Metaverse hype pushes investors to bet big on digital property offered in new virtual worlds

Virtual land worth more than US$100 million has recently sold on metaverse sites The Sandbox, Decentraland, CryptoVoxels and Somnium Space

The booming digital property market has spawned an entire ecosystem around virtual real estate, from rents to land developers

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New York-based metaverse real estate firm Republic Realm recently spent a record US$4.3 million for a plot of digital land through virtual world The Sandbox. Photo: Handout

Published: 5:15pm, 5 Dec 2021Updated: 3:26pm, 6 Dec 2021

The idea of spending millions on non-existent land may sound ludicrous – but feverish predictions of a virtual reality (VR) future are pushing investors to bet big on digital real estate.

Last week, New York-based company Republic Realm announced it had spent a record-breaking US$4.3 million on digital land through The Sandbox, one of several “virtual world” websites where people can socialise, play games and even attend concerts.

That came hot on the heels of a US$2.4-million land purchase in late November on a rival platform, Decentraland, by Canadian cryptocurrency company Tokens.com. Days before that, Barbados announced plans to open a “metaverse embassy” in Decentraland.

Such websites bill themselves as a prototype of the metaverse – a future internet where online experiences like chatting to a friend would eventually feel face-to-face, thanks to VR headsets.

Metaverse has been a Silicon Valley buzzword for months, but interest soared in October after Facebook’s parent company renamed itself Meta, as it shifts its focus towards VR.