Virtual land located in the metaverse is being sold off for millions of dollars to investors, with prices soaring as much as 500% in the last few months.
The hike in the price of virtual land has come after Facebook’s announcement that it was rebranding to Meta and focusing its efforts on virtual reality (VR).
“The metaverse is the next iteration of social media,” Toronto-based Tokens.com chief executive Andrew Kiguel told CNBC.
Kiguel’s company invests in metaverse real estate and non-fungible token-related (NFT) digital assets.
“You can go to a carnival, you can go to a music concert, you can go to a museum,” Kiguel added.
In these virtual worlds, people can interact via cartoon-like characters called avatars, in a similar fashion to an online multiplayer video game.
Currently, people can visit these worlds via their computers, however Mark Zuckerberg’s company is funnelling huge amounts of money into building 3D, immersive worlds which can be accessed through VR headsets such as Meta‘s Oculus.
According to crypto asset manager Grayscale, the digital world is estimated to grow into a $1 trillion business in the near future.
In these virtual worlds, some of the planet’s biggest musicians including Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and DJ Marshmello perform as their own avatars.
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Paris Hilton DJ’ed a New Year’s Eve party on her own virtual island, Paris World.
Kiguel’s company recently purchased a patch of land in the popular metaverse world Decentraland for nearly $2.5 million.
“Prices have gone up 400% to 500% in the last few months,” Kiguel explained to CNBC.
In the Sandbox, Janine Yorio’s virtual real estate development company Republic Realm, spent a record $4.3 on an area of land.
Republic Realm sold 100 virtual private islands last year for $15,000 each, Yorio told CNBC.
“Today, they’re selling for about $300,000 each, which is coincidentally the same as the average home price in America,” she said.
Snoop Dogg is currently building a virtual mansion on a plot of land in the Sandbox world, with someone recently purchasing a virtual property for $450,000 to be his neighbour.
