Virtual land in the Metaverse
NFT trading volume reached a total of $10.67 billion in the third quarter of this year, with more people willing to pay exorbitant prices for art that will never be hung on their walls or adorn their homes in any way (with the exception of artist Beeple’s latest piece, which lives in a 3D box that the buyer can place wherever he wants).
Now, a related, equally bizarre item is selling for millions of dollars on the internet: virtual land. It’s kind of like real land, except you’ll never set foot on it because it exists only in the metaverse.
Tokens.com Corp, a Canadian investment firm focused on crypto assets, announced last week that it had completed the “largest metaverse land acquisition in history” via its subsidiary Metaverse Group, whose real estate portfolio spans several virtual worlds and is reportedly worth “in excess of seven figures.”
The land was acquired in 116 segments of 52.5 square feet each, for a total of 6,090 square feet. That’s about the size of a full-size basketball court (which is 4,700 square feet). In a nutshell, it’s not much space, especially for $2.4 million. So, what’s up?
People and businesses are betting on life becoming more digitized and the much-hyped, little-understood metaverse taking off; virtual land is becoming as much of an investment as physical land, and if current trends continue, early adopters may stand to profit handsomely. Metaverse Group chose its plot of land with care, knowing exactly what it will be used for; located in Decentraland’s Fashion Street district, the space will be used “to facilitate fashion shows and commerce within the exploding digital fashion industry.”
Let’s take a step back. Decentraland is a decentralized virtual world built on the Ethereum blockchain, with “decentralized” being the platform’s key differentiator. “The people who use Decentraland own Decentraland,” said Dave Carr, the platform’s communications lead, to Euronews Next. “We have a decentralized autonomous organization in which people can submit proposals and vote on other people’s proposals.” And this effectively determines Decentraland’s future direction.”
