Wallet interoperability still remains the vision for Web3 gaming, according to Arthur Madrid, the co-founder and CEO of the decentralized metaverse and gaming platform The Sandbox. 

In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph at the Crypto Polo event in Dubai, Madrid and The Sandbox co-founder and chief operating officer Sebastien Borget told Cointelegraph that Web3 gaming interoperability remains the goal for The Sandbox. Madrid said: 

“So, the vision is still kind of obvious for us. It’s like you need to be able to play any games using one wallet that will enable you to combine the utilities of all that you collected and all what you earned.”

The Sandbox CEO said that one of the main narratives they’ve seen in the last couple of months is that players can move from one game to another using a single wallet. The executive told Cointelegraph that players accessing games with one wallet and using their items on different platforms remains an exciting topic for Web3 gaming enthusiasts. 

The Sandbox co-founders at the Crypto Polo event in Dubai. Source: Cointelegraph

Web3 gaming still “booming” as tools become accessible

Madrid added that despite a market slowdown, the Web3 gaming space is still booming. The executive told Cointelegraph that the tools and infrastructure needed to create new games have become more accessible. 

“I can feel that the tools you need to create games are becoming more accessible. If you look the number of games that have been created on gaming platforms over the last two years, it’s still booming,” Madrid told Cointelegraph. 

The executive also said that a new generation of programmers and programming tools is working on new types of gameplay. Madrid added that the space needs only one good game that could serve as the catalyst for the broader adoption of Web3 technology in gaming. 

“The thing is, you always need this moment where one game is making a difference. You have this moment of rebirth,” Madrid said. 

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The Sandbox co-founder highlights a shift in NFT utility

Borget told Cointelegraph that the non-fungible token (NFT) space is now seeing a shift in focus. The executive said that their team is seeing more maturity in the industry as it shifted from using NFTs to do fundraising and just profile pictures to better use cases. 

Borget said this was driven by consumers demanding more use for their digital assets. The executive said that creators and developers must focus on adding more value to their NFTs to keep up with this demand. 

“At The Sandbox, we still continue to see more demand for our virtual land, avatars and other NFT collections, such as Jurassic World, because they can be used across the game right away,” Borget said.

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Coinbase, the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, is launching the Coinbase Bitcoin Yield Fund on May 1, aiming to offer Bitcoin (BTC) exposure for institutional investors outside the US.

The fund targets an annual net return of 4% to 8% on Bitcoin holdings, according to an April 28 blog post by Coinbase.

“To address the growing institutional demand for bitcoin yield, Coinbase Asset Management is excited to introduce the Coinbase Bitcoin Yield Fund (CBYF),” the company wrote.

The fund is backed by multiple investors, including Aspen Digital, a digital asset manager based in Abu Dhabi and regulated by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority.

Coinbase introduces Bitcoin yield-bearing fund. Source: Coinbase

Related: Michael Saylor hints at Bitcoin purchase as whales stack aggressively

The yield will be generated through a cash-and-carry strategy, through the difference between spot Bitcoin prices and derivatives.

Unlike Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL), Bitcoin holders can’t generate passive income through staking — a gap the fund is aiming to fill, according to the announcement:

“Bitcoin yield funds have emerged to address this limitation, but these funds generally require institutional allocators to take on significant investment and operational risk.”

The new fund seeks to lower the investment and operational risks typically associated with Bitcoin yield products, which Coinbase says will better align with the risk appetite of institutional investors.

Related: Stacks Asia expands Bitcoin initiatives with Abu Dhabi partnership

Cryptocurrency exchange-traded products (ETPs) bounced back with their third-largest inflows on record last week, according to CoinShares.

Global crypto ETPs collectively posted $3.4 billion of inflows in the trading week of April 21–25, marking the highest level since December 2024, CoinShares reported on April 28.

The inflows were just 13% below the all-time high of $3.85 billion seen in the trading week of Dec. 2–6, 2024, CoinShares previously reported.

Renewed investment interest in crypto ETPs came as Bitcoin (BTC) broke back above $90,000 last week for the first time since briefly retesting the price mark in early March, according to CoinGecko.

Bitcoin ETFs lead as price consolidates above $90,000

Bitcoin was the primary winner among crypto ETPs last week, with investors pouring as much as $3.18 billion into BTC ETPs.

The fresh inflows covered all the previous outflows seen since the beginning of April, with year-to-date (YTD) inflows extending to $3.7 billion.

Flows by asset (in millions of US dollars). Source: CoinShares

Bitcoin ETP’s assets under management (AUM) have reached $132 billion, while total AUM surged to $151.6 billion.

Solana was the only loser

Bullish sentiment was seen in all crypto ETPs except for Solana (SOL), with Solana-based investment products seeing $5.7 million of outflows last week.

Meanwhile, Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, saw $183 million inflows in the past trading week, breaking an eight-week streak of outflows.

Related: Solana’s Loopscale pauses lending after $5.8M hack

Other notable gainers among altcoins were Sui (SUI) and XRP (XRP), which saw $20.7 million and $31.6 million of inflows, respectively.

All issuers see healthy inflows

The fresh crypto ETP flows were distributed across all major issuers, including those in the United States and Europe.

BlackRock’s iShares ETFs saw the largest inflows last week at $1.5 billion, with ARK and Fidelity following at $621 million and $574 million, respectively.

Flows by issuer (in millions of US dollars). Source: CoinShares

Despite significant inflows, some issuers continue to see outflows month-to-date, or since April 1. Among those issuers are Grayscale with $84 million in outflows, ProShares with $18 million in outflows, and CoinShares with $7 million in outflows.

Reasons for the spike

The latest inflows mark a notable trend reversal in crypto ETPs as the majority of issuers were seeing massive YTD inflows in the previous week, following a series of outflows in 2025.

According to CoinShares’ James Butterfill, the new inflows likely came from concerns over the tariff impact on corporate earnings as well as a notable weakening of the US dollar, fueling demand for safe-haven assets.

The inflows also came as gold prices saw a notable decline last week after breaking new highs at nearly $3,500 on April 22, dropping to as low as $3,275 on April 23, according to TradingView.

Magazine: Ethereum is destroying the competition in the $16.1T TradFi tokenization race