Exotic, million-dollar real estate is moving from Saint-Tropez or the Amalfi Coast to a new location: the blockchain ecosystem via digital assets.
It might seem like a cruel hoax to traditional finance markets that view real estate as a tangible asset that should be enjoyed by the five basic senses. However, these digital assets are garnering millions of dollars, which should open the eyes of institutional investors — and might already be doing so.
“A growing number of investment firms are acquiring digital land in worlds such as the Sandbox and Decentraland, where players simulate real-life pursuits, from shopping to attending a concert,” a Wall Street Journal report says. “They are betting that individuals and companies will spend money to use virtual homes and retail space and that the value of properties will increase as more people join the worlds.”
It seemed like it was heading in this direction given the rising popularity of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which are also pulling in millions of dollars in investment capital from institutional money. Earlier this year, $69 million was spent on a claim to ownership over the digital location of a JPG file at a Christie’s online auction — given that digital art could pull this kind of investment capital, it was only a matter of time before digital real estate could do the same.
“The influx of institutional investors in the blockchain and crypto industry is inevitable,” Ryan Wilkinson, co-founder of athlete NFT ecosystem Blockasset, said in an interview with Beincrypto.com.
You Are Now Entering the Metaverse
Imagine a world built on blockchain technology — now, you’ve entered a new realm known as the metaverse. In this metaverse exists digital land and buildings, which can all be purchased as NFTs that give authenticated ownership to the purchaser.
This can certainly spawn a new type of digital real estate investor flipping virtual land and structures with other blockchain users. This type of online world is exactly what prompted Facebook to change its name to “Meta,” where the social media giant will begin building out its platform to create online communities that include these virtual worlds.
However, will a new episode of real estate television show “Million Dollar Listing” showcase digital property? It may, especially given the latest figures sloshing around in this growing realm.
“That interest reached a new peak on Tuesday when Republic Realm, a firm that develops real estate in the metaverse, said it paid $4.3 million for land in the world Sandbox, the biggest virtual real-estate sale publicized to date, according to the company and to data from the website NonFungible.com, which tracks digital land sales,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
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