If you've had access to the internet for the past few months,
then you might have heard that the metaverse is the next big thing,
with plots of virtual land selling for millions of dollars
and metaverse tokens blasting off to the moon.
If you've been paying attention,
then you probably already know the biggest names in the space
like The Sandbox and Decentraland.
But this is going to be a massive asset class,
and there are new opportunities popping up every day,
so you might still have a few chances to grab some prime virtual real estate
before the tourists start showing up in Hawaiian shirts.
Let's get it!
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In this video, we're going to explore one of the hottest trends in crypto right now---
metaverse property.
People who bought in early are selling plots of virtual land for millions of dollars in some cases.
And the hype is just getting started.
Since Facebook pushed the idea of the metaverse into the mainstream conversation,
land in the most popular virtual worlds have exploded in value.
The Sandbox and Decentraland were leading the pack over the past month,
topping the charts on OpenSea as the top two spots.
This land is available for sale on OpenSea and other NFT platforms
because these virtual properties are actually NFTs.
In fact, nearly the entire rankings page for the past month
is filled with projects related to the metaverse and crypto gaming.
The Sandbox, which we covered in a previous video, was in the top spot.
In just one week,
4,433 assets sold in The Sandbox,
with a total traded volume of $70.5 million.
Coming in second place was Decentraland,
which did $6.6 million in volume for 399 assets,
which means that plots in Decentraland are starting to get expensive
even if the volume might be low.
Decentraland and The Sandbox both have huge backers.
They've had a huge head start.
A massive company you may have never heard of called Animoca Brands is behind The Sandbox.
And they've been working on the game for nearly 10 years.
Our friends at the Digital Currency Group are behind Decentraland,
which was founded nearly five years ago.
Lands in this virtual world is going to explode over the next few years.
There's no doubt about it.
But this real estate is already extremely expensive
and will set you back a minimum of $10,000 to $15,000 on the low end.
There's still plenty of upside in the more established worlds,
but if you want to make a smaller investment go further,
there are other metaverse projects launching where you can get a better entry point.
More bang for your buck.
Another metaverse project that's been catching on in recent weeks
is called NFT Worlds,
which features some of the most detailed virtual land plots that we've seen yet.
Instead of a simple two-dimensional square on a map,
NFT Worlds actually have topographical features like water, mountains and forest.
There are also detailed features for each plot of land,
describing traits like foliage density and wildlife density,
along with details about annual rainfall or natural resources that might be in the area.
The rarest NFT Worlds might include towns, mineshaft, jungle ruins or other secrets to explore.
The other interesting thing about these worlds
is that they will be compatible with the top-selling video game Minecraft.
NFT World owners will be able to use Minecraft as a tool
that will allow them to edit and explore their worlds.
Right now, the cheapest NFT Worlds are going for around 0.5 ETH,
which is a steal compared to some of the other virtual real estate out there.
The team has also revealed in its Discord channel
that NFT World holders would soon receive an airdrop of a new token
and the snapshot is happening sometime this month.
If you hold your land with diamond hands,
you can expect another airdrop sometime after February,
when the next snapshot is expected to take place.
Next up is Victoria VR,
a new metaverse powered by Unreal Engine,
top-of-the-line gaming engine responsible for the incredible graphics
and immersive 3D worlds that you see in many mainstream games.
Victoria VR is having its next big land sale later this month on December 23.
But you'll need VR tokens in order to participate.
Victoria VR is aiming to be a totally free and open world
where users are able to create their own experiences.
Instead of creating a world for people from the top down,
Victoria VR is encouraging users to be active participants
in building the world and setting up the activities that will happen there.
Victoria VR is also promising to be one of the most realistic metaverses once it launches.
The upside with metaverse projects with good teams is very good
with a token price under 75¢.
Victoria VR is a project that you should keep your eye on.
Another interesting project just getting started is DeFi Land.
DeFi Land is a farming simulation game in the Farmville genre
that actually educates players about decentralized finance
while allowing them to participate in a gamified DeFi platform.
Users will be able to start playing the game for free
and work their way up to play-to-earn missions
where they can compete and trade with other players.
Both Animoca Brands and Alameda Research are backing this project.
And it's expected to leverage multiple blockchains,
although Solana seems to be its primary home,
which makes sense considering that Alameda Research is heavily invested in Solana.
The first NFT land sale for DeFi Land will be coming sometime in the first quarter of 2022.
And the game is expected to launch sometime later in the year.
This week, the decentralized streaming service Audius announced that
it was building a radio station in the DeFi Land metaverse.
The radio tower allows users to stream any song available in the Audius app
while they're playing the game.
Speaking of music,
there's another developing metaverse we've talked about a lot on this channel
in the last few years
called CEEK,
which is focusing specifically on music and entertainment.
CEEK recently revealed that they were planning a virtual land sale,
but no further details have been announced yet.
This is similar to a project called Sensorium that specializes in VR concerts,
but CEEK will be adding additional metaverse elements
like virtual land and an NFT marketplace
which should make for a more complex economy.
Last but not least is Big Time,
a massive new gaming metaverse that was founded by Ari Meilich,
who is one of the founders of Decentraland.
He's put together an all-star team of developers, writers and designers
who worked on top-selling mainstream games
like Fortnite, World of Warcraft, Call of Duty and League of Legends.
Another interesting aspect of this project is the token distribution.
The team recently announced that there will be no presale for the token,
so it will need to be earned in the game before it begins to appear on secondary markets.
This will prevent whales from getting an unfair advantage early on
while ensuring that the distribution is as wide as possible.
Starting this week,
VIP passes that grant early access to the game
will begin selling in the newly opened Big Time marketplace.
The initial price for the passes will start at around $200 all the way up to $800,
with the more expensive passes gaining access earlier.
There isn't any land available for this metaverse just yet,
but a sale for what the project is calling "SPACE" is coming up soon.
This will be high demand though,
so in order to get in line, you'll need to fill out an application.
This game will be free-to-play and play-to-earn,
which is a growing trend in the space.
Many of the first popular NFT games will have a high barrier to entry,
with the cost taking hundreds or thousands of dollars just to get involved.
Developers have seen that having a high barrier to entry like this would be a major obstacle,
so they are developing new models that are more accessible to gamers of any income.
The metaverse is certainly a megatrend,
but remember,
this is still crypto,
which means you can expect a groundbreaking trend like this
will be followed by a slew of imitations attempting to cash in on the hype.
Last month, we saw this play out with the Wolf Game,
which took off in price after launch had its own land sales.
The main assets in this game reached as high as 4 ETH at one point
before collapsing down around 2 ETH and below.
This project kickstarted a season of pixelated Ponzi games like Whale Game and Fox Game,
all of which crashed and burned after release.
So just because a virtual world has land for sale or the word "game" attached to it,
it doesn't necessarily mean that it's a good investment.
You need to do some research on the teams behind these projects.
Find out who their major investors are.
Don't just FOMO into whatever some anime cartoon recommends on Twitter.
That's all I got.
Be blessed.
BitBoy out.