- As cryptocurrency prices sank this year, many speculators fled the virtual real estate space, with prices for virtual land plummeting.
- What others have seen as a market heading towards a prolonged downturn is being seen by others as an opportunity to get in on the cheap.
Perhaps nothing encapsulates the swashbuckling risk-taking free money ethos of a backdrop of loose monetary policy quite as much as virtual land in a virtual world, maybe except for NFTs.
Combine NFTs and virtual land and the speculative stew that is the metaverse is starting to cook again as despite prices having tumbled alongside a dip in the cryptocurrency markets, virtual property has become an investment strategy for some.
As cryptocurrency prices sank this year, many speculators fled the virtual real estate space, with prices for virtual land plummeting.
According to data compiled by analytics company WeMeta, average prices for land in Decentraland and The Sandbox, two popular blockchain-based online worlds, declined roughly 80% between early November 2021 and the beginning of this month, in line with a broader decline in the digital asset markets.
The number of sales for virtual land has also tumbled.
In November 2021, The Sandbox and Decentraland had more than 6,000 transactions combined, but sales have since dried up to just 1,000 last month.
What others have seen as a market heading towards a prolonged downturn is being seen by others as an opportunity to get in on the cheap.
For plucky investors, snapping up land in the metaverse on the cheap is one way to bet on big returns later on, especially if virtual worlds become as valuable as the real one.
Aside from the speculative risks of betting big on meta-land, there are also regulatory concerns.
Last week, the U.S. Securities sand Exchange Commission investigated Yuga Labs, creator of the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection of NFTs and warned that fractionalized NFTs, assets broken down into units to be bought and sold, could be classified as unregistered securities.
For all the metaverse hype, blockchain-based digital realty has a long way to go before revolutionizing daily life and investors and businesses are still trying to wrap their heads around the prospect or promise of the metaverse.
