Grayscale, one of the most important and prestigious company active in cryptocurrency investments, has published a report on metaverses, entitled “The Metaverse, Web 3.0 Virtual Cloud Economies,” written by David Grider, Head of Research at Grayscale, and research analyst Matt Maximo, who focused mainly on open worlds supported by an interconnected cryptoeconomy, such as Decentraland, where users can log in to play games, earn token or create NFTs.
The study explain that Web 3.0 crypto Metaverses are emerging market virtual world economies with a continually developing complex mix of digital goods, services, and assets that generates real-world value for users. Early Web 3.0 metaverse worlds have been typically built on top of blockchain computing platforms (layer one) with a host of parties contributing to the development of the games and in-games items that can be freely traded on the blockchain.
Analyzing the active wallets in the metaverses from the start of 2020 to today, the researchers found that the user base has grown tenfold, reaching around 50,000 unique addresses in June this year.
The report also highlights that many venture capital firms are focusing on metaverses: in the third quarter, the blockchain gaming industry attracted $ 1 billion in funding. This figure represents 12% of the funds raised by the crypto sector as a whole, becoming one of the main sub-sectors along with NFTs.
Crypto virtual worlds have created a multi-million dollar primary and secondary
market for creators and asset owners by eliminating capital controls and opening
their digital borders to free market capitalism.
Some data from report:
- During Q3 of 2021, total crypto fundraising totaled $8.2 billion with the Web 3.0 & NFT segment comprising $1.8 billion. Within the Web 3.0 & NFT sector, blockchainbased gaming attracted ~$1 billion in funding across 14 deals, ranking it the top subsector within the category.
- Capital investment into the sector has recently started to accelerate but compared to the $10 billion that companies like Facebook plan to invest, and the amounts that could follow from other companies and venture capitalists, the Metaverse is in its early innings.
- The total market cap of the leading Web 3.0 Metaverse crypto networks sits at ~$27.5 billion. This pales in comparison to the ~$900 billion market cap of Facebook, the ~$2 trillion market cap of the gaming sector, and the $14.8 trillion market cap of Web 2.0 companies that could shift to the Metaverse or risk disruption.
In conclusion Virtual worlds on Web 3.0 have benefited from rapid innovation and increased productivity. Crypto virtual worlds have created a multimillion-dollar primary and secondary market for content creators and asset holders, eliminating capital controls and opening their borders. to free market capitalism. Researchers have identified a number of key dynamics that could significantly contribute to the growth of the metaverse industry, including the increase in average leisure time and money spent on digital hobbies, a cultural shift from premium to free games to-play, as well as innovations introduced by Web 3.0 such as the play-to-earn (P2E) concept.
