Grayscale says Metaverse industry is a $1T opportunity amid strong user growth

• The Grayscale report notes that the global active metaverse wallets have grown 10x in the one-and-a-half years since early 2020.
• During the third quarter of 2021, the Metaverse projects attracted 12% of the total funding in the crypto space. 

The world’s largest digital asset manager Grayscale published a report around the rapidly growing craze of Metaverse and the massive market opportunity that lies ahead. Grayscale expects Metaverse to go mainstream in the next few years presenting a $1 trillion opportunity in the market. 

Grayscale Head of research David Grider and research analyst Matt Maximo express their view in the November report titled “The Metaverse, Web 3.0 Virtual Cloud Economies”. The duo presents interesting insights into this burgeoning sector and the open Metaverse worlds backed by an “interconnected crypto-economy” such as Decentraland. 

Related: NFT-based game Axie Infinity registers record-breaking $2.3M digital land sale

The report further notes that the “global all-time active meta verse wallets” have grown by 10x in one-and-a-half year since the early 2020. As of June 2021, the total number of active meta verse wallet count has reached 50,000. The report adds:

Compared to other Web 3.0 and Web 2.0 segments, Metaverse virtual world users are still in their early innings, but if current growth rates remain on their current trajectory, this emerging segment has the potential to become mainstream in the coming years.

The report also adds that Metaverse projects integrated with crypto tokens, NFTs, decentralized governance, and decentralized finance (DeFi) services such as staking and lending have created a new online experience thereby attracting new users. 

The report from Grayscale also notes that there’s active interest from venture capital (VC) firms who are seeing major potential in this sector. As per Grayscale, the fundraising by Metaverse projects tootled at $1 billion during the third quarter. This was a massive 12% of the total fundraising for the entire crypto sector during this quarter. 

This puts Metaverse among the “top sub-sector” along with the NFT category and the Web 3.0. 

Key Dynamics Leading to Growth of Metaverse Sector

The researchers at Grayscale also pointed out at some of the key dynamics that could lead to the growth of the Metaverse sector. This includes facts like growing average leisure time and money spent on digital hobbies. 

Besides, the report also notes that Metaverse will mark a cultural shift from premium game to free-to-play gaming and other Web 3.0 innovations such as play-to-earn (P2E). 

Last year in 2020, the global revenue for virtual world gaming accounted for a staggering $180 billion. Of this, the “premium spending” accounted for a staggering $40 billion. As per the estimates, the in-game spending could increase in the next four years and the sector could pull more than $400 billion by 2025. The report also states that the shift is “accelerating further with the transition from Web 2.0 closed corporate Metaverses to Web 3.0 open crypto Metaverse networks”. 

It also adds: “Web 3.0 Metaverse virtual worlds have benefited from rapid innovation and productivity gains. Crypto virtual worlds have created a multi-million dollar primary and secondary market for creators and asset owners by eliminating capital controls and opening their digital borders to free-market capitalism”.