Metaverse, Metaverse! We are certain that you have been hearing about this alternate reality for a while now – a shared augmented/virtual internet of realities that will keep us all connected and allow for new experiences. You probably heard about Facebook rebranding to Meta recently to focus on the Metaverse, don’t feel so good about the walled garden/restricted opportunity, and are thinking of investing in more crypto-ish open metaverse components for lucrative returns. Well, let’s take a look at our favorite top 5 Metaverse tokens by market capitalization.
5. UFO Gaming (UFO) – Marketcap $192 Million
At a market cap of $192 Million, the fifth in the list of our favorite top 5 Metaverse tokens is multi-chain UFO Gaming. UFO Gaming describes itself as “The Dark Metaverse is a closed loop ever-expanding ecosystem that will consist of P2E games with breedable in-game NFTs and Virtual Land that will entitle collectors to in-game revenue. All games will funnel through UFO’s Mothership Gaming Launchpad. UFO Unlocks Everything“.
Basically, it’s a dark-themed Metaverse with space, planets, and UFO theme. It aims to offer a series of plays to earn NFT based games and virtual real estate, whose value will be enhanced with more participants entering the game-based economies. The first game in this Metaverse is the RPG style Super Galactic with character minting and quest-based game play.
4. Yield Guild Games (YGG) – Marketcap $286 Million
So, we have the Metaverse, but what about an organized group looking to invest their time and effort in them for lucrative rewards for the entire communities? Enter Yield Guild Games, which describes itself as “YGG is a play-to-earn gaming guild, bringing players together to earn via blockchain-based economies. We are the settlers of new worlds in the metaverse“. At $286 Million, it’s number four in our favorite top 5 Metaverse token list.
Yield Guild Games is sort of the Yearn Finance of the Metaverse, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) seeking yield aggregation in different Metaverse projects. The project sits at the intersection of NFTs and DeFi. Its mission is given as the creation of the “biggest virtual world economy” by optimizing the DAO-owned gaming assets / NFTs in different Metaverses for enhancing utility and generating profits.
3. Axie Infinity (AXIE) – Marketcap $3.0 Billion
The apex predator at the second lineup needs no introduction. Axie Infinity is a well-known and popular play-to-earn game, which has a current market cap of a modest $3 billion. Hence, it’s number one in our list of top 5 Metaverse tokens. Axie Infinity runs on the Ethereum side chain Ronin. The players can earn by competing in PVP battles, breeding Axies and selling them to the marketplace, or collecting rare Axies.
Axie Infinity uses a dual token structure like most Metaverse projects Smooth Love Potion (SLPs) which allow users to breed Axies or the more commonly known AXS – needed for governance and earn a share of the platform fees. In Axie Infinity, players use action cards to command what action their Axies will be doing for that turn. It is very close to the Pokemon game. The game is growing massively and offers a lifeline to many people in developing countries to make their living. It is likely to retain its position between the top 5 Metaverse tokens, for quite a while.
2. The Sandbox (SAND) – Marketcap $3.6 Billion
Now, we are talking billions with the number 2 in our top 5 Metaverse tokens list. The Ethereum-native Sandbox is a blockchain-based virtual world, where users can buy, sell or even create their own digital assets. It creates the perfect experience, encompassing online experience, decentralization, and gaming. It aims to bring blockchain technology to the masses by attracting gamers and creators alike, combining play-to-earn and NFT based economies. The utility token is called SAND, used for transactions on the platform and running decentralized governance.
1. Decentraland (MANA) – Marketcap $3.31 Billion
The biggest and oldest virtual real estate project (after ancient Etheria) – Decentraland was deployed on 15 August 2017. It is a digital sims-like Metaverse platform that allows users to create and experience virtual reality. The users can purchase plots of land (non-fungible unique digital assets) that they can build. It includes the record of the location, owner, content description, and access controls. Also, they can develop and monetize assets.
Decentraland works on the Ethereum blockchain. MANA is the native ERC-20 utility token, however, the ERC-71 Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) standard token LAND is used to represent land ownership and transfers. The Decentraland DAO holds important smart contracts and assets that make up Decentraland – the lands, estates, wearable, servers, and the marketplace. It also controls a high amount of MANA tokens which allows autonomous function, provision of subsidy, normal operation, etc.
The users are in full control of the policies and determining the functioning of their digital assets, on the platform. The community can vote on policy updates, future LAND auctions, determining the NFT contracts allowed, builder and marketplace, etc. In short, they can vote on, whatever they want to vote on. The governance mechanism is built-in and powered by Aragon. At a $4.41 billion market cap, it’s currently the biggest in our top 5 Metaverse tokens list.
