Investors Are Paying Millions for Virtual 'Land' in the Metaverse

Politics January 16 2022

GLENN CHAPMAN/AFP/Getty Images

Digital real estate in the metaverse is reportedly being sold for millions of dollars in some cases as more people buy into the hype of digital reality. One investor spent $450,000 to be the virtual neighbor of rapper Snoop Dogg.

CNBC reports that real estate in the metaverse is on the rise, with some completely digital plots of land selling for millions. A report from cryptocurrency asset manager Grayscale recently estimated that the digital world may be a $1 trillion business in the near future.

Andrew Kiguel, the CEO of Tokens.com, which invests in metaverse real estate and NFT-related digital assets, recently stated: “The metaverse is the next iteration of social media. You can go to a carnival, you can go to a music concert, you can go to a museum.”

Mark Zuckerberg introduces Meta (Facebook)

In these virtual, video-game-like worlds, users can interact with each other and take part in a number of activities together. Currently, the experience is confined to a regular computer screen, but Facebook (now called Meta) has plans to make the metaverse a 360-degree virtual experience with the help of its Oculus headsets.

Recently, Kiguel’s company spent nearly $2.5 million on a patch of land in Decentraland, just one of man popular metaverse worlds. “Prices have gone up 400% to 500% in the last few months,” Kiguel said.

In another metaverse world called Sandbox, Janine Yorio’s digital real estate development firm, Republic Realm, spend $4.3 million on a virtual plot of land. Another user recently paid $450,000 to be the neighbor of the rapper Snoop Dog in the virtual world of Sandbox.

LOS ANGELES, CA – DECEMBER 15: Snoop Dogg performs at the Puff Puff Pass Tour 3 at the Microsoft Theatre on December 15, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Kiguel explained the idea behind purchasing Metaverse land, stating: “There are areas when you first go into the metaverse where people congregate — those areas would certainly be a lot more valuable than the areas that don’t have any events going on.”

He added: “Think about the board game Monopoly. We just bought Boardwalk and the surrounding area. Areas where people congregate are far more valuable for advertisers and retailers to find ways to get in there to access that demographic.”