Metaverse News

15/02/2022

Metaverse News

Metaverse ETFs are booming in South Korea and retail investors are piling in

As of Jan. 19, there were eight metaverse ETFs listed in South Korea, drawing over $1 billion in inflows, according to data from Samsung Asset Management, which launched two of the ETFs.

More than 70% of the inflows into both domestic and global metaverse ETFs in South Korea are from retail investors, according to the data.

Top holdings in the ETFs include tech companies and chipmakers as well as stocks associated with South Korea's entertainment industry.

The K-pop industry, with its global popularity, is expected to play an "integral" role in developing the metaverse, says Rahul Sen Sharma, managing partner of index provider Indxx.

16/01/2022

Metaverse News

22-year-old Indonesian boy makes $1M by selling NFT selfies on OpenSea

Ghozali selfies were taken sitting or standing in front of his computer, which was later converted into NFTs and uploaded to OpenSea in December 2021. The artist set the price for each NFT selfie at $3 without expecting interest from serious buyers. While monetizing his expressionless images, Ghozali said:

“You can do anything like flipping or whatever but please don't abuse my photos or my parents will very disappointed in me. I believe in you guys so please take care of my photos.”

https://cointelegraph.com/news/22-year-old-indonesian-boy-makes-1m-by-selling-nft-selfies-on-opensea

12/01/2022

Metaverse News

GameStop Entering NFT and Cryptocurrency Markets as Part of Turnaround Plan
The retailer is launching a division dedicated to the buzzy new technologies amid a push to turn a profit

The retailer has hired more than 20 people to run the unit, which is building an online hub for buying, selling and trading NFTs of virtual videogame goods such as avatar outfits and weapons, according to the people. The company is asking select game developers and publishers to list NFTs on its marketplace when it launches later this year, the people said.

GameStop also is close to signing partnerships with two crypto companies to share technology and co-invest in the development of games that use blockchain and NFT technology, as well as other NFT-related projects, the people said. The retailer expects to enter into similar agreements with a dozen or more crypto companies and invest tens of millions of dollars in them this year, the people said.

12/01/2022

Metaverse News
NFT sales hit $25 billion in 2021, but growth shows signs of slowing
LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - From cartoon apes to video clips, sales of NFTs reached some $25 billion in 2021 as the speculative crypto asset exploded in popularity, data from market tracker DappRadar shows, although there were signs of growth slowing towards the end of the year.

Prices of some non-fungible tokens, crypto assets representing a digital item such as an image, video, or even land in virtual worlds, rose so fast last year that speculators sometimes 'flipped' them for a profit within days.

The art world has been quick to cash in, with auction houses selling NFTs representing simple cartoons for millions of dollars with no physical objects changing hands. One NFT artwork fetched a record $69.3 million at a Christie's sale in March.

07/01/2022

Metaverse News

8 Metaverse Cryptos to Buy for a Bet on Next-Gen Real Estate

If you were watching crypto at the end of 2021, you know that the metaverse is set to be huge in 2022. The trend of virtual socialization rose meteorically over the last several months, leaving some astonished by the idea and others still scratching their heads. The latter group is likely the larger one — hesitant to adopt this new way of interacting which seems foreign, complicated or both. Still, they will come around; the phenomenon seems to be more than a passing fad. With this said, though, investors may be running into trouble when seeking out metaverse cryptos to buy.

What are the currencies you should be purchasing when considering a metaverse investment? After all, there are so many ways to invest in the space. Well, one popular niche within the class of metaverse assets are those tied to virtual real estate. Indeed, the metaverse space is lush with digital property ripe for the taking. These digital spaces are growing so quickly in popularity, too, that they have spawned real estate firms solely devoted to pixel property. Digital plots of land are selling for prices similar to real ones.

Seeing the money flowing into this industry, and the greater support for the metaverse as a whole from companies like Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:FB), it’s safe to assume the metaverse, and therefore digital real estate, will remain a savvy investment for the future.

But where do you begin? Well, here are some of the best metaverse cryptos to buy if you are looking into buying digital property:

Decentraland (CCC:MANA-USD)
Sandbox (CCC:SAND-USD)
Ethereum (CCC:ETH-USD)
Axie Infinity (CCC:AXS-USD)
GALA (CCC:GALA-USD)
Enjin Coin (CCC:ENJ-USD)
Atlas (CCC:ATLAS-USD)
Bloktopia (CCC:BLOK-USD)

https://investorplace.com/2022/01/8-metaverse-cryptos-to-buy-for-a-bet-on-next-gen-real-estate/

06/01/2022

Metaverse News

Nike is headed into the 'next era' of digital commerce as its metaverse strategy evolves

Nike stock is Guggenheim's "best idea" for 2022 amid its push into the metaverse.
Guggenheim's Robert Drbul said he's closely watching Nike's digital strategy.
The analyst also raised his EPS estimates for the company and said it's the leader in athletic apparel.

