James Cirrone

Upland, a metaverse platform mapped to the real world, is launching an NFT fundraiser to help support an American nonprofit building playgrounds in neighborhoods that historically haven’t had access to them.&nbsp;



KABOOM! has built or renovated over 17,000 playspaces since its founding more than 25 years ago. According to Upland chief of staff Danny Brown Wolf, ending playspace inequity is a mission that resonated with users of the Upland metaverse.&nbsp;



“Our community members who are avid Uplanders brought in…KABOOM!,” Wolf said, adding that some of those members participate in real world fundraisers for the playground manufacturer.&nbsp;



Thanks to the community members, KABOOM! was able to get in touch with the Upland team so a fundraiser could be facilitated in the metaverse through in-game map assets.&nbsp;



Map assets in Upland equate to <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/nfts">NFTs</a>, and users can buy assets such as land, houses, apartments and even decorations for their virtual living spaces. 



So, in that same vein, Upland is selling an NFT playground collection with 1800 NFTs, the proceeds of which will be going to KABOOM! Upland takes a 10% transaction fee.



The minting process, visible to all metaverse participants through an in-game representation of a factory churning out the playgrounds, will be underway on Thursday. The first sales will begin on Friday.



The collection was designed by an Uplander who is a graphic artist. It features five different playgrounds that, once bought by a user, can be put in their virtual backyard, Wolf said.&nbsp;



This isn&#8217;t Upland&#8217;s first charitable endeavor. In December 2022, Upland launched a similarly-styled fundraising campaign, this time with UNICEF Brazil to fund its “youth program teaching metaverse and Web3 skills to young adults who wish to work in the industry,” according to Wolf.



This sale featured ornaments and winter gnomes that people could buy to adorn their virtual homes for winter — just like in the real world, Upland has seasons.&nbsp;



Leveraging its established relationship with UNICEF, Upland initiated a sale of items in February to aid the victims of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Turkey and Syria.



Both sales of these winter decorations raised a combined $89,692, Wolf told Blockworks.&nbsp;



Wolf views the UNICEF fundraiser, as well as Upland&#8217;s involvement in other metaverse funding projects, as testament to the medium&#8217;s validity and a confirmation of its future business model.



Wolf said that “just like every impact organization has a social media team that does GoFundMe campaigns on Facebook,” she wants to see the same use case play out in a broader sense in the metaverse.



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Upland to sell NFTs to raise money for equitable playground access

Bessie Liu

HashKey Capital has raised half a billion dollars for the cryptoasset manager’s latest vehicle. 



The fund, HashKey Fintech Investment III, is designed to key in on “the growing opportunities in emerging [digital asset] markets,” the firm said in a statement on Tuesday.&nbsp;



It’s a notable $500 million haul in <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bargain-basement-opportunity-for-crypto-volatility-traders" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">unsteady crypto markets</a>, and the funds have been earmarked to invest in a number of cryptocurrency and blockchain initiatives globally — under that emerging markets focus. Limited partners, according to HashKey, include sovereign wealth funds and family offices.&nbsp;



HashKey has “weathered at least three cycles in the industry,” according to Dennis Chao, the asset manager’s chief executive. The firm’s parent company, Hong Kong-headquartered HashKey Group, is known as a specialist in investing in blockchain projects in Asia and was an early backer of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ethereum" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ethereum</a> — dating back to 2015.&nbsp;



“These unique experiences and insights will be invaluable to us in navigating through turbulence,” Chao said in a statement.



Chao’s firm has since backed a number of crypto projects that have since moved into the limelight, including Cosmos, dYdX, Animoca Brands and Polkadot. The cryptoasset manager launched in 2018. 



HashKey Group inspired Ethreum’s upcoming “Shanghai Upgrade,” according to Xia Feng, the investment manager’s chair. Shanghai is slated as the next major upgrade for the Ethereum network and is designed to allow the proof-of-stake blockchain’s validators to withdraw their staked ether, the network’s native token. 



The pending upgrade, which appears to be on track to occur in March, marks the first time validators — which verify transactions on the protocol — would mark the first time validators are able to cash in on their locked up ether, which has been accruing staking rewards. Ethereum <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-to-reach-500000-validators" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hit half a million</a> validators earlier this month as momentum builds toward Shanghai.&nbsp;



“We have maintained since the first day that the power of blockchain and crypto innovation can create a better future,” Feng said. “Fund III will follow our time-tested investment principles while&nbsp; also looking for game-changers, which would be those that will propel the industry forward into the next stage.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



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Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.



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