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What are Metaverse Tokens? Are they important?

What are Metaverse Tokens? Are they important?
By Nikhil Batra
  • Metaverse has gained momentum after Facebook rebranded itself as Meta
  • It relies on internal tokens that can be purchased, sold, exchanged or even created by the users.

Metaverse is a fully immersive space filled with virtual reality (VR). It is fast evolving from a science fiction dream into a reality and major tech giants are realising the practicality and potential after Facebook changed its name to Meta.

Metaverse is a digital world where people can interact virtually, create and exchange digital assets for authentic values, receive digitised products and services and much more. Users can access Metaverse through computers, smartphones, or completely immerse in it with a VR headset. Users who enter Metaverse get to experience living in the digital realm where they can even create their avatars based on face recognition.

Metaverse is a virtual world carrying a virtual economy. In many cases, it is an online reality that is powered by decentralised finance (DeFi), where users exchange values and assets via cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Facebook’s rebranding helps make crypto space more inclusive and this inclusivity helps the virtual environment cope up with real-world problems and exchanges.

Metaverse tokens are a unit of virtual currency that can be used to make digital payments within the Metaverse. Some of these currencies can only be spent in the metaverse and they can be bought through each virtual universe’s in-game store. Some tokens are available on exchanges like WazirX, Coinbase and Binance.

Since Metaverses are built on blockchain, transactions are ensured to be trustworthy and secure, making it the perfect environment for an economy free of corruption and financial fraud.  Metaverse tokens are not massively different from other cryptocurrencies, they are attached to the same industry. Here are some of the best Metaverse Coins:

Decentraland

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It is a virtual world that you can visit through your internet browser and its native cryptocurrency is MANA, which helps you buy and sell land in this virtual world. Players in this world own and develop properties and investors can buy these virtual properties for a price.

MANA is currently priced at $4.72 and has a market capitalisation of roughly $9 billion. Decentraland has added native support for the Matic network, allowing for transactions with a lower fee.

SAND (Sandbox)

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It is a full-fledged virtual gaming world where players can earn tokens for completing activities in the world. It is considered a play-to-earn model. You can earn SAND tokens by completing various quests in the Sandbox world. You can then use these SAND tokens to buy land and other virtual objects. SAND is trading at around $7. Its current market capitalisation is over $6 billion.

AXS (Axie Infinity) 

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This is also one of the play-to-earn models and it is very similar to Pokémon but in a virtual space. In this game, you have monsters that you can breed, sell, buy, trade, and battle other monsters to earn the AXS tokens. The monsters themselves are NFTs that are unique.

GALA

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Also known as (Gala Games), it is a blockchain gaming space that is powered by the Ethereum token GALA. Unlike the previous entries in this list, GALA can be used between multiple GALA game participants. You can use the token in multiple games powered by the Gala blockchain.

GALA is currently priced at $0.635. It has a market capitalisation of roughly $5 billion.

The company is planning to make more games that will use this token to increase the token's price in the future.

ENJ (Enjin Coin)

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It is an online platform that enables people to manage and create their own NFTs. It is integrated with many metaverse projects. It allows players in metaverse games to use their items across multiple games. When an NFT is minted on the Enjin network, a given amount of ENJ tokens are created, assigning a value to the newly created NFT. ENJ is currently priced at $3.5. It has a market capitalisation of roughly $3 billion.

Conclusion

The metaverse has immense potential to revolutionise our lifestyles, providing a virtual environment that erases the line between the digital world and reality. The development of metaverses has accelerated at a significant rate in the post-pandemic period as online interaction become the new normal and the need for expanded use of digital currencies has grown. While metaverse tokens are gaining popularity, users should always do their research before making a purchase or an investment. 

Axie infinity's popularity has sky-rocketed in the last six months with a nearly 5,000% rise in daily users. Currently, it is priced at around $132 with a global market capitalisation of over $8 billion.