Top Metaverse Projects To Keep An Eye On

Metaverse is the virtual representation of the real world.

So everyone’s talking about Metaverse. But what is it? Is it something like a video game or a large event or a big conference? Everyone’s trying to get a hold of it.

Metaverse can be all this but it’s also something bigger than that. The metaverse is a digital reality that combines aspects of social media, online gaming, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and cryptocurrencies to allow users to interact virtually, upgrading digital experience from 2D screens and scrolling to virtual 3D environments. 

But many give credit for metaverse to Facebook which recently rebranded themselves to ‘Meta’. Showing his concern to this belief, Matrix’s protagonist Keanu Reeves in an interview with the Verge stated, “Can we just have ‘metaverse’ not be invented by Facebook [Meta]… It’s way older… I’m just like, ‘Come on, man!”

Here are some metaverse projects which have been gaining popularity over time and definitely deserve our attention:

DECENTRALAND

Decentraland tops the list with a massive market capitalization of $5.781 billion. Decentraland was founded in 2015 by metaverse holdings LTD. In Decentraland’s virtual world, parcels of land can be modified using a Decentraland builder. Parcels, avatars and wearables can be purchased using its native token MANA.

World’s largest art and luxury marketplace Sotheby’s opened a virtual gallery in Decentraland. Blockchain protocol Boson has purchased a $704,000 plot in Decentraland to establish a virtual mall. These are a few landmarks in Decentraland’s empire.

At press time, MANA is trading at 2.9 USDT and has decreased by 3.4% in the last 24 hours.

SANDBOX

Sandbox ranks second with a market capitalization of USD 4.492 billion. Founded way back in 2012, Sandbox did not receive much limelight until recently. Originally started as a 2D gaming platform it has shifted to a whole other dimension(3D) in 2017. Every item that users create in the game is a Non Fungible Token (NFT). Sandbox offers its users land that can be used to build digital experiences like gaming, concerts etc.

Sandbox has made major advances in the previous year such as collaboration with Skybound Entertainment, integration with polygon, project big fan and more. It is one of the most talked-about metaverse projects. It rocketed from 80 cents to $7 in the last 2 months.

At press time, SAND, the native token of Sandbox is trading at4.8 USDT with a 24-hour negative change of 2.8%.

AXIE INFINITY

Third, on the list is Axie infinity with a market capitalization of $4.4 billion. It is an NFT game inspired by Pokemon and Tamagotchi. The adorable fantasy creatures in the game are called Axies which can be bred, fed and put to battles. Their simple philosophy of play-to-earn has helped many underdeveloped countries like the Philippines during the pandemic to survive financially, where still many make their daily earnings by playing on Axie. Axie sees more than 2.3 million users active daily.

FTX crypto exchange will be sponsoring scholarships for Axie players to lend them AXES who can’t afford to buy to get started on the platform. Taking this step to the next level CGU (Crypto Gaming United) will be providing scholarships complete with the pension plan for the gamers.

Mind blowing, isn’t it?

At the time of publishing, AXS (the native token) is trading around 75 USDT with a 24-hour negative change of 2.2%.

THETA

Theta ranks fourth on the list with a market capitalization of USD 4.047 billion. The project was started byTheta Labs, a software company that aims at solving high-quality video streaming issues to keep up with the ever-increasing demand for video content. 

In the past, Theta had partnered with big tech giants like Google, Samsung and more for providing video streaming solutions. 

But they did not stop there. 

Theta is now backing up the metaverse and is positioned as the key infrastructure to power the “virtual live” events and gaming across the technology stack. It recently partnered with Decentral Games to live stream their metaverse nightclub hosted by Ibiza’s Amnesia nightclub. Furthermore, Theta is set to expand its role on many more such projects.

At press time, THETA is trading at 4.09 USDT and has fallen by 4% in the last 24 hours.

ENJIN 

Enjin is fifth on the list with a market capitalization of USD 2.034 billion. The idea behind the project is that by using blockchain technology to manage in-game items across many different properties. Enjin can help reduce the high fees and fraud that have plagued the transfer of virtual in-game goods and collectibles. “Many of the players use this contract for in-game characters and items. They have been working with Microsoft on a few projects including Minecraft the game. Enjin can be considered a bluechip token in the NFT infrastructure space and something to keep an eye on for the near future,” Ishan Arora, Partner at Tykhe Block Ventures, recommends.

At the time of publishing, it is trading at 2.4 USDT with 24-hour change of -4%.

WAX

Wax has a total market capitalization of USD 781.061 million. Wax stands for worldwide asset exchange. The WAX blockchain serves as a decentralized marketplace specially designed for trading virtual items such as rare and collectibles in games and virtual worlds. Originally it served as a place for exchange of World of Warcraft items for cash in 2005. In 2015 it became the leading marketplace for gaming assets. As NFTs gained popularity, Wax started rising up on the list of top projects. The distinguishing factor of the WAX blockchain is the team behind it, which is experienced in the specific industry that they are targeting; virtual item trading.

At press time, WAXP(the native token for Wax) is trading at 0.41 USDT and has fallen by 3.1% in the last 24 hours.

Some other projects worth mentioning are:

GALA GAMES

Gala Games has received no venture capitalist funding and was bootstrapped by its founders. The game makes its money by selling entities for its upcoming and current blockchain games. Currently, the games available are Townstar and Spider Tanks and six more games are in progress. At the moment, Gala Games has an active user count of 1.3 million.

GALA recently made an All-Time High (ATH) of $0.836 from $0.09 in a span of just 2 weeks. At press time, it is trading at 0.33 USDT.

ILLUVIUM

Illuvium is an open-world adventure game. It has a secondary play which is called Immutable X that is an infrastructure play. The Immutable X uses ZK Roll-Ups which are a way of bundling up transactions off of the main Ethereum base layer and then passing them down at some point in the future that basically means lower fees. They are positioning this as a pure NFT scaling solution for Ethereum.

The ILV token is trading at 820 USDT at the time of publishing and has decreased by 3.22% in the last 24 hours.

UFO

UFO is a multichain network that works on Polkadot, Ethereum, Solana, Avax which sets it apart from others. It is the most important feature because limiting to one chain creates the loss of millions of users. It’s basically a collection of play-to-earn games in the metaverse where each game has its own planet and then the virtual land on each planet is auctioned off. They are not relying on just one game and the risk of not working is spread out among the entire ecosystem.

At press time, UFO (the native token) is at 0.0000164 USDT and has fallen by 7% in the last 24 hours.

These are some of the most popular metaverse projects as per their market caps.

Which projects are you keeping on the watchlist? Let us know.

News recommendation: The Most Popular Play to Earn Games In 2022