Decentraland (CCC:MANA-USD) is a crypto-powered virtual reality game written on top of Ethereum (CCC:ETH-USD). People can buy land, houses, and all kinds of other assets in the game using MANA crypto tokens as a means of exchange.
As a result, people hope to make money on these virtual goods and purchases. Moreover, the more popular the virtual reality game is to its users, the greater the demand for MANA crypto. That helps push up the price of the crypto.
This is reflected in the MANA crypto price in the past three months. For example, it reached a peak of $5.90 as of Nov. 25 and dropped below $3 on Dec. 15. Since then it has drifted a bit higher to $3.39 per MANA crypto as of Dec. 28.
At this price, the cryptocurrency has a market value of $6.14 billion, according to Coinmarketcap.com. In addition, this gives it a competitive rank among other cryptos, putting it in the top 30 (ranked No. 28). Expect to see this crypto move higher over the next year.
Standout Features of Decentraland Crypto
The key asset that people can buy on Decentraland are plots of land. Recently an investor called Tokens.com bought a piece of land for about $2.4 million. This is considered the largest sale of virtual land in the Decentraland virtual reality game.
The sale was in Decentraland’s Fashion Street Estate. It’s set to be a fashion-district hub for clothing stores and runway-show-ready event spaces. This $2.4 million land sale exceeded even the $2.3 million that a play-to-earn game named Axie Infinity had registered.
This is starting to become a big thing in the blockchain. For example, Rolling Stone magazine reported that “Someone Just Spent $450,000 for ‘Land’ Next to Snoop Dogg’s NFT House.”
According to the article, crypto fans are scrambling to buy and monetize metaverse land plots. This is occurring as Snoop Dogg, Adidas, and other brands start building virtual worlds. This land was in The Sandbox (CCC:SAND-USD) blockchain, which is another metaverse game similar to Decentraland.
So, the alternative reality actually has its own reality that is more real than many people’s bank accounts today. This is a crazy type of reality, where virtual land is an actual real asset. And why not? Cryptocurrency itself is alternate money with real value now. So why shouldn’t there be virtual land with real monetary value as well?
Where This Leaves Investors in MANA Crypto
Virtual land trades in Decentraland through the sale of NFTs (non-fungible tokens). Prior to this recent $2.4 million record sale, a recent NFT sale was made for $900,000 in Decentraland.
The digital real estate investment firm Republic Realm was the buyer of the NFT, referred to as a LAND token, according to Yahoo! Finance. The article points out that NFT owners in Decentraland can show off their NFT art, real estate, clothes, and even attend live concerts. Each plot of land is also made of parcels.
Let’s be clear about this. The only real reason to buy this amount of a virtual reality asset is to be able to sell it to someone else at an even more inflated asset price. This is what is called a “greater fool” theory type of investing.
The reason is that there is no basic underlying value for real estate. There is no intrinsic value. At least with real land, you can build a real home on it which can provide shelter and other things to human beings. In addition, real land can make food and other items of real value — none of which can be done in virtual reality.
But why do I really need to point this out? It’s no secret. However, these higher record sales of land in the Decentraland will only move to push the value of MANA crypto higher.
On the date of publication, Mark R. Hake did not hold any position (either directly or indirectly) in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
Mark Hake writes about personal finance on mrhake.medium.com and Newsbreak.com runs the Total Yield Value Guide which you can review here.
