A little over a year ago, I seemed to come out of nowhere to talk about Metaverse real estate, making statements and sharing my latest research on the topic. It was a big part of my life, documenting my journey from concept to reality.Then came crypto winter, with land prices in popular destinations Decentraland (Mana 13.18%) and sandbox (sand 13.66%) Like sales activity, it plummeted sharply.

There was little to track in the world of Virtual Land, but I kept track anyway. Emergent technology is always a bumpy road, right? But after a while, it started to feel more like a trend than a vehicle.

I’m glad I didn’t. I found some bright points of light to keep me moving forward.

Metaverse real estate isn’t fleeting

Despite the war in Ukraine, despite the global recession, despite climate change and all sorts of horrible events happening on this planet, the Metaverse has continued to exist. It hasn’t been a great year for the company or for its investors, but in a way it got us thinking about more creative ways to do business there.

Tokens.com (SMUR.F -3.04%) In 2022, provided consulting services as well as leasing land across the Metaverse platform. His $2.8 million worth of landholdings at the company in the fourth quarter of 2022 will see him return $23,000 in rent and help tenants design virtual structures on rented virtual land, according to recent filings. Metaverse Consulting, including that, brought in $85,000. On an annual basis, the fourth quarter showed about 15% total return on its $2.8 million land.

Big names keep elbowing for table space

With Metaverse Fashion Week just around the corner in late March, it’s easy to talk about brands wanting a piece of the Metaverse. Real-life fashion brands, which still make money selling fashion NFTs for their avatars, are using these opportunities to reach real-world customers and extend their options to buy authentic in the real world from the Metaverse. doing.

But the metaverse is seldom dominated by hipsters. Dow Jones As such, it has set up its own virtual HQ in Decentraland. KB Home, along with a virtual tour of real-world homes currently for sale.Even big banks HSBC A virtual golf course has opened in The Sandbox.

Assets are beginning to unfreeze

Crypt Winter came so close to the moment when the world was fascinated by the possibilities of the Metaverse that it froze to death. While assets such as coins are still well below their highs, something miraculous happened in January.

Not only has the crypto fear and greed index finally reached “fear” and remained (almost) above it, but it also shows that crypto enthusiasts and investors are back in the saddle. Not only that, but this upward trend has also caused the value of metaverse coins such as Mana to suddenly skyrocket. It climbed from $0.44 on January 13th to $0.61 on January 14th, and has stayed at or above that level since then.

Various price indicators for Metaverse real estate also saw significant increases during that period. Decentraland’s average daily lowest price, that is, the lowest average price for a virtual property to appear on a given day, went from $1,502.47 in December to $2,037.76 in January. Metaverse platform in development by The Otherside Boad Ape Yacht Club and it continues ape coinsaw a similar rise in average virtual land sales prices from $2,645.46 in December to $4,198.23 in January.

So far, these are trends that continue to persist on these popular platforms.Even The Sandbox’s average selling price jumped from $1,193.30 to $1,483.98 between December and January.

I still believe the metaverse has a future

The metaverse will never fully comprehend my generation, Generation X, as they try to figure out how to use the metaverse to build brand awareness or start a company in the metaverse. . But we are not the target audience for this new type of online interaction. It’s Generation Z.

These people were born between 1997 and 2012 and have spent their lives investing in centralized platforms that look and feel very similar to what the decentralized metaverse promises. roblox and microsoftMinecraft. There are about 70 million of these people in America today, but only a fraction of them are currently old enough to hold a cryptocurrency wallet and participate financially in the Metaverse. The rest can only be popped in with a visitor’s pass or using someone else’s account.

However, the rank of GenZ over 18 is increasing every day. They are doing things we never thought possible in the virtual world, interacting with brands, learning about new products and having fun in it.

What I really realized this winter was that Generation Z is the future of the Metaverse, and believe it or not, it’s coming.