Is the Metaverse a Good Real Estate Play? Mark Cuban Has Salty Words About It
We’ve been hearing a lot about the Metaverse lately, and it can be confusing.
In sci-fi movies and in comics, where you expect make-believe, Marvel has embraced it as an alternate section of its multiverse, which is a collection of alternate universes.
But another version of the Metaverse is an actual real estate play in which reasonable people or businesses can buy or invest in virtual properties. You’re plunking down cash for a digital asset with a unique code that cannot be duplicated.
You might recognize the habit. It’s a step up from creating a digital community on social media, like Facebook, or playing FarmVille, or nurturing a Tamagotchi.
But whereas social media and early strategy simulation games were free or low cost, Metaverse comes with a big cost. Metaverse virtual space is limited and its price is driven by demand.
Is it worth the cost? Dallas billionaire Mark Cuban, 64, invests in the crypto world, but he’s not sold on the Metaverse concept. In an interview on the Altcoin Daily YouTube channel, Cuban called the Metaverse dumb.
“The worst part is that people are buying real estate in these places,” Cuban said of the Metaverse platforms. “That’s just the dumbest [poo-poo] ever.”
“There’s no rhyme or reason to it yet. It’s gonna be hard to standardize things and to make it interoperable, at least for the foreseeable future.”
On the Altcoin Daily podcast, he said concepts in Metaverse real estate might be successful after a community is formed around it. But it’s useless when based on a traditional real estate approach before the concept is proven.
Virtual space doesn’t come cheap. According to one report, the average price for a parcel of virtual land across the four major Metaverse platforms doubled to $12,000 during a six-month period last year.
In Beverly Hills, a $9.5 million physical house came with an option to purchase a $100,000 Metaverse version of the property. This week, NBC Nightly News featured a developer in Miami, Fla., who is selling Metaverse real estate, along with an actual physical property.
According to Statista, the global metaverse market was valued at $38.85 billion in 2021 and will increase to $47.48 billion in 2022 before rocketing to $678.8 billion by 2030.
The Motley Fool endorsed Metaverse real estate investing for those who intend to either be a developer or a landlord.
Rapper Snoop Dogg, 50, is one of the early Metaverse stakeholders, offering concerts on his land called Snoopverse on the Sandbox platform. Appearing as an avatar in his Snoopverse space, Snoop Dogg released the first-ever virtual music video produced in the Sandbox Metaverse.
In December, P-Ape, a collector, purchased a digital plot in Snoop Dogg’s world for $450,000.
“I’m always on the lookout for new ways of connecting with fans and what we’ve created in The Sandbox is the future of virtual hangouts, NFT drops, and exclusive concerts,” Snoop Dogg said in a press release.
