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Metaverse annual revenue could soar to $1 trillion

The gaming sector is seen as one of the catalysts for the future expansion of the Metaverse economy.

Image by: Wikimedia Commons

Sun, 28 Nov 2021, 12:03 pm UTC

Facebook recently made headlines when it changed its name to Meta signifying its new focus on the metaverse, a virtual immersive world described as the future of the internet. A leading crypto asset manager now believes that the social media platform is well-positioned to take advantage of a trillion-dollar business opportunity.

In a report titled “The Metaverse: Web 3.0 Virtual Cloud Economies,” crypto-asset manager Grayscale revealed its optimism for metaverse’s earning potential. The company said that metaverse's annual economy could soon balloon to more than $1 trillion.

“The market opportunity for bringing the Metaverse to life may be worth over $1 trillion in annual revenue and may compete with Web 2.0 companies worth ~$15 trillion in market value today,” Grayscale said. “This potential has attracted companies like Facebook to pivot towards the Metaverse, which may serve as a catalyst for other Web 2.0 tech giants and investors to follow.”

At the moment, the total market cap of leading Web 3.0 Metaverse crypto networks is estimated to be around $27.5 billion. At its current stage, it’s a far cry from Facebook’s $900 billion market cap, the gaming sector’s $2 trillion market cap, and the $14.8 trillion total market cap of Web 2.0 firms.

However, money is flowing into the space at an accelerated pace. “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 report added.

The gaming sector is seen as one of the catalysts for the future expansion of the Metaverse economy. Unlike Web 2.0 closed corporate metaverse worlds where developers usually prohibit players from trading items with other players and players cannot transfer their in-game wealth to the real economy, Web 3.0 Open Crypto Metaverse, which is democratically owned and controlled by global users, won’t have such restrictions.

“This new paradigm allows users to own their digital assets as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), trade them with others in the game, and carry them to other digital experiences, creating an entirely new free-market internet-native economy that can be monetized in the physical world,” Grayscale said. Given this advantage of monetization for gamers, they would soon dictate gaming firms switch to Web 3.0 open crypto Metaverse networks or be left behind by their competitors.

Indeed, the massive interest in crypto-based metaverses Decentraland and Axie Infinity shows the potential of the metaverse economy. Just last week, parcels of virtual land in these games have been selling for more than $2 million, according to Business Insider.

Aside from gaming, Grayscale’s report also pointed out some sectors that could fuel the rise of the metaverse economy. “The Metaverse is estimated to be a trillion-dollar revenue opportunity across advertising, social commerce, digital events, hardware, and developer/creator monetization,” the crypto asset manager said.

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