The Metaverse: How the Multibillion-Dollar Business of Buying and Selling Land Works in the Virtual World

With her big auburn mohawk and perpetually lit cigarette, artist Angie Thompson’s avatar doesn’t represent a real estate mogul.

But she is part of a growing generation of people looking for new virtual worlds.

“I bought my first metaverse plot in July 2020 and I paid about £1,500 (about $1,670). I bought it to exhibit my work, but also to host metaverse events that would promote my art and other people’s art.”

Angie from Brighton has built two galleries full of weird and wonderful digital artwork, sold in cryptocurrency, on her land in the world of Voxels.

Angie’s estate is the size of a small family home (compared to the size of her avatar).

The tallest property has three floors and a roof terrace overlooking the black and white striped intersection and a pink taxi that constantly drives back and forth just for fun.

But it gives a real idea of ​​the scale of this world from the air.

“Hold the F key and you can fly up and check out my neighborhood,” Angie explains.

Flying above his gallery, you can see thousands of identical squares of land stretching to the horizon.

Voxels it is one of dozens of virtual worlds described as metaverses.

It’s confusing because people usually say dthe “metaverse “como si sonwould be one.

But until one platform dominates, or until these different worlds merge, companies sell the land and experiences in their own versions.

Researchers at metaverse consulting firm Dapp Radar say that last year, about $1.93 billion in cryptocurrency was spent to buy virtual land, with $22 million of that invested in about 3,000 parcels of land on Voxels.

Dapp Radar can track this because Voxels is based on the Ethereum cryptocurrency system, in which, as with all virtual currencies, every transaction is recorded and published on a public blockchain (blockchain).

One of the most popular virtual worlds is Decentralized.

Launched in 2020, parcels of land are selling for thousands, sometimes millions of dollars.

Samsung, UPS and Sotheby’s are among those who have bought the land and built shops and visitor centers there.

Luxury fashion brand Philipp Plein also owns a plot the size of four football fields that it hopes will eventually house a store and gallery.

However, the owner, who bears the same name as his brand, says his mother isn’t sold on his $1.5 million purchase.

“My mom called me and said, ‘What have you done? Why, are you crazy?’ Why are you spending so much money, what is this?‘” he says.

Plein has been selling products in 24 different cryptocurrencies online for over a year.

In early 2022, he opened a new store on London’s Old Bond Street that sells clothes and some non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in exchange for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether, although he also accepts pounds.

He says opening the store helped him learn more about the metaverse, adding: “I took a bold step by spending a lot on a piece of land”.

“But I thought: I have more than 24 years with my brand and what would I have to do if I started again?”

However, with the general decline in the value of cryptocurrencies, Dapp Radar says that the real estate metaverse is near its lowest level in a year.

IN Sandstoneanother one of the crypto metaverse, Adidas, Atari, Ubisoft, Binance, Warner Music and Gucci are just some of the multinationals that are buying up land and building experiences to sell and promote their products and services.

Gucci also brought in Roblox, which, along with other major gaming platforms like Minecraft and Fortnite, is considered the most mainstream of the new metaverses.

These gaming corporations do not sell land and are operated without the use of any blockchain technology.

However, they already have some of the key ingredients that science fiction writers say we need for a true metaverse:

Gucci city (city of Gucci) had more than 36 million visits in the year since launch, while Nike Land recorded more than 25 million in 11 months.

IN Gucci city, players can buy clothes for their avatars with real money. In Nike Land, you can get t-shirts and shoes for avatars with the points you earn by playing.

The Fashion seems to be the most interested industry in exploiting the opportunities and risks associated with the metaverse.

Amsterdam-based digital fashion house The Fabricant only produces clothes for avatars– Design custom collections and clothing for users of Decentraland, Sandbox and other crypto metaverses.

“When we started, everyone called us crazy, because they said ‘what do you need this for?’ But we really believed in the idea that people would use digital objects in the future,” says co-founder and lead designer Amber Jae Slooten.

Fabricant’s record sale so far has reached $19,000, even though it was sold as an NFT (piece of digital art) and was not used by the owner’s avatar.

The company just raised $14 million in funding from investors who are betting on the idea that many of us will soon be living part of our lives in the metaverse.

But it is not certain if and when this will happen.

Generally speaking, crypto metaverses are sparsely populated and only really used when events are held, and even then only thousands, not millions, of people visit them.

Even in the virtual world where Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, is investing billions of dollars, the leaked memos show that people don’t stick around for long.

Amber Slooten is confident that as these worlds develop, more and more people will come.

“This is definitely going to be a mass market because if you think about the younger generation, they’re already playing games. For them, there is no difference between virtual and real. But it still needs to be built.”

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