A virtual land in the online world Decentraland was sold for a value in cryptocurrencies equivalent to a record US$2.4 million (R$13.4 million), Tokens.com and Decentraland said on Tuesday (23).
The world of Decentraland is an online environment, also known as the metaverse, where users can buy land, visit buildings, and meet other people who use avatars.
Such environments have grown in popularity, particularly after social isolation measures have left people trapped in their homes for months.
Decentraland is a specific type of metaverse that uses blockchain technology. Land and other items sold in the online world are traded in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), a type of digital asset.
Digital currency enthusiasts buy land in Decentraland’s metaverse as a speculative investment, via the metaverse’s cryptocurrency, called Mana.
A subsidiary of Tokens.com, called the Metaverse Group, bought land for 618,000 mana on Monday, which equates to about $2.43 million, said a Decentraland spokesman confirmed in a statement by the Decentraland itself. Tokens.com.
The purchase of the area was registered on the OpenSea NFTs marketplace, according to data seen by Reuters.
Decentraland said the transaction represented the most expensive purchase of online space ever made on the platform.
The land is in the “Fashion Street” area of ​​the Decentraland map, and Tokens.com has said it will be used to host digital fashion events and to sell virtual clothing for avatars.
The area consists of 116 sublots, each measuring about 5 square meters. In total, the land acquired has an online space equivalent to 566 square meters.
In June, an area in Decentraland was sold for 1.295 million mana, about US$ 913,200 (R$ 5.5 million, at current prices) at the time. Buyers built a mall to sell digital clothing, but Reuters has visited the space several times since then and hasn’t seen any buyers at the mall.
Mana is highly volatile. The currency has appreciated about 400% this month, according to Coinbase, soaring after Facebook changed its name to Meta and announced its strategy to expand into the metaverse market.
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