Santander will host an awards ceremony in the metaverse this week to crown the winners of a global blockchain challenge.
The Spanish bank is making its début in Decentraland on 14 July when it will name the six challenge winners. The ceremony will also be streamed on YouTube.
Around 400 firms from 11 countries entered the challenge, which sought ideas addressing issues such as improving user privacy and security in blockchain networks, boosting DeFi and tokenisation, and enhancing and expanding digital interactions with users through concepts such as Web3 and the metaverse.
Judges have already whittled the field down to 20 finalists: 10 start-ups and 10 scale-ups. This will now be cut to three winning startups, which will receive €10,000 each and three winning scaleups, which will get €30,000 each.
Firms will also get access to Santander X 100, the bank's community of start-ups, which connects them to advice and training, capital, customers, talent and networking. In addition, they will be given an exclusive NFT designed by Oxentia Foundation.
Viewers that watch the final via streaming on Decentraland will be able to get the wearables of the event: a cap and a bracelet that will allow them to customize their Metaverse avatars.