The Big Metaverse NFT Players
Right now, the big two are Decentraland and The Sandbox, and you might also want to add Cryptovoxels and Somnium Space to that list.
There’s been no shortage of big name activity this year. Nike recently acquired virtual apparel maker RTFKT Studios, Adidas released its first NFTs and has bought land in The Sandbox, and early adopter Snoop Dogg is setting up his own Snoopverse, also in The Sandbox.
Over in Dencentraland, Sotheby’s already has an art gallery, and you can visit Metajuku, a digital homage to Tokyo’s Harajuku shopping district.
Within the frontrunners, land is scarce and the demand is real. You can think of land acquisition in these metaverses just as you would real-world land acquisition: it may go up in value, you can, potentially, rent it out, or you can build on and develop it yourself.
However, the big projects are already heated up, with the lowest-end plots in Decentraland, for example, having gone up in price from around $20 (in 2017, when Decentraland launched) to, currently, around $13K (and at the top-end, prices have hit over $2 million).
Is the market frothy and due a correction? Possibly, and crypto is nothing if not volatile. Are the fundamentals in place for long-term gains, looking ahead 3/5/10 years? Very plausibly, but that’s your call.
Other Metaverse NFT’s of Interest
Of course, better than cheerfully FOMOing in several months after Snoop is finding projects that are not yet overcooked, and there are plenty of avenues to explore.
One I’ve mentioned several times is Pavia. It comes across as a Cardano version of Decentraland or The Sandbox, and it just airdropped its native token to current land holders. You can trade the $PAVIA token at the new Cardano DEX MuesliSwap.
Bit.Country is a slick-looking project which is still at a very early stage of development. Built in the Polkadot ecosystem, it proposes to be a platform for user-generated metaverses and games, making it a little different from other projects. It will have its own native token, staking, and a governance system, and aims to allow users to build without needing technical coding skills.
Some other projects that stand out and have great potential are Netwvrk, Mobox, and Bloktopia.
Game Projects
There’s a strong overlap between metaverses and gaming, as games move towards building persistent, play-to-earn environments. NFTs in successful gaming projects are functional assets, holding their value through having measurable utility.
The big game up to now, which has proven hugely successful, is Axie Infinity, and it is (by blockchain gaming standards) an increasingly mature ecosystem.
My Neighbor Alice is a cute-looking building game incorporating land ownership, renting, other NFT assets, and a native token, $ALICE, which trades on several markets. Its play-to-earn experience will contain DeFi elements such as lending and staking and is due, according to Steam, to launch fully in spring of 2022.
By the way, My Neighbor Alice is built on the Chromia blockchain platform, which you might also want to take a look at, as it’s a platform that allows for scaling dApps, and which you can buy into through its $CHR token.
Together, My Neighbor Alice, Chromia and Mines of Dalarmia–another play-to-earn game that’s worth a look–set up the Metaverse Grant Program earlier this year, the purpose of which is to provide research and development to new projects.
Blockchain gaming platform Gala Games held its Galaverse event in Las Vegas earlier this month, reinforcing its status as a key driver in the industry. Gala is leading the way with impressive-looking games such as The Walking Dead: Empires, and Mirandus, both of which incorporate NFT ownership.
If you want to dive deeper into the returns-oriented communities organizing around gaming, NFTs and DeFi, then you’d do well to start with Yield Guild Games (YGG), a DAO that generates real-world value from blockchain gaming and the metaverse.
There are countless other gaming projects, but Aavegotchi and Illuvium can’t be overlooked, and Cornucopias, being on the Cardano blockchain, will be able to tap into support and engagement from Cardano’s ever-active NFT community.
If you’re big on Solana and want to pick up some gaming NFTs, then you should definitely keep an eye on Fractal. Scheduled to launch on Christmas Eve, it’s a platform to buy and sell Solana-based gaming NFTs ahead of game launches, allowing people to buy in early, and making it easier for developers to raise funds.
Fractal is co-founded by Justin Kan, who also co-founded Twitch, so it’s certainly no amateur operation, and it’s interesting that Kan is going with Solana, a blockchain that has shown incredible growth this year.
