A Grayscale report notes that the popularity of the Metaverse could lead the virtual universe of more than 50.000 active users to reach a market of 1 trillion dollars.
The Metaverse, the new trend of 2021, is attracting thousands of users around the world with its promise of helping people create real value in the virtual world. Currently, the Metaverse exceeds 50.000 active users and may reach a market value of $1 trillion, Grayscale said in a recent report.
The American investment firm points out that the economies that are being formed in the virtual world are the next investment frontier for emerging markets. In its report, entitled “The Metaverse: Web 3.0 Virtual Cloud Economies”Grayscale Research explains that the Metaverse, devised by science fiction writer Neal Stephenson in his novel "Snow Crash" Since 1992, it has become a tangible reality, where thousands of people can interconnect and socialize in real time, while at the same time being able to form and develop their own digital economies.
For the investment firm, although the Metaverse is in full development and growth, it is an innovation that is at the forefront of the next evolution of the Internet: Web 3.0 and that can reach a market value of up to 1 trillion dollars in the next few years. In fact, by 2025, revenues from the Metaverse are expected to exceed 400.000 billion dollars, Grayscale indicated.
Grayscale Research's report on the Metaverse was prepared by David Grider, the firm's research director and Matt Maximo, research analyst.
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Metaverse: Internet Economy
The arrival of cryptocurrencies, and its underlying technology, blockchain, has opened the doors to a host of new opportunities, which are emerging as these new innovations develop and consolidate. The Metaverse, although it has existed long before the creation of blockchain, is with the arrival of this technology and cryptoassets, such as non-fungible tokens or NFT, which has gained massive popularity and adoption. According to Grayscale, in the past year the number of active users within the Metaverse has multiplied by 10 times, thanks to the new online experiences and opportunities that they provide to all users equally.
Within the Metaverse, people located anywhere in the world can connect with others to live new experiences within virtual worlds in the third dimension (3D), where there are practically no limits. Likewise, in addition to socializing, the Metaverse based on blockchain and cryptoassets also allows people to build a real and persistent Internet economy, owned by the same users.
Metaverses as Decentraland, The Sandbox and many more, allow their users to have fun, socialize, exercise governance and generate real value through cryptocurrencies.
Interconnection of the physical and virtual world
For investment firm Grayscale, the Metaverse is emerging as a digital ecosystem capable of bridging the gap between physical and virtual experiences. The firm's analysts explained that the Metaverse, built on open blockchain networks, encompasses both the physical and virtual worlds, removing unnecessary barriers between digital ecosystems.
Grayscale highlights that the Metaverse is just emerging, but that many of its key components are beginning to take shape and revolutionize everything in their path, from e-commerce to media and entertainment, and even the real estate industry.
Metaverse Real Estate
Grayscale's report pays special attention to the boom in real estate and property investments taking place within the Metaverse. Recently, the investment firm DeFi, Tokens.com, celebrated one of the largest digital land acquisitions seen so far within these virtual worlds. Tokens.com purchased 116 plots of virtual land within Decentraland to boost the digital fashion business. The firm plans to build new digital shopping malls and host large fashion shows in the district. fashion street Decentraland. Tokens.com paid $2,43 million for the digital land parcels and will form partnerships with well-known brands in the fashion industry to achieve its goals.
On the other hand, following the boom in real estate investment in the Metaverse, a plot of digital land in the popular blockchain game Axie Infinity was sold for $2,5 million. Via Twitter, the creators of Axie reported that this is the largest sum of money paid for a single plot of virtual land within the Metaverse. The plot is located within the rare lands of Genesis, in the center of the Axie Nation and was acquired by an anonymous investor.
Investment and potential growth
The Metaverse is providing great opportunities for both users and investors. Grayscale notes that people are willing to invest value within these digital worlds to build a new status, while investment and venture capital firms are increasingly aware of the potential of this ecosystem, so their value bet on these worlds is increasing. Web3 eliminates centralized companies that historically controlled online spaces, the firm noted.
“The historical value invested in sales of Web 3.0 items, such as land, virtual goods and services, has exceeded $200 million.”
Grayscale claims that the growth of the Metaverse, in terms of the number of active users, has been constant since January 2020 and that all virtual worlds centered on Web3 currently have around 50.000 users.
More than $5.000 billion in sales
On the other hand, data from the DappRadar tracking platform indicates that 1,3 million users have interacted with the main blockchain games and metaverses to date. Axie Infinity alone celebrates more than 1,2 million active users, with a total sales volume of more than $3.500 billion in NFT items.
The Sandbox and Decentraland, the two most complete blockchain metaverses developed on Ethereum, show a sales volume of $250 million and $1.250 billion respectively. The rise of the Metaverses has boosted the value of the SAND and MANA tokens by 618% and 390% respectively in the last month.
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