When Facebook changed its name to Meta, a lot of us saw it as a strategy to get away from the dark clouds that had been dampening Facebook’s status.
But what Meta really equates to is Facebook’s pivot towards the “Metaverse”, a cryptocurrency-powered collection of virtual worlds. Within these worlds, people can interact with each other, transact in business, enjoy concerts, and make investments just as they would in real life, but in a simulation that’s akin to a video game.
Well, November turned out to be a breakout month for the metaverse.
Virtual real estate is real
It may sound crazy, but Metaverse Group, a vertically integrated real estate investment company focused on digital assets, recently purchased virtual real estate for 618,000 mana in a metaverse called Decentraland ($MANA). In this transaction, 618,000 mana equaled about $2.43 million at the time of purchase.
It’s the largest digital real estate purchase to date, but we’re just getting started. Ever since Facebook’s name change, metaverse cryptocurrencies have exploded in growth.
On October 26, $MANA was worth $0.75 per token. One month later, it reached an all-time high of $5.47 per token — but has since tapered to about $4.70, which is where it stayed at the end of November.
The Sandbox ($SAND), another popular metaverse world, followed a nearly identical upward trajectory. On October 25, it was trading at $1.15 per coin. A month later, it was worth over $6.
At this point, the cheapest plots of land on Decentraland sell for about $15,000. If you were lucky enough to stake a position in one of these coins before their boom, you might be primed for a lofty future.
But what are you going to do with a virtual plot of land? It’s not something you can go visit yourself — aside from seeing it in your virtual world.
One of the use cases includes brand advertising. For instance, companies like Atari have bought huge parcels in The Sandbox for advertising purposes. Other larger and…