Facebook Metaverse Move Raises Value Of Axie and Decentraland Tokens

Facebook’s recent announcement to rebrand itself as Meta to build a metaverse has sent gaming tokens soaring. Decentraland’s native token, MANA, Axie Infinity’s Axie Infinity Shard (AXS), and The Sandbox’s SAND have all witnessed significant gains post Facebook’s announcement on October 28. Other project’s like Illuvium (ILV), Decentral Games (DG), and Division Network (DVI) also recorded gains.

According to Coingecko, MANA rose an astonishing 132.2% in the last 24 hours (at the time of writing). Moreover, its market cap skyrocketed from $1.44 billion to $2.08 billion on October 29 and is currently around $4.5 billion. Similarly, Axie Infinity’s AXS soared 20% on October 29 to reach $150. At the time of going to press, its market cap crossed $8.6 billion.

Facebook to focus on the metaverse

During the Facebook Connect augmented and virtual reality conference on Thursday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company is changing its name to Meta. He also shared the company’s vision for the metaverse.

“Today we are seen as a social media company, but in our DNA we are a company that builds technology to connect people, and the metaverse is the next frontier just like social networking was when we got started,” Zuckerberg said. 

“The defining quality of the metaverse will be a feeling of presence — like you are right there with another person or in another place,” he added in a statement. “Feeling truly present with another person is the ultimate dream of social technology. That is why we are focused on building this.”

Furthermore, the company plans to spend around $10 billion in the next year to develop the technologies needed to build the metaverse. It also plans to make its services “accessible” to more people. 

Metaverses or virtual worlds have been quite popular in the crypto and NFT space in recent years. However, Meta’s (formerly Facebook) foray into the metaverse will take it to a wider audience. This, without a doubt, spells big things for the industry. 

Mike Dickens, operations manager of NFT marketplace, Blockasset, told Cointelegraph that Facebook’s new name “alludes to the ground-breaking work these NFT protocols have done in recent years.” Greg Waisman, co-founder and chief operating officer of payment network, Mercuryo, meanwhile, noted that Meta’s “indirect influence” may drive the sector’s valuation to $60 billion before the end of Q1 2022.

Which other tokens made gains?

In the last 24 hours, Decentral Games’ has gone up by 28.9% to reach $522.74 (at the time of writing). Its market cap, according to Coingecko, has reached around $190 million. At the same time, The Sandbox’s SAND token grew 64.8% in the last 24 hours and has a market cap of nearly $1.7 billion. Similarly, blockchain P2E game, Illuvium, rose 4.1% in the last 24 hours. Its market cap has hit around $638 million.