The Metaverse Has Exploded in 2021; What Does The Future Hold?

The Metaverse Has Exploded in 2021; What Does The Future Hold?

The post The Metaverse Has Exploded in 2021; What Does The Future Hold? appeared first on Coinpedia - Fintech & Cryptocurreny News Media| Crypto Guide

The past year has been quite eventful for the crypto market as it broke record highs to hit $3 trillion in market capitalization.

Bitcoin has also rallied significantly gaining over 150%; it is currently trading at $49,377 as of press time, having slid back from the new all-time high of $69,000.

While Bitcoin still dominates the market, other emerging niches such as Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) also gained massive traction this year. 

According to a recent analysis by DappRadar, the NFT ecosystem market dominance grew from 3% to 8% between September and October.

This growth was primarily sparked by the rise of play-to-earn (p2e) games such as Axie Infinity and metaverse ecosystems like The Sandbox.

Both of these games are NFT-oriented and have been making headlines with the mainstream catching up on the trend. 

At the very core, NFTs have introduced an opportunity for people to thrive in the metaverse.

These indistinguishable tokens enable users to replicate real-world activities in a virtual ecosystem through supporting technologies such as blockchain and cryptography.

While most of the innovations are still in the early days, it is no secret that NFTs have caught the attention of crypto natives and other stakeholders from industries such as gaming and entertainment. 

The Latest Trend in Crypto 

The NFT trend currently has the crypto market on chokehold, from gaming to collectibles such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club monkeys and Crypto Punks.

Going by the latest developments, NFT games such as Axie Infinity are printing more volumes by the day.

The game recently broke a record sale with a land parcel trading for 550 WETH (roughly $2.3 million as per ETH prices at the time). 

Meanwhile, The Sandbox has been attracting prominent partnerships from notable companies like Adidas and popular celebrities such as rapper Snoop Dogg.

The latter intends to build a replica of his villa on The Sandbox metaverse where he will be displaying NFT collections as well as hosting virtual parties.

Currently, The Sandbox native token SAND is trading at $6.24, a 196% increase within the past month. 

Coming down to the popular digital collectibles, there has been a growing interest by individuals and corporations.

Large corporates led by Visa have joined the bandwagon, with the company purchasing Crypto Punk #7610 at 49.5 ETH back in August.

According to thought leaders in the NFT industry, the trend will likely catch up with more corporations as the world embraces the value proposition of NFTs. 

Aavegotchi’s Founder and COO, Jesse Johnson, is one of the optimistic stakeholders in the NFT niche. He recently told Cointelegraph that Visa’s NFT purchase is only a tip of the iceberg, 

“The market is going to increasingly see brands, organizations and businesses embrace NFTs over the coming months and years. It will start as a new way to connect with customers but eventually evolve entire industries.”

Looking Into the Horizon 

As is the norm in crypto, the trends are ever evolving. However, NFTs are proving to be a more long term ecosystem.

A recently published report by Grayscale predicts that this market could hit $1 trillion in annual revenues to challenge long-standing web 2.0 companies.

The research also highlights the potential of Web 3.0 in transforming future economies, 

“This vision for the future state of the web has the potential to transform our social interactions, business dealings, and the internet economy at large.”

Despite the success, this growing ecosystem needs to be complemented by an enhanced level of security across the blockchain and crypto market.

On this front, we have upcoming quantum-resistant blockchains such as the QANplatform, which supports metaverse developments amongst other functions across the crypto market spectrum.

The QANplatform blockchain ecosystem is one of the Layer-1 chains that allows developers to deploy decentralized applications (DApps) in a few clicks.

QANplatform also features multiple development languages; developers can launch NFT innovations leveraging the platform’s Automatised Cloud Platform Deployment and Oracle API’s to make the process simpler.

Notably, QANplatform’s native token QANX was recently listed on Gate.io. 

Both NFTs and security-focused blockchain networks will be massive trends in the coming year. If anything, Layer-1 chains that manage to combine a highly secure environment with NFT support will feature among the winning crypto ecosystems. 

Closing Thoughts 

As mentioned previously, crypto innovators are never short of ideas.

The market began with Bitcoin as the pioneer crypto asset, evolving to smart contract chains such as Ethereum, Avalanche and Solana. Likewise, NFTs are posed for a significant evolution as more innovations tied to the metaverse continue to pop up. 

Even better, the trend has caught up with large corporations like Visa and Facebook; the latter recently rebranded to Meta in a move to focus on digital ecosystems.

While their involvement may rub shoulders with some die-hard decentralization fans, it is a no-brainer that NFTs will largely benefit from the deep pockets and resources of these companies. 

As we move into the next adoption era, security will play a fundamental role in safeguarding the interests of NFT stakeholders.

For this reason, innovators ought to pay more attention to building sustainable and secure infrastructures that support NFT development and the metaverse.