Here's what people are paying to spend on virtual real estate

516
5
Here's what people are paying to spend on virtual real estate

The metaverse is a growing topic in tech and some crypto circles, describing a virtual reality space into which users can log in and interact with one another using avatars to represent their real selves. It has been growing particularly in the gaming space with titles like Fortnite, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Roblox, and many others fostering a metaverse community for players. Social media websites such as Facebook are also pushing into the space with Horizon Worlds and is planning to hire 10,000 people in the European Union over the next five years to help build their vision of a metaverse. We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or People are paying real money for virtual real estate in the metaverse It s no coincidence that this concept has sci-fi vibes to it, the term metaverse was originally coined in science fiction writer Neal Stephenson s book Snow Crash in 1992 to describe a virtual world that people would plug into using their own virtual avatars. Online games like Second Life, which launched in 2003, were pioneers for metaverse economies, allowing users to trade goods and services using their in-game Linden dollars — including virtual real estate.

It is also taking off among the decentralized finance crowd with platforms like Decentraland, an online metaverse space that calls itself the first fully decentralized virtual world owned by its users where they create, explore and trade virtual goods using smart contracts on the Decentraland marketplace. Along with virtual clothes and accessories you can secure using the platform s native MANA crypto, you can also purchase virtual land parcels and estates. These virtual properties could be real estate parcels for creators to build on, or structures that reflect vacant properties and completely original creations. They are represented by co-ordinates on the metaverse platform where users can meet up using their avatars to socialize and decorate their own spaces with collectibles.

Monetizing this space is starting to give rise to metaverse real estate companies, the first being Metaverse Property. Being a virtual industry, the company works to secure a wealth of land assets in the nascent real estate space. It focuses on buying and selling, managing business properties, offering rentals in the metaverse, virtual land development, as well as consulting and marketing. Metaverse Property currently operates on platforms including Decentraland, The Sanbox, Somnium Space, Cryptovoxels and Upland. Beyond being virtual landlords and developers, Metaverse Property also says it is creating what it s calling the first metaverse real estate investment trust REIT which will trade through a non-fungible token NFT that is backed by the company s virtual land portfolio.

With a bullish bet on metaverse real estate, crypto and decentralized financial services company Tokens.com Corp purchased a 50 per cent stake in Metaverse Group this week valued at about $1.7 million, reportedly a record equity investment in a metaverse real estate company. Andrew Kiguel, the chief executive officer of Tokens.com, explained that the company s goal is to rent as many virtual real estate parcels as possible to clients. On platforms like Decentraland, which has seen more than $50 million in virtual sales for goods like real estate, clothes, accessories, usernames and avatars, an outlying parcel in an area less travelled could run a user around $5,000 MANA, or roughly $4,600 Canadian dollars as of mid-October. These prices can jump quickly in popular properties in larger built-out zones, with the highest-selling virtual plot of land recorded on the platform being a $1.3 million MANA property in June, equal to about US $900,000 at the time.

More on this topic.

Bitcoin just climbed to a record high with futures-based ETF debut stoking optimism.

Why crypto bull Kiguel skipped the new Bitcoin ETF Skeptics might find it bizarre to spend any amount of money on a property that they themselves cannot live in, though Cathie Wood told the Financial Post that there are valid uses for these virtual properties. It s the foot traffic, Kiguel said. So, you might want to invite friends over, you can decorate the walls with your NFTs, it s a way of socializing COVID drove a lot of this: when the world shut down, people turned to their computers as a means of interacting with people, and so the foot traffic in the metaverse continues to grow at a very high rate. Kiguel added that celebrities like Snoop Dogg are getting into the metaverse as well. In late September, Snoop Dogg partnered with The Sandbox to reconstruct his real-life mansion on the NFT metaverse platform. Decentraland signed a partnership with Paris Hilton as one of the headline celebrities featured on the platform s first-ever Metaverse Festival slated for October 21 to 24. Hilton will be using a Genies avatar, which are animated avatars that can speak using the celebrity voice. With this growing adoption and promotion among celebrities and brands, Kiguel expects that more users will flock to the metaverse space. There are museums and galleries, if you want to go in and see some of the most expensive NFTs sold in the world you can go to Decentraland, Kiguel said. So, the possibilities are really endless, here s all the different things you could do to attract people here.