There is a map of land.
There is a place called The Sandbox.
The metaverse will be the biggest disruption to how we live ever seen, as Wall Street bankers warm to the idea of virtual worlds and economies.
According to the firm's analysts, investors need to think about the metaverse as if it were the internet in its early days.
The analysts, led by equity strategist Simon Powell, wrote in a Monday note that a single metaverse could be more than a decade away.
The adoption of various technologies was accelerated by the Pandemic. The shift to an online world will continue.
The term "metaverse" refers to various virtual worlds where users can play games, work, build things, and watch live events.
Powell said investors should first look at the hardware that will be needed to create the metaverse from the internet, then look at the software that will host it, and then focus on the businesses that will be involved in it.
Big institutions are scrambling to position themselves to make money from the technology, which could become a major feature of peoples' lives.
People can earn and trade NFTs in some metaverses. A plot in The Sandbox went for $4.3 million, while virtual land in Decentraland sold fast.
The decision by Facebook to change its corporate name to Meta made many investors realize virtual worlds could be the next big thing.
Haim Israel, equity strategist at Bank of America, told Insider that investor sentiment changed fast after Facebook changed the name of Meta.
"Investors' interest is high right now," he said.
Morgan Stanley is excited about the prospects. In November, its analysts wrote a note saying the metaverse was the next big theme in investing.
They said that it can change the medium through which we interact with others, watch music performances, engage with fashion brands, learn and speculate on digital assets.
The 4 star stock pickers from Baillie Gifford have collectively returned 356% to investors in the last 5 years. Here's their outlook on the metaverse, play-to-earn games, and their thesis on 8 high conviction stock ideas.
It's not clear what shape the metaverse will take, and that could pose a problem for investors.
Skeptics say that virtual worlds have been around for a long time. Virtual-reality headsets have proved to be disappointing flops.
Raj Gokal, a co-founder of the solana network, has called the metaverse "overhyped."
According to the analysts at Jeffries, gaming is likely to be the biggest winner in the coming years, as millions of Gen Zs and Millennials are already getting into metaverse-like games such as Roblox.
The investment bank believes that the metaverse will be influenced by the use of the technology, and so it recommends looking at companies like Coinbase.
Israel thinks the metaverse will be a massive opportunity for the community. He predicted that the virtual worlds will be where we will start using cryptocurrencies.
More than $100 million of metaverse land was sold in a single week. The opportunity in digital properties could rise 200x in 16 months, according to the co- founder of a virtual real estate company.
Business Insider has an original article.