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Nike is headed into the 'next era' of digital commerce as its metaverse strategy evolves, says Guggenheim

Natasha Dailey

Jan 3, 2022, 11:53 AM



Insider Studios

Nike stock is Guggenheim's "best idea" for 2022 amid its push into the metaverse.

Guggenheim's Robert Drbul said he's closely watching Nike's digital strategy.

The analyst also raised his EPS estimates for the company and said it's the leader in athletic apparel.

Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell.

Nike stock is headed for new highs this year, thanks in part to its push into the metaverse, according to a Wall Street analyst.

Guggenheim's Robert Drbul dubbed the athletic-apparel retailer his "best idea" for 2022 in a December 31 note, saying Nike "is rapidly embarking on the next era of its company history," which he expects to be "digitally led."

"The brand commands dominant market share, which we expect will grow materially from here as digital scales further, new product innovation remains robust, and heavy investment behind key growth drivers continues," he wrote.

Drbul maintained a buy rating and a price target of $195 on Nike stock, which was down 1.8% Monday after gaining 18% in 2021.

He said the company is "the leader in the athletic apparel industry," and raised his earnings per share estimates for 2023 to $4.85 from $4.50 and for 2024 to $5.70 from $5.27.

https://www.businessinsider.com/nike-metaverse-strategy-next-era-digital-commerce-nke-stock-price-2022-1?amp

06/01/2022

Metaverse News
The metaverse has a groping problem already

Last week, Meta (the umbrella company formerly known as Facebook) opened up access to its virtual-reality social media platform, Horizon Worlds. Early descriptions of the platform make it seem fun and wholesome, drawing comparisons to Minecraft. In Horizon Worlds, up to 20 avatars can get together at a time to explore, hang out, and build within the virtual space.

But not everything has been warm and fuzzy. According to Meta, on November 26, a beta tester reported something deeply troubling: she had been groped by a stranger on Horizon Worlds. On December 1, Meta revealed that she’d posted her experience in the Horizon Worlds beta testing group on Facebook.

Meta’s internal review of the incident found that the beta tester should have used a tool called “Safe Zone” that’s part of a suite of safety features built into Horizon Worlds. Safe Zone is a protective bubble users can activate when feeling threatened. Within it, no one can touch them, talk to them, or interact in any way until they signal that they would like the Safe Zone lifted.

Vivek Sharma, the vice president of Horizon, called the groping incident “absolutely unfortunate,” telling The Verge, “That’s good feedback still for us because I want to make [the blocking feature] trivially easy and findable.”

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.technologyreview.com/2021/12/16/1042516/the-metaverse-has-a-groping-problem/amp/

05/01/2022

Metaverse News

Investors gear up for ‘gold rush’ in metaverse hardware

Boom expected in ‘picks and shovels’ underpinning technologies such as headsets, sensors and chips.

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https://www.ft.com/content/182bb2a7-b4e4-4d0d-8178-4cd9b4c225c4

Sony late last year announced it had joined forces with Manchester City to develop a digital recreation of the team’s Etihad home stadium for fans around the world to visit virtually. It was a quiet announcement, investors said, but the sound of football being sucked into the metaverse was deafening. Companies exhibiting at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week will be hoping for a similarly epic interpretation of their offerings. The aspirants include Samsung, which will give consumers the chance to decorate imaginary homes with digital versions of its household appliances. “It’s no longer a fad, but a well-established trend of the future,” said Samsung of the metaverse. As another exhibitor put it, the metaverse — a catch-all term for the theory that people will spend ever greater proportions of their lives in ever more immersive virtual worlds — lacks an exact enough definition for anyone to claim that they are an investable play on it.

https://www.ft.com/content/182bb2a7-b4e4-4d0d-8178-4cd9b4c225c4

26/12/2021

Elon Musk pokes fun at metaverse, trashing idea that anyone wants to strap a screen to their face

Elon Musk has taken aim at metaverse hype, poking fun at the idea people will flock to virtual worlds.
The Tesla boss said he can't envisage anyone strapping a screen to their face all day and not wanting to ever leave.
Musk told The Babylon Bee he might face criticism for being cynical, but he doesn't see a compelling case yet.

Elon Musk has made it clear to metaverse fans he has no time for the idea of virtual worlds and living life as an avatar.

