The metaverse has the potential to become a $1 trillion annual revenue opportunity in the world of advertising, digital events, e-commerce and hardware, according to a new report from Grayscale crypto giant.
Grayscale’s report, released Wednesday night, comes amid a surge of interest in the Metaverse after Facebook officially changed its name to Meta as it focuses on the immersive virtual world that it says is the future internet.
This week, there were the early indications of the potential size of the Metaverse economy, with virtual land within the cryptocurrency-based Decentraland and Axie Infinity metaverse sold for over $2 million.
The metaverse indicates to a range of online 3D virtual environments, where people can play games, build things, socialize, work and also trade & earn crypto assets.
The greatest well-known individual metaverses right now are in games, with Fortnite and Roblox on the rise in popularity in last few years. Grayscale Crypto giant has estimated that virtual game worlds revenue could reach $400 billion in 2025, from around $180 billion in 2020.
Still, Grayscale, which manages the world’s largest cryptocurrency fund, said the metaverse is still “in its early innings.” It said Facebook’s plans to spend $ 10 billion this year on the metaverse are signs of the market’s potential.
“The market opportunity to bring the Metaverse to life could represent more than $1 trillion in annual revenue,” the report said, although it did not specify a time-frame.
The authors of the report, head researcher of Grayscale, David Grider and research analyst Matt Maximo, argued that the metaverse is a huge opportunity for cryptocurrency companies.
Many current metaverse projects, such as virtual reality or games, are run by so-called Web2 companies, which are centralized & work for-profit. Facebook, which launched the Horizon Worlds virtual reality space, is one example.
But increasingly, metaverse projects are created or are heavily tied to crypto technology, which can give users more control and earn money that they can use in the real world. This is called the Web3 metaverse.
The greyscale has listed consumer monetization opportunities within the Web3 meta-verse. That include art galleries that launch NFTs, games & casinos where players win cryptocurrency, digital advertising bill boards & music venues where DJ & artists hold concerts.
In the third quarter, total Web3 & NFT’s total fundraising reached $1.8 billion, with combined crypto fundraising of $8.2 billion, Grayscale said. He added that investments have “recently started to accelerate”.
Grayscale’s report focused on Decentraland. In this metaverse, people log in to play games, earn native cryptocurrency mana, buy NFTs, including virtual land & collectibles, and vote on governance of the economy.
The cryptocurrency investment firm recently created a Decentraland trust that invests exclusively in mana. The cryptocurrency has risen by around 550% in the past 30 days, according to Coingecko.
