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Top 7 coins in the metaverse – Forbes consultant
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The metaverse is one of the Internet’s favorite new buzzwords.
If you’re new to the party, the metaverse is the latest iteration of virtual reality, or worlds accessed by people wearing virtual reality headsets. From shopping and entertainment to learning and gaming, some technology companies see the metaverse as a new frontier that could be as transformative as the world wide web was a generation ago.
This largely futuristic concept became a household word after Facebook it rebranded itself as Meta Platforms last year.
Cryptocurrency is beginning to play a fundamental role in certain areas of this brave new world. However, its role in shaping the metaverse has been complicated by major crypto winter declines throughout 2022.
Here’s a look at the top metaverse coins – cryptocurrencies that play a role in facilitating trade and exchange within the metaverse – that have market capitalizations exceeding $500 million.
1. Internet Computer (ICP)
The Internet Computer was developed by the Swiss non-profit organization Dfinity Foundation. ICP’s goal is ambitious: to replace the centralized Internet we are all familiar with today with a decentralized alternative.
The idea is that today’s Internet is built primarily by centralized companies like Alphabet—which owns the Google family of products—or Amazon.com.
Launched in May 2021, Internet Computer seeks to change that order, striving to give users the ability to migrate to a more inclusive, open-source Internet. The goal is to execute this vision with smart contracts, offering greater speeds with reduced computational costs.
Backed by big names like venture capitalists (YOU) Andreesen Horowitz, his performance was brief but turbulent. Initially, ICP gathered a high market cap of over $45 billion when the token traded for around $700.
Although it is still one of the biggest cryptocurrencies on the market, enthusiasm has waned. The price of ICP has fallen significantly from its initial highs.
2. Stacks (STX)
Bitcoin (Bitcoin) may be the granddaddy of all blockchains, but its role in the metaverse was unclear until Stacks launched on top of it.
Stacks is a layer-one blockchain that connects to the Bitcoin blockchain through STX’s own Proof of Transfer (PoX) mechanism. With this technology, Bitcoin miners can pay to mint new STX tokens. Additionally, Stack holders can stack (instead of to bet) your own STX coins to earn BTC rewards.
Stacks’ main goal is to bring Web3 decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts to the world’s oldest and most secure blockchain, Bitcoin. It was founded by a number of venture capital funds, including those from Winklevoss Capital, Y Combinator and Digital Currency Group.
The first cryptocurrency to receive approval for sale by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Stacks 2.0 launched its mainnet in January 2021.
3. Axie Infinite (AXS)
Axie Infinity has taken the crypto world by storm during the Covid-19 pandemic, emerging as the biggest “play to earn” game, paving the way for the likes of Sandbox and Decentraland.
Axie Infinity is inspired by popular games like Pokémon and Tamagotchi, and in many ways it is similar. Players pit cute monsters against each other to earn in-game tokens.
Unlike its centralized cousins, Axie Infinity is domiciled on the blockchain, monsters are purchased in the form of NFTs, and the tokens earned – AXS – are an actively traded cryptocurrency on the market.
AXS was very popular during the pandemic as a way for people to make money while stuck at home. As the play-to-earn model grew, however, criticism was made of its hierarchical nature.
Wealthier investors, known as scholars, could buy the expensive NFT monsters before renting them to gamers, known as workers, in low-income countries. Axie Infinity is extremely popular in the Philippines, Venezuela, USA, Thailand and Brazil, in that order.
Players only receive a portion of the income earned from playing – without the financial means to purchase the NFTs without an intermediary.
4. The sandbox (SAND)
The Sandbox is a virtual world with native tokens for transactions with the game’s digital assets. SAND can be earned and spent in Sandbox, just like MANA in Decentraland, another metaverse currency that appears on this list.
Virtual world tokens highlight what makes investing in the metaverse so challenging. With the metaverse still at an early stage, featuring an ever-increasing range of platforms and a rapidly changing environment changing daily, it is very difficult to pick a winner.