"I don't know if I necessarily buy into this metaverse stuff," the Tesla CEO said on Tuesday, in an interview with satirical site The Babylon Bee. "Although people talk to me a lot about it — Web3."

Hype has been building around the potential of the metaverse, where plots of land have sold for millions of dollars and big brands like Nike have jumped in.
Metaverse News

26/12/2021

Metaverse – SAND and MANA Price Predictions for 2022

Metaverse News
SAND and MANA Rise by Thousands of Percentages
While most of the attention in the market goes to the biggest coins such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, they are usually outperformed by some smaller coins. SAND, the native token of The Sandbox platform, and MANA, Decentraland’s native token, are some of the best performers in 2021.

MANA and SAND have added thousands of percentages to their values since the start of the year, and they are now amongst the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap. Their adoption didn’t kick-off at the start of the year, but they grabbed attention towards the end of 2021.

Perhaps the major catalyst behind MANA and SAND’s rally is social media giant Facebook’s rebranding to Meta, indicating that it will expand its portfolio to enter the metaverse space. The move prompted massive adoption of metaverse-focused tokens such as SAND, MANA and several others.

From the start of the year, MANA was trading below the $1 mark, briefly climbing above that threshold in May. However, the coin rallied in October following Facebook’s announcement, rising to its all-time high above $5 within a few weeks. Over the past 52 weeks, MANA’s price is up by more than 4,000%, outperforming numerous coins in the process.

In November, Tokens.com, a Canadian investment firm that focuses on decentralized finance (DeFi), purchased virtual real estate on the Decentraland platform for roughly $2.5 million. The sale was one of the biggest in the history of the metaverse space. Popular gaming hardware company GameStop also announced earlier this month that it would start accepting MANA, SAND and a few other cryptocurrencies as means of payment for its products.

SAND is not left behind in terms of adoption. The token’s price has surged by thousands of percentages since the start of the year and is now one of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap. SAND has benefited immensely from Facebook’s entry into the metaverse space, with its price up by more than 900% since the announcement.

German sports apparel manufacturer Adidas announced its partnership with The Sandbox last month as it became the latest corporate entity to venture into the metaverse space. Also, in November, The Sandbox launched its Metaverse Alpha, an open multi-week Play-to-Earn event where players would have the opportunity to explore The Sandbox Metaverse.

Another huge development that saw SAND rally towards the end of the year was the adoption by PwC. PwC Hong Kong, a subsidiary of Pricewaterhouse Coopers, announced a few days ago that it had purchased land in The Sandbox metaverse. PwC Hong Kong intends to construct a Web 3.0 advisory hub in the metaverse, which will provide numerous professional services that include accounting and taxation. Heading into 2022, SAND is trading close to the $7 mark, outperforming numerous coins over the past 12 months.

26/12/2021

Bill Gates says the metaverse will host most of your office meetings within 'two or three years' — here's what it will look like
As Bill Gates reflected on what he calls his “most unusual and difficult year,” the billionaire also looked ahead to 2022 and beyond with no shortage of optimism — including when it comes to our “more digitized future.”

In a year-end post on Gates’ personal blog, the Microsoft co-founder included a prediction about the future of work, and how it could be changed by the rise of the metaverse, the virtual worlds being built by tech companies like Meta (formerly Facebook) and Microsoft, where users will be able to work, play and socialize.

Gates notes that the Covid-19 pandemic has already “revolutionized” the workplace, with more companies than ever offering flexibility for employees who want to work remotely. “Those changes will only intensify in the years to come,” Gates writes, and he says remote working will only pull more people into the metaverse.

“Within the next two or three years, I predict most virtual meetings will move from 2D camera image grids...to the metaverse, a 3D space with digital avatars,” Gates writes in his blog post.
Metaverse News

full story :https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/09/bill-gates-metaverse-will-host-most-virtual-meetings-in-a-few-years.html

21/12/2021

WHICH MONEY DOES THE METAVERSE USE

Each metaverse platform usually has its own crypto tokens that users can buy and use online. Ether (ETH): The most commonly used cryptocurrency for digital land purchases, Ether is the cryptocurrency that powers blockchain platform Ethereum, used to build decentralized applications and NFTs.

21/12/2021

What is the metaverse?

The metaverse is a network of always-on virtual environments in which many people can interact with one another and digital objects while operating virtual representations – or avatars – of themselves. Think of a combination of immersive virtual reality, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game and the web.

Metaverse News

The metaverse is a network of always-on virtual environments in which many people can interact with one another and digital objects while operating virtual representations – or avatars – of themselves. Think of a combination of immersive virtual reality, a massively multiplayer online role-playi...