Facebook, now called Meta, has created a number of images to show how its metaverse might look.

• Crypto giant Grayscale said the metaverse is a $1 trillion annual revenue opportunity.
• It comes as pieces of virtual land inside metaverse projects have sold for upwards of $2 million.
• Grayscale said the metaverse is a big opportunity for the crypto world, with investment accelerating.

The metaverse has the potential to become a $1 trillion annual revenue opportunity across the worlds of advertising, digital events, e-commerce and hardware, according to a new report from crypto giant Grayscale.

Grayscale’s report, released Wednesday night, comes during a surge in interest in the metaverse after Facebook officially changed its name to Meta as it focuses on the virtual immersive world it says is the future of the internet.

This week, there have been early indications of the potential size of the metaverse economy, with parcels of virtual land inside crypto-based metaverses Decentraland and Axie Infinity selling for more than $2 million.

The metaverse refers to a range of online 3D virtual environments, in which people can play games, build things, socialize, work and even trade and earn crypto assets.

The most well-known individual metaverses right now are in gaming, with Fortnite and Roblox booming in popularity over the last few years. Grayscale estimated that revenue from virtual gaming worlds could grow to $400 billion in 2025, from around $180 billion in 2020.

Yet Grayscale, which runs the world’s biggest cryptocurrency fund, said the metaverse is still “in its early innings.” It said Facebook’s plans to spend $10 billion this year on the metaverse is a sign of the potential of the market.

“The market opportunity for bringing the Metaverse to life may be worth over $1 trillion in annual revenue,” the report said, although it did not specify a timeframe.

The report’s authors, Grayscale’s head of research David Grider and research analyst Matt Maximo, argued the metaverse is a huge opportunity for crypto companies.

Many current metaverse projects, such as virtual realities or games, are run by so-called Web2 companies, which are centralized and operate for profit. Facebook, which has launched the virtual reality space Horizon Worlds, is an example.

But increasingly, metaverse projects are created on or are heavily tied to crypto technology, which can give users more control and allow them to earn money that they can use in the real world. This is known as the Web3 metaverse.

Grayscale listed the opportunities for monetization of consumers within the Web3 metaverse. These include art galleries launching NFTs, games and casinos where players win crypto, digital advertising billboards, and music venues where DJs and artists hold concerts.

In the third quarter, total Web3 and NFT fundraising hit $1.8 billion, out of overall crypto fundraising of $8.2 billion, Grayscale said. It added that investment has “recently started to accelerate.”

Grayscale’s report focused on Decentraland. In that metaverse, people log in to play games, earn the native cryptocurrency mana, purchase NFTs including virtual land and collectibles, and vote on the governance of the economy.https://7639fd23d5f81f9ba8e86110e7495846.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

The crypto investment company recently created a Decentraland trust that invests solely in mana. The cryptocurrency is up around 550% in the last 30 days, according to Coingecko.

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(Decentraland/ UNXD promotional video).

Decentraland/UNXD promotional video

• Decentraland will host its first fashion week in March 2022 as the business of virtual clothes heats up. 
• The metaverse platform is teaming up with UNXD, which recently hosted Dolce & Gabbana’s first NFT clothing collection. 
• Virtual land on Decentraland’s Fashion District recently sold for $2.4 million. 
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Fashion is shaping up to be a key area of business in the potentially $1 trillion-a-year-metaverse, and Decentraland will expand its stake in the market by hosting its first fashion week. 

The metaverse platform in March will host four days of runway shows and immersive experiences with UNXD, a luxury marketplace built on the Polygon blockchain network.

“Have your collections ready!” Decentraland said in a Sunday post on Twitter calling on designers, brands, and fashionistas to prepare for the event set for March 24-27, 2022. 

The metaverse refers to online 3D virtual environments where people represented by avatars can play games, work and socialize, as well as buy and trade crypto assets. Cryptocurrency asset management firm Grayscale last month said the metaverse has the potential to become a $1 trillion annual revenue opportunity. 

But all those avatars in the metaverse need virtual clothing, which is emerging as a hot sector.

Fashion brands such as Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Balenciaga, and Ralph Lauren have been making inroads into the metaverse. UNXD hosted Dolce & Gabbana’s first NFT clothing collection, and the Collezione Genesi group of nine non-fungible tokens designed by Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana sold for $5.7 million in September. 

Digital clothing from Ralph Lauren and Gucci have been featured on avatars through separate partnerships with avatar app Zepeto, Asia’s largest fashion virtual platform with nearly a quarter of a billion users, according to the BBC.

Meanwhile, Decentraland’s burgeoning Fashion District grabbed attention in recent weeks after a company paid the equivalent of $2.4 million in cryptocurrency to purchase virtual parcels there. 

“We think the Fashion District purchase is like buying on Fifth Avenue back in the 1800s … or the creation of Rodeo Drive,” Lorne Sugarman, the CEO of Metaverse Group, told Insider, about his company’s deal in November. 

More : https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/metaverse-platform-decentraland-fashion-week-unxd-digital-clothes-virtual-market-2021-12