 game studio Azra Games.



Azra, which recently closed a $15 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), announced plans to launch a collection of profile picture (PFP) NFTs called “The Hopeful,” as part of its upcoming “Legions &amp; Legends” game.&nbsp;



This game is an ETH-powered collectible and combat role-playing game (RPG) set in a sci-fi fantasy universe. The company is led by Mark Otero, former General Manager of EA Capital Games, whose credits include Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes.



Magic Eden recently shifted its focus to gaming by <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/web3-watch-gamestop-opens-nft-marketplace-magic-eden-fund-focuses-on-web3-gaming/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">launching a new venture capital fund</a>, dubbed Magic Ventures, that focuses on investments in Web3 games from third parties as well as its own. 



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Vitalik polls crypto Twitter </h3>



Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has been <a href="https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1566763265291681793?s=20&amp;t=tUl1e0BorDII4mHyLfgsCg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeting</a> out a slew of polls lately — from personal random questions, like which crypto personality he respects the most, to what a fair price for a 5-letter .eth domain name is. 



In response to the latter, 91,130 participants chimed in and around 50% of the crypto community thinks that the fair price for a 5-letter .eth domain name for 100 years is less than $100. The same goes for .eth domain for 10 years.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">What is a fair price that someone should have to pay to register and unconditionally guarantee ownership of a 5-letter .eth domain for 100 years?&mdash; vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) <a href="https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1566421042872164355?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 4, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



At the same time, Buterin has called for Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domain taxation, suggesting a 3% yearly fee on ENS domain names for the highest bidder.



For example, an investor with $500,000 as the highest bid on their domain should pay a $15,000 taxation annually to maintain ownership. According to him, this would demotivate people from hoarding domains they aren’t using.



ENS has been trading at the top of the secondary sales charts on OpenSea, as the ETH collection with the most volume within the past seven days.



It <a href="https://twitter.com/ensdomains/status/1565374366791057409?s=20&amp;t=QtnSDYyIgx2haUUm3qqE1Q" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">registered</a> 301,000 new .eth domains in August and touts a total of 2.17 million names so far.



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Web3 Watch: GameStop Partners with FTX and Sorare Creates NBA Fantasy Game

Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_6149ffb49aeed" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>With this new investment, the company said it is now valued at $4.3 billion</li>
 <li>In February, the company previously raised $50 million in a Series A round</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



The soccer-focused crypto platform Sorare has closed one of Europe’s largest Series B funding rounds at $680 million, led by SoftBank.



Investors in the round also include participation from Atomico, Bessemer Ventures, D1 Capital, Eurazeo, IVP and Liontree, as well as previous investors such as Benchmark, Accel and Partech, and business angels including Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and football players Gerard Piqué, Rio Ferdinand, Antoine Griezmann and César Azpilicueta, Sorare said.&nbsp;



In February, the company previously raised $50 million in a Series A round. With this new investment, the company said it is now valued at $4.3 billion.



The company was founded in 2018 as an online game for users to buy officially licensed cards of soccer players, which are traded in the form of NFTs. Players can build teams and play against each other through the platform and face outcomes based on the players’ outcome in reality during a game.&nbsp;



“When my co-founder and I first laid out our vision for Sorare in the summer of 2018, our ambition was to create a new game that could unlock the limitless potential of non fungible technology. Because of our shared passion for the beautiful game, creating a fantasy football product was the perfect place to begin our journey,” Nicolas Julia, co-founder and CEO of Sorare said in a blog <a href="https://medium.com/sorare/sorare-raises-a-record-680-million-series-b-round-to-build-the-next-sports-entertainment-giant-c9c987e4a26d" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">post</a>.&nbsp;



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="366" height="326" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Sorare.jpg" alt="Sorare" class="wp-image-8337" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Sorare.jpg?w=366 366w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Sorare.jpg?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Sorare.jpg?w=289 289w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Sorare.jpg?w=293 293w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Sorare.jpg?w=246 246w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Sorare.jpg?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 366px) 100vw, 366px" /><figcaption>Sorare founders Nicolas Julia (left) and Adrien Montfort; Source: Sorare</figcaption></figure></div>



Paris-based Sorare will use the new funding to recruit new talent in Europe and the US, sign new partnerships, accelerate on mobile and marketing, and expand into new sports in 2022, beyond the world of soccer.&nbsp;



Although Sorare already holds a handful of partnerships with over 50 national teams and clubs, including soccer teams like Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Juventus, it also plans to use the funding to launch new partnerships with the top 20 soccer leagues onboard and the top 50 national teams, Julia said.&nbsp;



Earlier this month, the company also <a href="https://medium.com/sorare/laliga-joins-sorare-419405687d28" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a> a partnership with LaLiga soccer league, which is home to the top professional soccer teams in Spain and is one of the top soccer leagues in the world.&nbsp;



In general, the NFT space has taken the world by storm. In recent months, certain NFTs have sold for <a href="https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/beeple-nft-interview">$6</a><a href="https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/beeple-nft-interview" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">9</a><a href="https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/beeple-nft-interview"> million</a>, along with their marketplaces such as <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/opensea-hits-3b-in-monthly-nft-volume/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">OpenSea</a> reporting monthly trading volumes of over $3 billion.



During a fireside chat at Messari’s Mainnet conference on Monday, OpenSea Co-Founder Devin Finzer said that despite the surging popularity in art and collectibles on the marketplace, gaming could be the “next frontier” for non-fungible tokens, Blockworks <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/opensea-co-founder-gaming-to-be-the-next-frontier-for-nfts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>.



“I actually still believe this. A lot of games have been incredibly successful. I really do think gaming is the next frontier for NFTs,” Finzer said at the conference.



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