The SAND token price, unsurprisingly, has struggled so far this year as both these variables and the broader market have moved against it.
Whether the metaverse fulfills its goals or not remains a question as to which games, platforms, and apps will rise above the others. Right now, SAND is one of the biggest players in this space.
5. Theta Network (THETA)
YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime and Twitch are the titans of video streaming, operated by centralized companies that wield great power.
Enter Theta, a blockchain which was developed specifically for video streaming. The goal is to decentralize video streaming by operating a peer-to-peer video distribution network.
The company’s promises are like many metaverse business plans: reduce costs, transfer power from companies to the masses, and eliminate middlemen. According to Theta, this vision would give content creators a bigger slice of the pie and make video cheaper for consumers.
The Theta Network is designed so that when users consume video content, some of the computer’s power and available bandwidth is used to rebroadcast those videos to other users on the network. In return, THETA tokens are earned. The more people on the network, the higher the quality and speed of streaming.
Those in the traditional video streaming business have noticed. Theta’s advisory board includes Twitch co-founder Justin Kan and YouTube co-founder Steve Chen.
6. Decentralized (MANA)
Decentralized operates an entire metaverse of its own. It is a VR platform powered by Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, with a native token MANNA used to do business within their worlds.
Users can create avatars and navigate this online universe as they wish. They can buy land, clothes for their avatars, accessories and much more on the Decentraland marketplace. Content and apps around the world can also be monetized.
The hope of this project is that Decentraland becomes a place where more and more users choose to hang out, do business, and transact on a daily basis.
Concern about the drop in users makes some wonder if the metaverse project will catch on or if conventional games will continue to be a better alternative.
7. ApeCoin (APE)
ApeCoin is not only one of the biggest metaverse coins on the market, but also one of the newest. It is designed to fuel the growing ecosystem around the popular Bored Monkey Yacht Club.
Bored Ape Yacht Club is one of the most successful non-fungible tokens (NFT) art collections. The lowest price for one of these blockchain art monkeys is estimated at a whopping $100,000. Its sister NFT collection, Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), has a minimum price of $18,500, CoinGecko data shows.
To capitalize on the popularity of these expensive monkeys, APE went live for all holders of a Bored Ape or Mutant Ape NFT in March 2022. The goal behind APE is voting and governance issues, and transactions within the “metaverse of monkeys.”
Metaverse FAQ
How can you buy metaverse coins?
Metaverse coins can be traded like any other cryptocurrency. Larger tokens can be purchased on cryptocurrency exchanges by simply exchanging fiat money for the desired token using the exchange’s liquidity pair.
That said, the more obscure tokens in the metaverse may not be liquid for fiat trading pairs. Therefore, traders may be required to buy a larger cryptocurrency first, such as Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum, before later exchanging it for the niche metaverse token they desire.
However, as is evident from the historical price references in the article above, purchasing these coins is a huge risk – and should be classified as a gamble rather than an investment.
You must be vigilant and do all necessary research, while ensuring that you only invest what you can afford to lose, given the extreme volatility and vulnerability to huge drawdowns that these currencies possess.
Where can you buy metaverse coins?
Bigger crypto exchanges as Binanceand KuCoin have trading pairs for most of the biggest cryptocurrencies, including the largest coins in the metaverse – ICP, APE, SAND, THETA, MANA, and AXS.
If you’re going against the conventional route, you can also use a decentralized exchange (DEX) to buy metaverse coins. This means Know Your Customer (KYC) is not mandatory – rules that help verify users and prevent criminal and money laundering activities. With a DEX, you can access more obscure cryptocurrencies.
But the user experience with DEXs is unintuitive and unique to cryptocurrency. There is also no customer support, or recourse if a mistake is made and your crypto is sent to the wrong place. Therefore, this route should be avoided unless you are a highly experienced trader.