“Buy earth, they’re not making it anymore”
Metaverse land is the new big hit in the crypto community, as leading virtual worlds including Somnium Space according to DappRadar recorded upwards of $100 million in NFT land sales in the past week. Moreover, the data shows a huge influx of people to the virtual world space. Which begs the obvious question. Who is buying these lands? And what for?
Thinking simply, it’s not all that difficult to understand. Virtual worlds are hyping and set to become new digital playgrounds for the masses. Just like a capital city on the rise in the real world, the land will inevitably appreciate as demand grows. In fact, bricks and mortar have always been sound way to let your money grow. Which led Mark Twain to state “buy earth, they’re not making it anymore”. The same principle is true in virtual worlds – once the land is gone, it’s gone.
So that answers the why. The what for is slightly more complicated. In a nutshell, whether or not the buyer chooses to build on the land, rent it out, engage within the platform, or simply HODL the NFT asset. There is a financial incentive. The rise of sharding and land renting only intensifies this, as more complex economies build out from a simple premise. Opening up new revenue streams for landowners.
Now you have a better understanding of the why and what for. Let’s take a look at who’s already staking their claim as a real estate tycoon in Somnium Space. Importantly, we are not revealing names or identities, instead, we are using on-chain data and the corresponding wallet address to dig into the wallet further using the DappRadar Portfolio Tracker.
1st Place – 0x25a191128ae4df9984fff7d5c0e526a2e408578d
With over $1.95 million dollars in Somnium Space CUBE and 30 in-game land and other NFTs worth an estimated $234,000, this wallet is the real tycoon of Somnium Space right now. Browsing the top all-time NFT sales the wallet address is prominent. Claiming four of the top ten all-time highest value sales on the platform. A dig through the NFT holdings reveals what the person is buying. Other than a teleporter and limited edition OpenSea kayak, the wallet is rammed with extra large and medium land plots. Going further into individual plots we see the buyer is pretty savvy. Scooping up premium land plots with good proximity to services and waterfront views.
2nd Place – 0x329a4ceec17118a6b0814e5eb0f7d3ea32525218
With over $1.89 million dollars in Somnium Space CUBE and 20 in-game land and other NFTs, second place belongs to this wallet. The holdings are slightly different in that this wallet holds nine World NFTs. Worlds represent entire instances that can be customized by owners. Importantly they still need to be placed upon a land parcel. Worlds are a later addition to the Somnium economy so arguably this person has entered the space later than the other investors, and rather than buying on the secondary market preferred to buy NFTs at the minting stage for maximum gains. Digging further we also see this wallet is holding a TLO-X1 Driver Suit which set them back around $6,000.
3rd Place – 0xddd3964d75d59b6b6d5c31eb313bba5ebf076364
The third wallet on the list doesn’t hold a lot of CUBE tokens but is prominent on the all-time NFT sales rankings. This wallet holds 6 of the 10 highest value land plots ever sold on Somnium Space. In total, the wallet holds 89 Somnium NFTs with an estimated value of over $276,000. The buying patterns here seem similar to the first wallet. Except this wallet is holding a newly released Founders Edition Teslasuit, three OpenSea tents, and four OpenSea Kayaks. The later OpenSea branded items are very rare and will not be available ever again.
Arguably, when considering the sheer volume of land owned and not taking into account CUBE holdings – this person is the real, real estate mogul of Somnium Space. Additionally, there is every chance they don’t keep all their assets in one wallet and may have substantial CUBE holdings elsewhere.
However, the other wallets were holding in-game NFTs such as teleporters, suits, and cars. Which to this observer could indicate they have some intention to participate within the Somnium world. Build out more interesting land parcels and potentially inhabit and utilize them at a later date.
In summary
It’s important to remember that this is a snapshot of on-chain data. Additionally, DappRadar does not currently track sales occurring through the Solana-based marketplace Haloplex. Here we are analyzing sales on the Ethereum blockchain, which still holds the lion’s share of activity. These wallets are currently sitting high on the list of Somnium real estate tycoons but it can all change in the blink of an eye.
What’s clear is that the trend has exploded in November. Furthermore, virtual real estate dapps generated $228 million in trading volume in November. This figure is by far the best month for virtual world projects and represents an outstanding 688% increase from the previous month. Investors and metaverse enthusiasts are truly supportive of this new trend.
The above does not constitute investment advice. The information given here is purely for informational purposes only. Please exercise due diligence and do your research. The writer holds positions in ETH, BTC, AGIX, MATIC, SDAO, HEX, LINK, GRT, CRO, OMI, AND ENS.
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