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Gate.io Blog Top 5 Metaverse Projects

Top 5 Metaverse Projects

05 February 09:33



[TL;DR]
Axie Infinity (AXS)
Axie Infinity is a virtual, Play to Earn online game available for PC and Android. Released by the Vietnamese studio Sky Mavis in 2018 and based on Player versus Player fights, it allows players to collect, create, battle and exchange creatures known as “Axies,” which are digitised and exchanged as NFTs.

Decentraland (MANA)
Decentraland is the first metaverse project in charge of creating a fully decentralized, free to build and explore a virtual world. Created by software developers Esteban Ordano and Ari Meilich, the creators sought to develop an interactive parallel to the real world where users are able to negotiate real estate assets, build businesses, interact with one another and join events.

Sandbox (SAND)
In a similar fashion to Decentraland, Sandbox is a platform that allows users to trade and exchange items, real estate, create businesses and events - all through its token SAND and the NFT equivalent for digital property called LAND. Although it utilises cryptocurrencies and blockchain for its operations, Sandbox is not a decentralized project. In fact, its entire network runs under Amazon’s AWS Cloud Services.

Enjin Coin (ENJ)
Enjin Coin is a decentralized API where users can create NFTs and implement them into metaverses as long as they are based in the Ethereum blockchain, through ERC-20 tokens.

DeFi Kingdoms (JEWEL)
DeFi Kingdoms is a game, a metaverse platform, a DEX (decentralized exchange) with liquidity pools and a marketplace - all wrapped in a nostalgic delivery of pixel art gaming, developed on the Harmony (ONE) network. In a nutshell, DeFi Kingdoms provides a role-playing experience where users can utilize the JEWEL token to profit through staking, liquidity pools, trading game items and buy NFTs such as characters to battle and go on quests.


Since Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook’s name change to Meta, the word “Metaverse” has been all over the news and topics of discussion amongst investors, digital enthusiasts or just those curious as to what it means.

With Metaverse broadly defined as “a network of 3D virtual worlds focused on social connection,” several companies and independent projects are working on ways to make this concept more connective and desirable for potential users to make a leap into virtual reality.

Most of these projects revolve around blockchain and cryptocurrencies. With those considerations in mind, here are the Top 5 Metaverse Projects and Metaverse Cryptos that are leading the charts in market capitalization.


Axie Infinity (AXS)
Source: Monnos
Axie Infinity is a virtual, Play to Earn online game available for PC and Android. Released by the Vietnamese studio Sky Mavis in 2018 and based on Player versus Player fights, it allows players to collect, create, battle and exchange creatures known as “Axies,” which are digitised and exchanged as NFTs.

Besides the platform’s native token AXS, users also exchange Small Love Potion (SLP), which can be used to improve their performance during the game. Both tokens had a tremendous upside in value during 2021.

Heavily inspired by Pokemon creatures and Magic: The Gathering’s gameplay model, Axie Infinity is currently the most popular Play to Earn game and Metaverse project in cryptocurrencies. Holding a market cap of 3.7 billion dollars at the time of writing, it now accounts for a staggering three million active users.

Due to its innovative Play to Earn model where players win rewards in crypto tokens for battling and fulfilling missions, Axie Infinity gained tremendous popularity and helped skyrocket the P2E gaming model.


Decentraland (MANA)
Source: Wired

Decentraland is the first metaverse project in charge of creating a fully decentralized, free to build and explore a virtual world.

Created by software developers Esteban Ordano and Ari Meilich, the creators sought to develop an interactive parallel to the real world where users are able to negotiate real estate assets, build businesses, interact with one another and join events.

The Decentraland world allows users to explore and develop properties much like Minecraft and socialize similarly to Second Life, arguably the first metaverse project ever conceived. But makes Decentraland special is its decentralism, where the experience is controlled by those who live in it. Most importantly, Decentraland is the first crypto project to offer digital real estate.
Its metaverse is split into 90 thousand units of land which are traded in the form of NFTs, available in Decentraland’s marketplace. All negotiations take place through MANA, the project’s native token. Besides functioning as a cryptocurrency, it is also a governance token, allowing its holders to participate in decision-making based on the project’s DAO structure - meaning Decentralized Autonomous Organization.

At the time of this writing, Decentraland held a market cap of 3.4 billion dollars - although its legitimate number of active users is still up for debate.


Sandbox (SAND)
Source: BTCManager

In a similar fashion to Decentraland, Sandbox is a platform that allows users to trade and exchange items, real estate, create businesses and events - all through its token SAND and the NFT equivalent for digital property called LAND.

Created way back in 2011 by the Sandbox foundation, the company made its jump to the blockchain ecosystem around 2018. Although it utilises cryptocurrencies and blockchain for its operations, Sandbox is not a decentralized project. In fact, its entire network runs under Amazon’s AWS Cloud Services.

With support from companies like Adidas and even Atari, the Sandbox developers sought to create a virtual world with limitless possibilities - free for users to create and experiment as they wish.

What makes Sandbox special and different from Decentraland is its tokenomics rewards system. The Sandbox Foundation seeks to help creators to promote their businesses through incentives integrated into the platform.

In sum, 95% of all profits generated through sales of items and land are given directly to the creators. Meanwhile, 50% of entire SAND profits made from users playing the game are reinvested into the Sandbox Foundation to help improve the game and offer donations in multiple ways to creators, artists and players.

At the time of this writing, Sandbox had a market cap of 3 billion dollars.


Enjin Coin (ENJ)
Source: InvestorPlace

Enjin Coin is part of the project Enjin, which was introduced first in 2017 and then launched officially to the Ethereum blockchain around June 2018. The creators of the project are software developers and programmers Maxim Blagov and Witek Radomski.

At first, Enjin Coin had been introduced as a central platform to provide technology and blockchain-focused software for developers and companies to create blockchain games.

However, as the metaverse concept started gaining traction amongst cryptocurrencies, Enjin Coin shifted its focus towards becoming a support system for all things metaverse - virtual assets, NFTs, real estate, events and more. Therefore, it is a decentralized API where users can create NFTs and implement them into metaverses as long as they are based in the Ethereum blockchain, through ERC-20 tokens.

At the time of writing, Enjin Coin had a market cap of 1.5 billion dollars.


DeFi Kingdoms (JEWEL)
Source: ChainDebrief

DeFi Kingdoms is a game, a metaverse platform, a DEX (decentralized exchange) with liquidity pools and a marketplace - all wrapped in a nostalgic delivery of pixel art gaming.

Unlike most metaverse projects and play-to-earn games which are built in the Ethereum network, DeFi Kingdoms was curiously developed on the Harmony (ONE) network.

In a nutshell, DeFi Kingdoms provides a role-playing experience where users can utilize the JEWEL token to profit through staking, liquidity pools, trading game items and buying NFTs.

The main use of NFTs in the game are characters, called “heroes.” Each with its own perks, specialties and weaknesses, players can use heroes to go battle, go on quests and more. The more players use those heroes, the more they improve in perks and efficiency, which in return allows their owners to trade them in DeFi Kingdom’s marketplace.

At the time of writing, DeFi Kingdoms had a market cap of 517 million dollars.




Author: Gate.io Researcher: Victor Bastos
* This article represents only the views of the researcher and does not constitute any investment suggestions.
*Gate.io reserves all rights to this article. Reposting of the article will be permitted provided Gate.io is referenced. In all other cases, legal action will be taken due to copyright infringement.
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