Metaverse: Virtual Real Estate Plot Sells for Record $2.4 Million in Decentraland

Decentraland is an online environment where users can buy land, visit buildings, walk around, and meet people as avatars.

By Reuters | Updated: 24 November 2021 11:57 IST

Metaverse: Virtual Real Estate Plot Sells for Record $2.4 Million in Decentraland

Decentraland is a specific type of metaverse that uses blockchain

Highlights

Facebook changed its name to Meta to reflect its focus on VR
Land and other items in Decentraland are sold in the form of NFT
Crypto enthusiasts buy land there as a speculative investment

A patch of virtual real estate in the online world Decentraland sold for a record $2.4 million (roughly Rs. 17 crore) worth of cryptocurrency, the buyer crypto investor Tokens.com and Decentraland said.

Decentraland is an online environment - also called a "metaverse" - where users can buy land, visit buildings, walk around, and meet people as avatars.

Such environments have grown in popularity this year, as the pandemic caused people to spend more time online.

Barbados Will Have a Virtual Embassy in the Metaverse

Interest surged last month when Facebook changed its name to Meta to reflect its focus on developing virtual reality products for the metaverse.

Decentraland is a specific type of metaverse that uses blockchain. Land and other items in Decentraland are sold in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), a kind of crypto asset.

Crypto enthusiasts buy land there as a speculative investment, using Decentraland's cryptocurrency, MANA.

Facebook Whistleblower 'Extremely Concerned' by Metaverse

A subsidiary of Tokens.com, called the Metaverse Group, bought a patch of real estate for 618,000 MANA on Monday, which was around $2,428,740 (roughly Rs. 18 crore) at the time, a Decentraland spokesman and a statement by Tokens.com said.

Reuters also saw the land's purchase recorded on the NFT marketplace OpenSea.

Decentraland said it was the most expensive purchase of a plot of virtual real estate on the platform.

The land is in the "Fashion Street" area of Decentraland's map and Tokens.com said it would be used to host digital fashion events and sell virtual clothing for avatars.

It is made of 116 smaller parcels, measuring 52.5 square feet each, making the land 6,090 virtual square feet in size.

Andrew Kiguel, CEO of Tokens.com, said the assets would complement the real estate already held by Metaverse Group.

In June, a plot of virtual land in Decentraland sold for 1,295,000 MANA, worth $913,228 (roughly Rs. 6.7 crore) at the time. The buyers built a virtual shopping centre to sell digital clothing, but Reuters has visited this site multiple times since and not seen any shoppers.

MANA is highly volatile. It has gained around 400 percent this month according to Coinbase, spiking after Facebook's name change.

Can PUBG: New State rival BGMI and PUBG Mobile in the battle royale space? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.