Metaverse real estate still has true believers despite crypto issues

Updated 3:30 p.m.:

Even with the massive downturn in the market, there are still true believers in the metaverse real estate market.

Indeed, despite some high-profile problems in the cryptocurrency world, the metaverse real estate market will continue to grow, according to market research firm Technavio, which projects it will increase $5.37 billion in the next three years, the New York Times reported.

The metaverse market is governed by the same supply-and-demand principles that affect the housing market in the physical world. In The Sandbox, a popular virtual world, direct land purchases go for nearly $400 per parcel. But prices increase on the resale market or in places where buyers can be close to prominent bands and celebrities, such as Snoop Dogg.

“Land is becoming the infrastructure of the metaverse,” Sebastien Borget, co-founder of The Sandbox, told the Times.

That may sound more language akin to Linus waiting for the Great Pumpkin than anything based on recent data.

Indeed, as of last summer, investment in metaverse real estate looked more like a folly, as trading for land across six platforms dropped 97 percent from November 2021 to last June, WeMeta reported. Sales volume trickled to a laughable $8 million in June, when the average price of land was $3,300. Volatility has continued to reign since then as a crypto winter took hold.

Oh, and cryptocurrency firm FTX had one of the most spectacular collapses in recent memory. Sam Bankman-Fried became a villain in the cryptocurrency universe and was ultimately arrested as his company declared bankruptcy following a run that resulted in an $8 billion shortfall for the exchange, prompting questions about the viability of cryptocurrency investing.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban went so far as to calling the metaverse real estate market the “dumbest s*** ever”, Yet the market is still hanging on.

— Holden Walter-Warner

Correction: This post was updated to reflect recent data