👩🚀Grayscale Decentraland Trust is betting big on the Metaverse.
🏛️Grayscale's Metaverse Bet Is Paying Off: MANA Climbs 343% in Three Month
Grayscale, one of the leading crypto asset managers, stated that the Metaverse, a concept of an interconnected alternate virtual world, could be a $1 trillion business opportunity for the future. This conclusion is derived from a report titled “The Metaverse. Web 3.0 Virtual Cloud Economies,” issued by the company yesterday, where it analyzes the potential that this initiative could have for early investors.
"Such big decisions about our future made by those who know so little about our past"
A greater and greater portion of our attention is going towards digital activities, especially for younger generations. Today, ~1/3rd of our lives (~8 hours/day) is already spent watching TV, playing games, or on social media. As we spend more of our time in these digital world experiences, we also spend more of our money within these digital realms to build our social status within these online communities.
Our social lives and gaming are converging and creating a large, fast-growing virtual goods consumer economy. It is estimated that revenue from virtual gaming worlds could grow from ~$180 billion in 2020 to ~$400 billion in 2025.
Web 3.0 open crypto metaverse networks solve this problem by eliminating the capital controls imposed on these virtual worlds by Web 2.0 platforms. This new paradigm allows users to own their digital assets as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), trade them with others in the game, and carry them to other digital experiences, creating an entirely new free-market internet-native economy that can be monetized in the physical world. This evolution of the “creator economy” is known as “Play to Earn”.
This vision for the future state of the web has the potential to transform our social interactions, business dealings, and the internet economy at large.
The total market cap of the leading Web 3.0 Metaverse crypto networks sits at ~$27.5 billion. This pales in comparison to the ~$900 billion market cap of Facebook, the ~$2 trillion market cap of the gaming sector, and the $14.8 trillion market cap of Web 2.0 companies that could shift to the Metaverse or risk disruption.
Users purchasing these items are starting to build a new e-commerce experience. Examples of some more popular business activities within Decentraland and other virtual world economies today are:
• Art Galleries, such as Sotheby’s, have launched allowing owners to showcase and sell their digital NFT art at auction.
• Business Offices: crypto businesses like Binance and others have established digital headquarters in the Metaverse where employees can meet and collaborate.
• Games & Casinos where players can win MANA.
• Advertising: digital billboards have been built by property owners to advertise to game players for a fee.
• Sponsored Content, such as the recently announced Atari arcade which will feature games that can be played within Decentraland.
• Music Venues where DJs and musicians play music and hold concerts.
Capital investment into the sector has recently started to accelerate but compared to the $10 billion that companies like Facebook plan to invest, and the amounts that could follow from other companies and venture capitalists, the Metaverse is in its early innings.
The market opportunity for bringing the Metaverse to life may be worth over $1 trillion in annual revenue and may compete with Web 2.0 companies worth ~$15 trillion in market value today. This potential has attracted companies like Facebook to pivot towards the Metaverse, which may catalyze other Web 2.0 tech giants and investors to follow.
