Metaverse Outpost report — June
This month’s trends, key metrics, and developments within the Metaverse space.
The broader crypto market is slowly feeling its way through the implications and contagion effects of several big parties, such as Three Arrow Capital, BlockFi, and Celsius, that have been going underwater or filing for bankruptcy. Inevitably, these events have had downstream effects on the metaverse sector.
Nevertheless, there have been plenty of exciting developments, project launches, and partnerships this month. Let’s have a look!
Keeping up with the Metaverse news
Partnerships
- TIME President Keith A. Grossman revealed their partnership with The Sandbox during the NFT.NYC event in New York. The iconic Times Square location will be reimagined in The Sandbox as a virtual hub for art and commerce curated by TIMEPieces that will provide unique experiences to TIMEPieces holders.
- Thailand-based metaverse startup Translucia Global Innovation has partnered with the Australian software development firm Two Bulls and set aside an initial budget of $100 million to build a Metaverse Research and Development Center (MRDC) in Melbourne.
- Meta, Microsoft, and 31 more companies have united to form an organization to promote the creation of open standards regarding metaverse tech. The institution, named the Metaverse Standards Forum, will focus on establishing standards to make each one of the metaverses on the internet interoperable, which would ideally permit these worlds to communicate.
Project launches & updates
- The term “Metaverse” was officially coined by Neal Stephenson in his novel “Snowcrash”. Now, 30 years later, he’s announced that he will launch a blockchain protocol tailored to support his vision of the Metaverse. With high-profile investors and builders involved, the LAMINA1 chain is something to keep an eye on if you’re interested in the Metaverse.
- Qatar Airways announced that it had launched its first metaverse experience, QVerse. This virtual reality platform allows interested parties to virtually visit and navigate the Premium Check-in area at the International Airport of Hamad (HIA).
Other interesting & important news
- South Korea is making big steps towards metaverse adoption! Lim Hyesook, Minister of Science and ICT, leading the investment of the national fund, said the Metaverse is “an uncharted digital continent with indefinite potential” by disclosing the designated amount of 223.7 billion won ($177.1 million) to set the stage for initiation of the startups.
- Adobe announced major updates to Adobe Substance 3D enabling developers to enhance metaverse experiences. Adobe Substance 3D applications allow users to create, capture, and texture 3D assets, as well as compose and render 3D scenes.
- China’s Tencent Holdings announced the official formation of an “extended reality” (XR) unit, formally placing its bets on the metaverse concept of virtual worlds. The unit is tasked with building up the extended reality business for Tencent including both software and hardware.
- Catalonian director-general of innovation Daniel Marco revealed that the government is working towards building a Catalonian metaverse called Cataverse, hoping to make Barcelona a digital hub by offering various skills programs to university students and boot camps to cultivate talent.
On-Chain data
As mentioned in the introduction, the contagion effects that have been going through the crypto industry didn’t go unnoticed in the metaverse sector. Again, most top metaverse projects lost approximately 30–40% of their token value. The total market cap of metaverse projects went from $8.11 billion on the 1st of May to $5.76 billion on the 1st of June.
In the past 30 days, the number of Axie Infinity’s average daily users has dropped 48% to about 33.600, Decentraland has lost 13% to 643 and The Sandbox has fallen 31% to 84 users a day on average, according to DappRadar data.
Fading interest
The decreasing volumes on NFT land sales show that the interest in metaverses has been consistently fading recently.
This trend becomes most evident when you zoom out and look at the complete history of NFT land sales. It is safe to say that the hype is dead at this point.
Closing remarks
With NFT land sale volumes at an all-time low and token prices of metaverse projects dropping 30 to 50% month after month, it looks like we’re getting deeper into bear territory.
The question is, which project(s) will outperform the others when the sentiment starts to get bullish again? Which variables separate the wheat from the chaff, when it comes to metaverses? I have my own ideas, which I will dive into deeper in upcoming articles. For now, I’m curious to hear your thoughts!
That’s it for June, see you next month!
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